A Cabinet-Level Office of Social Science Advisors:
Mr. Cowen and President Obama, Are you Listening?
Diane F. Halpern, PhD
Irish Social Science Platform Annual Conference
December 1, 2009
Underlying Assumption:
Social Science Improves Quality of Life
Public Policies as Applied Social Science
(Hypothesis Testing 101)
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Identify social issues that can be addressed with
public policies
Propose policies that are likely to work by
extrapolating from relevant research
Evaluate policies to determine how successful they
are at achieving some goal
Use data to direct changes in policies to make
them better at achieving a goal
Applying the Tools of our Trade—
Research and Statistical Methods to
Answers Real World Questions
People Care About
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How should we restructure social security for the
changing demographics of this century?
What is a good way to ensure homeland security?
Are working mothers the cause of juvenile
delinquency?
Does sex education cause promiscuity?
Do all the “girls” get prettier at closing time?
Will “No Child Left Behind” achieve that goal?
Can We?
Should We?
Have We?
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Yes, we can improve decision-making with
quality data
 Yes, If we don’t do it, who will or who
should? Why do we engage in research on
important social issues if we don’t want
that research to be used?
 Yes, there is a long history of using
psychological and other social science
research to inform public policies,
especially when the issues are
politically-sensitive.
A Famous Example from US—
Brown v. Board of Education
Did Psychologists Overstep their Data to Advance a Social Reform Agenda?
A Bridge Over Troubled
Water(s)
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There is a social problem—let’s say the
distressingly low high school graduation rate
or large number of people without health
insurance
There are data that suggest (cost-effective)
ways to solve these problems
Public policies that utilize our data and
theories will act as a “bridge’ over societies
“troubled water(s)”
Tower of Babel
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Public policies (at the broadest levels)
are made by politicians
We talk to each other in a common language, but
often come away with little or no shared meaning.
We are like the mere mortals who attempted to
build a tower that would reach into the heavens.
According to the Biblical story, God confused the
builders by giving them each their own language so
that they could not communicate and complete
this project.
A Case Study: I couldn’t make
this stuff up
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We are facing “grand challenges” in national
security, health care, energy, and the environment.
“The social sciences have more immediate
relevance to America’s problems than the other
sciences” (Brian Baird, D-WA, who is also a psychologist)
For example, consider the testimony provided to
the U. S. House Committee on Science and
Technology regarding “The Contributions of the
Social Sciences to the Energy Challenge (Cialdini, September 25,
2007)
How Social Norms Influence
Energy Consumption
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4 conditions—(a) You will save money; (b)
save natural resouces; (c) be socially
responsible; (d) your neighbors are saving
energy; (e) save energy—no reason
Everyone believed that (d) would be least
influential on them
Only (d) led to a significant reduction in
energy conservation.
How Social Norms Influence
Energy Consumption
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Do you reuse towels when staying multiple
nights at a hotel?
Would it matter if someone told you that a
majority of guests do?
4 messages—(a) Help save the environment.
(b) Help save the environment for future
generations. (c) Partner with us to help save
the environment. (d) Join your fellow
citizens in helping to save the environment.
You may be thinking, so far so
good, but wait
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Kay Bailey Hutchinson, chair of relevant
Senate Committee has decried NSF funding
for social and behavioral research.
Senator Coburn objects to funding political
science research because it is “socially
useless and it is not science.”
Many legislators and others misunderstand
social science research.
Mind Control—scary stuff
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Spin—advocating mind
control
Social science research
only tells us what we
already know, so it is
useless and
Frightened that it will
lead to 1984 type mind
control
A Personal Example: My plan for
testimony to the United States House of
Representatives Committee on Science
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Human cognition is an empirical science with
a solid theoretical basis
The scientific basis should be central to
education reform, but there is an
unfortunate schism between the laboratory
scientists and the applied practitioners who
often viewed laboratory work as artificial
We need to apply the science of learning
and wed the two traditions
Lesson 1: Not too much data,
it confuses and bores them
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Just a little data
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455
892
789
Lesson 2: Public Policies are
Often Made by Anecdote
Most people would rather base their
decisions on stories about people
they know than a bunch of strangers.
Lesson 3: Political philosophy
is often stronger than science
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Hot topics—too hot for
politicians
Evolution
Global warming
Child care policies
Obesity
HIV/AIDS
Same-sex marriage
An Example:
Single-Sex Schools
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Consider researchers who claim that male and female brains are
so different that girls and boys need separate schools that teach
in ways that are compatible with their brains.
Salomone (2006) asks: “Is there any evidence that separating
students on the basis of sex might make a positive difference in
academic performance and achievement or social adjustment, at
least for some students?” (p. 791). She considers a range of
possible advantages including those that are motivational, social,
and educational. Salomone concludes that “the evidence is
undeniably inadequate” (p. 791).
An Example:
Single-Sex Schools
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The Campbell Collaboration (2001) is a non-profit
organization that aims to help people make wellinformed decisions about the effects of interventions in
the social, behavioral and educational arenas. They
commission reviews that “synthesize evidence on social
and behavioural interventions and public policy,
including education, criminal justice, and social welfare,
among other areas. The primary concern is with
evidence on overall intervention or policy effectiveness
and how effectiveness is influenced by variations in
process and implementation, intervention components
and recipients, as well as other factors”
Public Policy: Single-Sex Schools
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In two separate reviews of single-sex education, the
conclusions were the same. In the words of one of the
reviews: “The paradox of single-sex and co-education is
that the beliefs are so strong and the evidence is so weak”
(Smithers & Robinson, 2006, p 31).
“Here we go again -- yet another dissection of the misuse
of science to make an ideological point about sex
differences.” If you're bored with this stuff, you can read
the rest of this post for its information about the
psychophysics of hearing, or for tips about how to concoct
an effective argument by misrepresenting unrepresentative
numbers
(http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/0035
61.html)
FOR RELEASE:
October 24, 2006
PRESS RELEASES
Secretary Spellings Announces More Choices
in Single Sex Education
Amended Regulations Give Communities
More Flexibility to Offer Single Sex Schools and
Classes
Lesson 4: We don’t need
evidence when we have
experience and good intentions
Idea that the “real expert” is a dedicated
teacher or someone who “lives” the
problem—not a scientist who studies it.
But experience alone is not enough. It is
possible to do the same job for decades with
very little learning (unless there is useful
feedback)
Lesson 5: No Matter How Strong
Your Argument Is, Someone Will
Say, “Well That’s Just Your Opinion!”
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An opinion is a preference or a belief that
does not require evidence
A fair review of all evidence that supports
and fails to support a conclusion by
responsible representatives from all political
leanings is the best we can do to guide
public policies
Science is never value-free, but it is the best
method we have for decision making
Science Proceeds in Tiny Steps
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Public policy is many steps behind the data, but
when data are presented in ways that
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are compatible with a political philosophy
tell a compelling story
avoid political minefields (i.e., alienating a group that is
needed for support)
are easy to understand
can be captured in a short slogan
are made personally relevant
Social Science data can alter public policies
Contact Information
Dr. Diane F. Halpern
Trustee Professor of Psychology
Claremont McKenna College
850 Columbia Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711
(909) 607-9647
Diane.Halpern@cmc.edu
WWW.DianeHalpern.com