The Hidden Biases in WEIRD Psychology Research

Psychology studies can be really skewed by the WEIRD population (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic). Why does this hidden bias exist?

Hosted by: Brit Garner

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[Prizzlesticks]

I have said for a long time now that while useful on some levels, the subject pool for a lot of psychological research is heavily skewed. My favourite example of this is eating disorders. For a long time, it was though eating disorders only affected affluent, adolescent, white females. But in reality, those were the only subjects able to or sent to treatment. We now know they can affect anybody, regardless of race, gender, age, culture, or income level. What we don't really know are the exact numbers because it is hard to find a broad enough sample range.

[Edumt]

Tone, inflexion, gestures, facial expressions... Brit does everything right! The best SciShow host imo.

[mikepaquette]

I don't like how in psychological evaluations, it'll state that, "patient denies any history with drug and/or alcohol abuse."

"Denies" denotes a dishonest connotation. Why don't they use "does/does not report" instead?

[Master_Therion]

0:38 Oh, "weird" is just an acronym for a demographic? Now I feel much better about my recent psychological diagnosis, "Too weird, can't be helped."

[juliaprohaska]

Your Harry Potter Christmas Sweater is very awesome :D

[lisagarner]

Not only does most psychological research use typically directly recruit Psychology...undergrads, which are an even 'weirder' group, right?

[NewMessage]

I am totally biased, and no amount of evidence to the contrary will change my mind about that!

[ManintheArmor]

The science isn't bad. But the data samples sure are.

[youmaycallmeken]

We need studies that cover people as a whole (global) as well as studies of various smaller groups. Then we can determine how certain occurrences will most likely affect each type or group of people and how the effects will vary among the groups.

[doomdoot]

Soooo...right and left are egocentric, whereas behind and above are allocentric? "On the right side of the shelf" is not relative to me; it's on the shelves right side. "Above the shelf" falls under the same category to me; it's not relative to me, it's relative to the shelf. If someone moved the shelf say to the right of the object, the object is no longer "on the right side of the shelf", but on the left side. Or am I simply not understanding correctly what is being presented here?

[klutterkicker]

Generation may have an effect as well. People in college today may be more risk-averse because they grew up in a recession, as well as a post-911 America (and the whole "modern parents never let their kids out of their site" thing).

[AO-jmqo]

That and joining such studies is voluntary so people who are will never be included either.

[jaschabull]

Reminds me of this one article I read which claimed that science had disproven the "early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" quote. The study it claimed to have done this was an experiment in which all the subjects were teens, and completely neglected to mention that peoples' sleeping habits have been found to change depending on age, gravitating towards going to bed later as youth, and sooner as grown-ups. Knowing that, it seems more likely the results of that experiment can be chalked up to the age of the subjects, not Franklin's being wrong about men (note his quote direction mentioned men, not youths; men weren't even studied here).

[sennsir]

This video sparked my little American brain! ⚡️ I'm glad you're encouraging seeking out different perspectives because it's true how Americans are extremely egocentric. 😅

[RoseDragoness]

This video makes me miss taking psychology tests. I got one online about behavior a long time ago and enjoyed their results.

[lindaedvardsson]

Love that sweatshirt😍.. took me away from one weirdness to a beauty weirdness of a shirt😌. Thank You👏🏼😌🇸🇪

[angelic]

And this is why you need to ground psychology in some observable and testable neurological effect.
Otherwise we are back all the humbug of the last 100 years and all the awful misunderstandings that's lead to.

[bobfox]

Even if the students themselves aren't Western, most Phychology schools ARE. This also makes studies more difficult to apply outside of Western Culture.

[darrenmoore]

I see this is 5y old now, but still, the amateur scientist in me has been waiting nearly 15 years to stumble upon this

[Kabbinj]

How are behind any different from left or right? All 3 are in relation to yourself or yourself relative to another object. Only above can be used in non-human relative ways...