Quote:
Originally Posted by imperfect_cupcake
Lol I guess when I heard the hypothesis put forward I thought, huh, interesting hypothesis. Wonder if it sticks. I didn't really put more in it than that and I like questions that have to do with behavioural hypothesis. I studied monkeys! I did environmental behaviouralism. I did cultural studies and got a degree in it so my brain asks the same generalist questions.
Why do groups of people/primates do X? Is it because of Y? Let's investigate and find out.
By doing that I found some amazing behaviour in male red mantled howlers that had never been seen before, in a species that had been studied for decades. Null hypothesis, or "nope, not it" is as valuable as a positive. So I saw the question as an interesting question.
To actually go into the "why" of why a question was asked and the background of the researcher is called "reflexivity." And MB stated their bias research straight off. Which is quite a good thing when proposing a research question.
My question observation was similar and ment in a similar fashion, with pissing about. Because I'm a smart ass humour type person.
It's been an interesting read.  |
I find this kind of thing very interesting. I'm always trying to understand cultural behavior, how something differs from one place to another. Like how misogyny wears different disguises depending on what country or culture you are looking at. I find it fascinating how different things are culturally here in Montreal than they were in Boston. Everything from driving etiquette (pedestrians have the right of way in Boston, other drivers are cut a lot of slack here in Montreal) to how xenophobia and prejudice against minorities looks from one place to the other. The most fun part for me is the speculation as to why it's different. The driving differences are easy to figure. Amongst other reasons things come up on the road by surprise here in Montreal. There are a lot less warning signs here than in the states. not so much hand holding. So drivers tend to cut each other lots of slack. Coming up with an hypothesis for the difference in how prejudice plays out differently one place from another is more complicated.
I know the safety thing is different here. Whenever we talk about buying a house in some deeply wooded area with no houses for miles or even going hiking/camping for an extended time on some trail through the mountains I always mention how I need to have a gun. My wife always looked both pained and puzzled when I say this. She does not have the same degree of fear for our safety that I have. Granted the word hypervigilant has come up in regards to my behavior by a variety of people over the years, and my life experiences growing up and as a young adult has nurtured this need to protect myself and those I love so I might be a bit of a caricature of American culture regarding safety issues. I truly believe my safety is always at risk. I have gotten better over the past 12 years that I have lived in Montreal with my wife, but it's still there. I honestly don't understand how anyone could not want some way to protect themselves and the people they love. I don't own a gun here. Nobody I know does. This is quite different from where I lived in the US. But I still plan how I will protect my wife and myself from attack. I wish I could say I believe it's overkill. I can understand that the other people in my life do think it is. They pretty much figure it's a quirk of mine, probably because I'm American. Maybe it is. Maybe it's a mixture of growing up in a culture where we are told on a daily basis how unsafe we are and experiencing first hand how unsafe I was. Those two things are a pretty potent combination. I know it fucked my head up. I don't know if it really is as dangerous a world as I think or not. Hopefully not. But either way I always enjoy analyzing things, taking it apart, examining it from every possible angle. To me it isn't about right or wrong, fault or blame, should or shouldn't, it's really just about the WHYs of things. Exploring why things are the way they are is really fun and also important to me.