Learn to be a hard-nosed empiricist

	A	B	C
1		Learn to be a hard-nosed empiricist

2		Name 1	Name 2
3	Feb.
4	16	Julia Boortz
5	23	Brandon Briscoe
6	Mar.
7	2	Daniel McCue
8	9	Paul Kominers
9	16	Stephen Brown	Kate Geyer
10	23	Spring break
11	30	Russell Kooistra	Cal Vasquez
12	Apr.
13	6	Briana Stanley
14	13	Individual presentations
15	20	Kevin Clough	Anna Radinova
16	27	Sarah Laderman	Christopher Francis
17
18	Assignment
19	Write a paragraph or two about a causal claim that you believe (or someone you know believes), but for which you are unaware of any scientific evidence. Briefly, look up and describe one or two studies on your causal claim. You can choose causal claims about politics or about humans more generally (E.g., “McCain lost because he was too old” or “People get sick because of the cold weather spell.”) Turn the paragraph into me at the beginning of class and be prepared for a brief discussion about your causal claim.
20
21	In your paragraph, briefly answer the following questions:
22	1	What is the causal claim? (e.g., what X is causing what Y)
23	2	What have researchers found? Check Google scholar, etc..
24	3	Did researchers use experimental studies? Or are the studies merely observational?
25	4	Are there any obvious problems with the studies?
26	Your causal claim must be at least somewhat widely believed and non-trivial. (If in doubt, search for it on Google or peruse http://www.skeptic.com/ or http://www.snopes.com/.)
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78