PA30 Reading Notes.pdf - PLEASE MAKE SURE TO NOT USE/BE ON...

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO NOT USE/BE ON THIS DOC DURING THE MIDTERM
1) Lewis, Michael. “All the President’s Data,” (pp. 176–219)
a) The symbiotic relationship between science/scientist and government/politicians
i) Scientist consume data and produce analysis and recommendations
ii) Government produce data and consume analysis recommendations
b) Social science has an important role to play - seemingly technical problems
benefit from a social science perspective
i) Tornado warnings
2) Duflo, Esther. “The Economist as Plumber.”
a) Engineers provide an abstract understanding of a problem and design for
addressing
b) Plumbers are concerned with on the ground nitty-gritty and implementation
i) example of the refugee crisis and how a plumbers approach would differ
from the broader solution of an engineer
3) Hallsworth, Michael. “Handwashing Can Stop a Virus — So Why Don’t We Do It?”
a) Potential reasons:
i) lack of awareness about the effectiveness of soap, water, and scrubbing
ii) obtaining a face mask may make people feel more protected and could
mean they make less of an effort to wash their hands adequately
iii) lack of availability
iv) may be busy, tired, etc
v) make handwashing into a habit
vi) help people link handwashing with common events, like getting home,
blowing your nose, etc.
4) Henne, Paul. “Correlation and Causation.”
a) Andy says he will ace his test when it’s sunny outside, but the sunniness doesn’t
cause Andy to ace his test
b) Correlation does not equal causation
c) Positive correlation: When events frequently occur together
d) Negative correlation: When one event occurs, the other event will not occur
e) Post hoc fallacy:
5) Johnson, Steven. “The Investigator” (pp. 68-79)
a) Debate on cholera between contagionists and miasmatists
i) Contagionists - passed from person to person
ii) Miasmatists - airborne
b) Snow’s theory - cholera is waterborne

i) Thomas Street - 12 people died and they all shared a single well that was
infected with dirty water
ii) London - south of Thames more likely to be infected than north
c) Whitehead - residents of upper floor (poor) dying at a higher rate that those on the
ground floor (rich)
6) “Building the Case” (read the whole chapter, skim 144- 53) chapters from The
Ghost Map.
7)