Quickies

Skepchick Quickies, 3.22

Jen

Jen is a writer and web designer/developer in Columbus, Ohio. She spends too much time on Twitter at @antiheroine.

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23 Comments

  1. I seem to recall in the ’80s, there were a lot of people saying that domestic violence increased after the Super Bowl, but then that was discovered to be unfounded. I can’t remember the details. Sorry, haven’t had my coffee yet.

  2. Sports fans should not breed.

    Sorry, I just find that so pathetic and disgusting I can’t bring myself to provide a more professional answer at this moment.

  3. @rlquinn1980: Well, just to reassure you, I don’t beat on anyone when my favorite teams lose in terrible ways. Also, I haven’t had any kids, nor am I married or in a relationship or donating sperm. I may not be breeding anyway…but no promises.

  4. I second “Glow-Orb”; we have heard this claim about sporting events before, and last time they didn’t have the data. Is it any different now?

  5. Religion become extinct?

    I’ve heard this before and it’s yet to happen. I’ll take a ‘wait and see’ attitude on that.

  6. Wonder if EtOH had anything to do with increase in violence post sports upsets. After the Bears lose, I just want a hug. Of course, when you’re a Bears fan, you are desensitized to defeat to some degree. And far as breeding status, I’m in the same boat as scribe999.

    I like the jerseys, but I really wish there was more science gear for chicks. “Unisex” t-shirts make most women look dumpy. It’s as if being smart and having curves are incompatible. At least Ms. SurlyAmy and thinkgeek.com get it. Or is there some other secret source that I am not cool enough to know about?

  7. @Laura: There’s also something that correlates to big sporting events that seems to be missing in this story … alcohol consumption. I wonder if that has anything to do with an upswing in domestic violence reports.

  8. @Laura: You’re in luck! I’ve just ordered a bunch of girly shirts that I’ll be taking to all the major conferences I’m doing this year, and I’m also going to put them online at some point soon. They’re awesome!

  9. I wish I could say I’m shocked that the sexual assault of children merits a mere 3 years, but the sad fact is I’m not. I did some research for a paper a while back that involved looking through the average sentence handed down for each crime (no, I don’t have it anymore, nor do I have a reference, though it was an official source). I was blown over to discover that at that time posession of a controlled substance actually got you more jail time than raping children. It’s nothing short of apalling, frankly.

  10. @scribe999: Sorry, thought EtOH was common shorthand for alcohol. I will try to keep my posts RN-jargon free. Nonetheless, good to know I wasn’t the only one who had that thought. I managed to find the actual study here: http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/03/21/qje.qjr001.full.pdf+html

    Seems due to the source material for the study, there is an increase in alcohol/drug use, but usage is not always noted in crime reports.

    Hooray, Rebecca. Now, do I have to go to OC to see you? C’mon over to Hollywood. In the meantime, I will await the girly shirt online arrival.

  11. @Glow-Orb: Yes, and the myth was actually founded by a coalition of national womens organizations as a publicity stunt associated with the super bowl.

    I’ll still keep an open mind towards this research, but it sounds to me like something that would’ve been noticed already.

  12. @Laura: ah, I should have been familiar with the term from my time at WebMD proofing their reference stuff, but I was unfamiliar with it as an acronym for “Extremely Trashed or Hammered”. Any day you learn something new… :)

  13. @scribe999
    @QuestionAuthority: wasn’t that essentially the same story as the last quickies…and wasn’t that essentially your response for that one? heh

    I think I see the problem, perhaps March 22 is the new Groundhog Day? ;)

  14. The violence study did not correlate with increased violence, it correlated with increased reporting of violence, which may or may not have reflected increased violence.

    I think @Siveambrai’s comment yesterday about social trends and math applies here too – domestic violence is too complex for there to be much useful information in a study like this. Rather, I think it takes the focus away from understanding and places it on tidbits that might sound impressive but signify little or nothing.

  15. I wonder how well analysis of language aligns with analysis of religion. I suspect that the two align fairly well in many respects (they are both memes of a sort after all), but not very well an many others. The question then is whether the same analysis used for languages works for religions. Or is it like Newtonian Physics vs Relativity, where they correlate extremely well within certain ranges, but diverge wildly in others.

    That said, one can certainly hope that this analysis is accurate. I know I do.

  16. @Scribe999: Must be caught in a closed timelike loop…

    @Scribe999: Must be caught in a closed timelike loop…

    @Scribe999: Must be caught in a closed timelike loop…

  17. The whole sports loss-violence thing seems like a trivial finding. People who are upset about one thing are more likely to over react to other upsetting things, Duh. More so after they’ve been drinking, Double Duh.

    A more interesting study would be why people invest so much emotion in a game they aren’t even playing. That level of fandom has always escaped me. It seems to be partisanship for partisanship’s sake. It’s not as if it is important like who would win in a fight between Batman and Spiderman.

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