{"id":4589,"date":"2019-05-13T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4589"},"modified":"2019-05-11T13:34:36","modified_gmt":"2019-05-11T18:34:36","slug":"pointing-out-online-mistakes-like-a-jerk-more-misuses-of-psychology-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/pointing-out-online-mistakes-like-a-jerk-more-misuses-of-psychology-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Pointing Out Online Mistakes Like a “Jerk”: More Misuses of Psychology Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Headline writers face a difficult task, I suspect.<\/p>\n

On the one hand<\/em>, they want to capture the gist of the article.\u00a0On the other hand<\/em>, they\u00a0really <\/strong>want you to click the link.<\/p>\n

I thought about this puzzle when I read this recent headline<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

People Who Point Out Grammar Errors Online Are Pretty Much Jerks, Study Finds<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That’s an arresting claim. After all, the word “jerks” doesn’t often appear in psychology research papers…<\/p>\n

Digging Deeper<\/h2>\n

So, what does this particular study say? Are people who “point out” online grammar errors “jerks”?<\/p>\n

Researchers Boland and Queen asked themselves this question<\/a>: does someone’s personality profile influence their response to written mistakes — such as typos or grammar errors<\/em>?<\/p>\n

(By the way: it would seem odd if the answer were “no.” If there is such a thing as a personality profile, shouldn’t it capture — among other things — the way people respond to one another’s errors?<\/p>\n

But, in the field of psychology, we don’t just assume<\/em> things. We research<\/em> them. That’s what Boland and Queen do here.)<\/p>\n

To answer their question, B&Q had 80+ people read short paragraphs: people’s responses to a “housemate wanted” ad.<\/p>\n

Some of the responses were error free. Some included typos: “maybe we would mkae good housemates.”<\/em> Some included grammatical errors: “If your someone who likes to play tennis…”<\/em><\/p>\n

Participants then evaluated the authors of each paragraph. They also filled out a personality survey measuring “the big five” personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.<\/p>\n

So, here’s the research question: did their personality traits<\/em> predict their responses to grammatical errors and typos<\/em>?<\/p>\n

The Results<\/h2>\n

The answer is: a smidge.<\/p>\n

For instance, people with higher ratings of agreeableness<\/strong> didn’t much care about grammatical errors. People with lower agreeableness ratings<\/strong> cared a bit.<\/p>\n

How much?<\/p>\n

Well, on average, people with lower agreeableness scored an error-free<\/em> message as a ~4.2. But, they rated a message with two grammar errors<\/em> as a ~4.0<\/p>\n

On a 7 point scale, does that 0.2 difference really matter? It was statistically significant. But, the researchers’ methodology makes it hard to evaluate the difference.<\/p>\n

Here’s a hypothetical. When my students study using method A, they average an 80 on the unit test. When they study using method B, they average an 80.5.<\/p>\n

Method B might be “better” in a way that’s\u00a0statistically<\/em> significant. But, it’s honestly not\u00a0significant<\/em> in the way that you and I use that word. If, for instance, method B takes 3 times as long as method A, that extra 0.5 point almost certainly wasn’t worth it.<\/p>\n

So too in this case. The less agreeable folks might, on average, give lower ratings. But, 0.2 points hardly seems like a big enough deal to worry about.<\/p>\n

So, Are People Who Point Out Online Grammar Errors Jerks?<\/h2>\n

First<\/strong>: NO ONE POINTED OUT ANY ONLINE GRAMMAR ERRORS. It just didn’t happen.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: The study shows that people with a relatively low agreeable rating feel more judgey about online grammar mistakes.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0does not<\/em> show that people who comment on grammar mistakes have lower agreeableness scores.<\/p>\n

And it\u00a0certainly<\/em> does not show that this particular person<\/strong> who just commented on a post has a low agreeableness score.<\/p>\n

Those questions are related, but different. And, the differences really matter. Especially if you’re going to call someone a jerk.<\/p>\n

Teaching Implications<\/h2>\n

When you see a headline like “Science Shows Group X Are Jerks,” have confidence it’s a wild overstatement.<\/p>\n

So, when “science says” that …<\/p>\n

“Teaching method X makes kids brilliant.”<\/p>\n

“Cell phones make the world dumb and cruel.” (Or, “Cell phones will transform education and make classrooms perfect.”)<\/p>\n

“This one habit will change your classroom forever.”<\/p>\n

…follow up with the underlying research. See what the research says\u00a0specifically<\/em>. Decide whether or not it works for you and your students.<\/p>\n

A Final Note<\/h2>\n

I’m honestly hoping that this article includes either a typo or a grammatical mistake. If it does, please point it out to me. I promise I won’t think you’re a jerk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the click-bait headlines, research doesn’t show much of anything surprising or consequential about people who correct your grammar online. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19,29],"class_list":["post-4589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-skepticism","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4589"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4600,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589\/revisions\/4600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}