In many cases, people don’t know they have these implicit biases. Much like we cannot introspect on how our stomachs or lungs are working, we cannot simply “look inside” our own minds and find our implicit biases. Thus, we can only understand implicit bias through the use of psychological measures that get around the problems of self-report.
Month: October 2017
Why is there so little research on guns in the US? 5 questions answered – The Conversation
How much federal money is there?
In 1996, Congress passed the Dickey Amendment. The legislation stated that “none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” While that wording did not ban CDC gun research outright, the legislation was accompanied by a US$2.6 million budget cut. That amount happened to match the amount the CDC had spent on firearms research the previous year. The message was clear. From 1996 to 2013, CDC funding for gun research dropped by 96 percent.
The CDC wasn’t the only federal agency affected. In 2011, Congress added a similar clause to legislation that regulated funding for the National Institutes of Health. However, due to a directive from the Obama administration, the NIH continued to provide funding for gun research. That push faded as the Obama administration left office.
Earlier this year, the NIH discontinued its funding program that specifically focused on firearm violence. While firearms researchers can still apply for funding through more general NIH funding opportunities, critics say that makes funding for gun research less likely.
What prompted these funding restrictions?
The Dickey Amendment was passed after a CDC-funded study led by physician and epidemiologist Arthur Kellerman found that having a gun in the home increased homicide risk. After the results were published, the National Rifle Association pressured lawmakers, arguing that the CDC was inappropriately using its funds to advocate for gun control.
Political Typology Reveals Deep Fissures on the Right and Left | Pew Research Center
The political typology reveals that even in a political landscape increasingly fractured by partisanship, the divisions within the Republican and Democratic coalitions may be as important a factor in American politics as the divisions between them.
The True Size of Government | The Volcker Alliance
https://volckeralliance.org/true-size-government
This paper provides an update of…the true size of the federal government’s blended workforce in the context of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell speech. Eisenhower not only added the term military-industrial complex to the national vocabulary in this address but also warned of the “potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power” in “every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government.”
Do people like government ‘nudges’? Study says: Yes
https://theconversation.com/do-people-like-government-nudges-study-says-yes-85567
In the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and many other nations, officials have used nudges to implement public policies. Examples include disclosing information about the ingredients of food, providing fuel economy labels on cars, offering warnings about cigarettes and distracted driving, automatically enrolling people in pension plans, and requiring disclosures about mortgage payments and credit card usage. With an emphasis on poverty and development, the World Bank devoted its entire 2015 report to behaviorally informed tools, with a particular focus on nudging. Examples cited include setting defaults that encourage saving and texting reminders to help people to pay bills on time.
APA Style Blog: Widows and Orphans and Bears, Oh My!
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2017/10/widows-and-orphans-and-bears-oh-my.html
"However, if you’re a student writing a class paper or a dissertation, your professor or university may have standards that differ from APA Style."
Are States Really More Efficient Than the Federal Government? – The Atlantic
But there is little evidence that the states are more efficient administrators than Washington is, and some evidence that they might be less so. “The basic argument for state efficiency is based more on hopes and prayers than on clear evidence, across the board,” said Don Kettl, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. Delegating programs to the states would likely result in greater disparities in what programs offer and slimmer budgets overall, more than any radical improvements in efficiency.
As a general point, Kettl and other political scientists agree, despite its reputation for bureaucracy and incompetence, the federal government runs pretty well, and where it runs poorly it tends to be stifled by outdated rules and regulations. “The underlying argument is that the federal government is unwieldy and inefficient,” said Kettl. “That’s not true.”
Take the Social Security Administration, as slender and effective a bureaucracy as exists on earth. The organization makes monthly payments t
Constitutional amendments in U.S. rarely go anywhere | Pew Research Center
Always good to repeat this (covered in one of our classes)…
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