Scott Alexander critiques a meta-analysis supporting psychic phenomena to illustrate flaws in scientific methodology and meta-analysis. Longer summary

Scott Alexander examines a meta-analysis by Daryl Bem that claims to provide strong evidence for psychic phenomena (psi). While Bem's analysis follows many best practices for scientific rigor, Alexander argues it likely suffers from experimenter effects and other biases that can produce false positive results. He uses this to illustrate broader issues with the scientific method and meta-analysis, concluding that even seemingly rigorous studies and meta-analyses can produce incorrect conclusions. This challenges the idea that scientific consensus and meta-analysis are the highest forms of evidence. Shorter summary

Scott shares and comments on various interesting links and articles covering topics like science, economics, language, and culture, with his characteristic mix of insight and humor. Longer summary

This is a links post where Scott shares various interesting articles and findings from around the web. He covers topics ranging from scientific discoveries to economics, including responses to his previous writing on contraception, ancient language quirks, physics theories, morality statements, lost cities, Japanese pop culture, and effective altruism. The post maintains a casual, often humorous tone while sharing these diverse pieces of information. Shorter summary