Year: 2011
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Why I signed an open letter to silence Monckton
Why did a psychology lecturer with a commitment to academic freedom sign an open letter attempting to have a lecture by Lord Monckton cancelled? My article in the latest issue of the King’s Tribune explains why I don’t think freedom of enquiry has to include granting Monckton the freedom to do what he does.
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The NSW filibuster
Back in early June, the NSW government acted to quickly implement a law that would restrict the Industrial Relations Commission’s discretion and effectively cap public sector wages. The Opposition and Greens filibustered the bill, leading to unprecedented lengthy speeches followed by a guillotining of debate that hadn’t been seen in more than a century. I…
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Deception judgments and expectancies about nonverbal behaviour
Our forthcoming paper in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology presents an experiment that relates to the issue of cross-cultural bias in deception judgments, and whether informing people about the differences in nonverbal behaviour across cultures might help to reduce this bias.
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Abbott’s budget reply supports avoiding waste, opposes cutting inefficient spending
In his 2011 budget reply speech, Tony Abbott emphasised avoiding waste and getting value for money from public spending. But when it came to speaking about expenditure reductions in a mental health initiative, it seemed to be a different story.
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Votes, preferences and the NSW Legislative Council
There has been a lot of discussion about the Greens’ preference decisions and Pauline Hanson’s chances of being elected to the NSW upper house. I attempt to answer some of the main questions people might ask about preferences and their impact on the result.
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Science and tragedy: Australia’s floods and the Tucson shootings
Tragedy strikes. Who or what can we blame? Chances are I don’t know, because that’s not what science is about. But if there’s a pattern of catastrophes or problems, chances are there is a theory that accounts for it. My article in The King’s Tribune discusses the limits of knowledge.
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Understanding polls: Margins of error
A tutorial on the concept of margins of error in polling. What are they? How are they calculated? Why are they important? This post tries to answer those questions, with both short and detailed explanations.
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Open
New Year. New site. Here’s an introductory post that says a bit about me and a bit about this place. Hello and welcome to my blog.