Comments on: What happened to sultry? http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/ "All manner of statistical analyses cheerfully undertaken." Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:57:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Mike D. http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7366 Mike D. Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:51:47 +0000 http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7366 Beauty is in the ear of the belistener. One man's coo is another man's screech. Beauty is in the ear of the belistener. One man’s coo is another man’s screech.

]]> By: MrCPhysics http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7363 MrCPhysics Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:46:37 +0000 http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7363 That paper wold get a passing grade in my high-school science class. Goodness know how it actually gets published and picked up by mainstream media. I can't believe what passes for science these days. That paper wold get a passing grade in my high-school science class. Goodness know how it actually gets published and picked up by mainstream media.

I can’t believe what passes for science these days.

]]> By: Bernie http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7361 Bernie Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:14:22 +0000 http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7361 Point well taken, but does this mean that judgments about a random scatterplot should simply be that the implicit or explicit underlying model needs to be better defined? That, plus exclusion of "trivial" models, would certainly change how many models and research studies are concocted in the social sciences. Point well taken, but does this mean that judgments about a random scatterplot should simply be that the implicit or explicit underlying model needs to be better defined? That, plus exclusion of “trivial” models, would certainly change how many models and research studies are concocted in the social sciences.

]]> By: Briggs http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7357 Briggs Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:48:50 +0000 http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7357 I do not love, and do no advocate using, R<sup>2</sup> as a measure of model goodness. It measures how "good" that straight line is with the observed data compared to estimates of the observed data made from plug-in estimates of the unobservable coefficients. In this case, it would not be interesting as the picture shows the model is nearly useless. Quantifying that is not needed and should be discouraged because it gives an over-inflated sense of model's true worth, even for models as bad as this. I do not love, and do no advocate using, R2 as a measure of model goodness.

It measures how “good” that straight line is with the observed data compared to estimates of the observed data made from plug-in estimates of the unobservable coefficients.

In this case, it would not be interesting as the picture shows the model is nearly useless. Quantifying that is not needed and should be discouraged because it gives an over-inflated sense of model’s true worth, even for models as bad as this.

]]> By: D Johnson http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7355 D Johnson Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:11:57 +0000 http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7355 Clearly the study doesn't hold up to scrutiny. However, as a male with a bass voice, I'd like to think that women strongly prefer lower pitched voices. Sadly, there's nothing in my life experience that confirms it, and look at all the adoration the tenors get. :-( Clearly the study doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. However, as a male with a bass voice, I’d like to think that women strongly prefer lower pitched voices. Sadly, there’s nothing in my life experience that confirms it, and look at all the adoration the tenors get. :-(

]]> By: Bernie http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7354 Bernie Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:56:37 +0000 http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/07/what-happened-to-sultry/#comment-7354 Matt: Would a better test be to explore the revenue records of those ladies(?) on the 900 chat lines at night? Clearly we would not be limited to 10 listeners. One could then correlate revenue with pitch. This would also have the redeeming feature of potentially increasing the revenue stream of these companies by helping the select more productive employees. Of course this may mean we have to reframe the hypothesis to include "sexiness" rather than "attractiveness" -- perhaps this is where Jessica Rabbit comes in. By the way, the R2 on the chart looks pretty lame. Was it reported in the article? Matt:
Would a better test be to explore the revenue records of those ladies(?) on the 900 chat lines at night? Clearly we would not be limited to 10 listeners. One could then correlate revenue with pitch. This would also have the redeeming feature of potentially increasing the revenue stream of these companies by helping the select more productive employees. Of course this may mean we have to reframe the hypothesis to include “sexiness” rather than “attractiveness” — perhaps this is where Jessica Rabbit comes in.

By the way, the R2 on the chart looks pretty lame. Was it reported in the article?

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