Eric Turkheimer

Eric Turkheimer

@ent3c.bsky.social

Behavior genetics, clinical psychology, Mets. Occasional politics. Substack (free): https://ericturkheimer.substack.com/ Book Is Out! Understanding the Nature-Nurture Debate https://shorturl.at/Ce2hf Electronic Version: https://shorturl.at/Fq2jv

5.5K followers1K following2.3K posts

Eric Turkheimer reposted

Rémy Furrer
@remyfurrer.bsky.social

My letter responding to The Economist’s “designer babies” editorial is out. The editorial cites our study on public attitudes toward polygenic embryo screening but omits a key finding: attitudes became less favorable when participants first considered potential concerns. Link below.

Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

It's unfortunate, but I agree with Sasha. Cofnas should never have been hired (is there a good account of how that happened?), but having been hired I don't like to see him let go for ideological reasons, despite the awfulness of his ideology. I would be fine with dismissing him at his next renewal.

Sasha Gusev@sashagusevposts.bsky.social

Seeing some arguments for firing Cofnas like this one, that (scare quotes) academic freedom should not apply to pseudo-scholarship and taxpayers shouldn't fund scholar-activism. I think this is wrong. /1

Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

With apologies for being a grump, picture taking in museums has gotten out of control. It seems to make people happy and I have mostly learned to ignore it, but if someone who indulges can explain the pleasure to me I promise not to judge. Corollary: restaurant food.

Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

As I think about this, the more offended I get that Visscher would write a paper that is implicitly very critical of me while casually admitting that he has never read a relevant word I have written. Proud of his ignorance. He ought to be embarrassed.

Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

My wife is in Alzheimer's research. It turns out that the same bogus "quantile regression" methods that have been used to exaggerate genomic findings (bsky.app/profile/ent3...) are also being used to promote marginally effective AD treatments.

medpagetoday.comStudy Questions Methods Used in Alzheimer's Drug AnalysisQuantile aggregation may lead to overstated claims about amyloid-cognition relationships
Eric Turkheimer@ent3c.bsky.social

Yesterday @kph3k noted that I "loathe" decile analysis as a way of describing the results of a PGS analysis. The subsequent discussion clarified why I loathe it-- it's a misleading way of reporting results, a systematic sleight of hand to disguise the import of a small effect. /1

Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

I take pride in my letters of recommendation. I hate being forced to squeeze them into text windows on a web form, responding to banal and repetitive questions. A hill I will die on: Not all human processes are improved by standardizing them.

Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

With @remyfurrer.bsky.social, a new piece in Nature Human Behavior. The standard description of a polygenic score as a "genetic predisposition" essentializes a statistical construct. It's not language policing: PGS are a new kind of entity; now is the time to think carefully about what they are.

nature.comPolygenic risk scores are not genetic predispositions - Nature Human BehaviourNature Human Behaviour - Polygenic risk scores are not genetic predispositions
Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

This tiresome nonsense follows from a poorly worded sentence I wrote in 2008. The Cato Institute invited James Flynn to write a piece about intelligence, with several comments. The conversation turned, as such conversations will, to race, and I wrote this. I still like it. /1

cato-unbound.orgRace and IQ
Pieter T. L. Beck@ptrbck.bsky.social

At some point Cofnas discussed a quote by @ent3c.bsky.social that "showed" that scientists don’t want people to know “the truth” about race. To find the original, I first had to wade through search results giving articles by MacDonald, Rindermann, and Kirkegaard (all using the same snippet). /8

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Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

This tiresome nonsense follows from a poorly worded sentence I wrote in 2008. The Cato Institute invited James Flynn to write a piece about intelligence, with several comments. The conversation turned, as such conversations will, to race, and I wrote this. I still like it. /1

cato-unbound.orgRace and IQ
Pieter T. L. Beck@ptrbck.bsky.social

At some point Cofnas discussed a quote by @ent3c.bsky.social that "showed" that scientists don’t want people to know “the truth” about race. To find the original, I first had to wade through search results giving articles by MacDonald, Rindermann, and Kirkegaard (all using the same snippet). /8

Eric Turkheimer
@ent3c.bsky.social

Thanks to Thomas Friedman for turning me on to the idea of a "Wicked Problem". The role of genetics in the genesis of human behavioral differences is a scientific wicked problem. What is your favorite wicked problem?

stephanhitchins.com.auWicked Problems - Stephan HitchinsWicked problems are complex, multi-faceted social or environmental issues that are difficult to define and solve. They are referred to as "wicked" because they are characterized by a number of unique attributes that make them challenging to address.