When irrelevant studies get published on the internet

[Ekwarph]

http://www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005187

A czech study kinda magically "showed" that you could find that gay and straight men's faces have "differences".
According to the article, this study has been done only with 40 gay and 40 straight men, which is ridiculously not a lot, so no doubt for me it's scientifically irrelievant.

But, even if the seriousness of this research is questionned, what is the most scaring to me is the intention of those researchers, by trying to find a way to "spot" gay people. Why is that study lead for? Isn't sexual orientation something from private life? Isn't it an open door to several discriminations in case you have a "gay face"?

I also read elsewhere that they're trying to implement algorithms to recognize gay faces. It's dangerous and unhealthy.

People die from cancer, HIV everyday and money is wasted in this sh*t.

Sometimes, there are things I don't really get.

What do you think about it?

[southbiochem]

I won't take anything seriously unless it comes from a respectable source

so unless Czechs start publishing in Journal of Anatomy, PubMed, and it's on a major data base like NBCI, I can't take their "studies" seriously

[dfiant1]

You with never understand ogvernment and how they spend out hard earned tax dollars for mind numbingly boring, time wasting, ignorant, useless studies while children go hungry, uneducated and untreated.

[Evan]

Well, I think people can study and do research on whatever the hell they want. It's a free world (or it should be); if they wanna study the difference between gay and straight faces, then they have every right to do so.

That being said, I personally wouldn't spend my time on it, because it just doesn't interest me in the slightest.

However, don't be too quick to judge them. How do you know what their intentions were? By "proving" (they really need to do more research) gay and straight men have different shaped faces, they possibly found new proof to use in the argument in favor of gay being innate. I haven't read the research paper, so I don't know if they said anything about why they conducted their research/what its connections are with other research in this area, but I think we shouldn't draw those kind of conclusions ourselves.

Also,

People die from cancer, HIV everyday and money is wasted in this sh*t.

this really is kind of irrelevant. It's not like if they hadn't done this experiment, the money would've gone to research on cancer or HIV. They're completely unrelated.

[Ekwarph]

Me neither. I agree it's irrelievant.

I'm most shocked by the fact they want to show/make believe/invest money in something that is dangerous. I'm afraid of the intentions behind it.

[Evan]

I'm most shocked by the fact they want to show/make believe/invest money in something that is dangerous. I'm afraid of the intentions behind it.

Dangerous? And I'm not afraid of their intentions at all. I actually think their intentions are good.

[southbiochem]

Well, I think people can study and do research on whatever the hell they want. It's a free world (or it should be); if they wanna study the difference between gay and straight faces, then they have every right to do so.

When public funding finances these studies, nope, they shouldn't be done...money down the drain on stupid researches with absolutely no scientific value or quality what so ever...

not to mention that the only useful result is putting the rest of us scientists under a bad name

there are far better and more useful researches to fund...you know stuff that actually aim to improving life quality for the average folk, help developing a country and such

Whn I see something published on NCBI or any other data base about actual neuropsychological differences between gays and straight I MAY pay attention to that, but to put attention to something so remarkably stupid and unrelated as phenotypical features on a psychological behavior pattern is S...T....U...P....I..D

[Ekwarph]

this really is kind of irrelevant. It's not like if they hadn't done this experiment, the money would've gone to research on cancer or HIV. They're completely unrelated.

I don't exactly understand how are managed funds for research and I might be wrong but he academy of Science of Prague is a public institution, so it's financed by the government, while it could do other more constructive actions.

[Ekwarph]

According to others articles (from more or less reliable sources, ok), it would be to implement algorithms for commercial targeting on facebook.

[Evan]

Whn I see something published on NCBI or any other data base about actual neuropsychological differences between gays and straight I MAY pay attention to that, but to put attention to something so remarkably stupid and unrelated as phenotypical features on a psychological behavior pattern is S...T....U...P....I..D

You may find it's stupid, but that doesn't say it is nor does it say other people think it is. Also, like I said, proving there are statistical differences between the physical appearance of gay and straight men, in theory, does add to the argument in favor of sexuality being innate.

And, "psychological behavior pattern?" I think you're way off here. I don't think sexuality is a psychological behavior pattern. In fact, I don't think it has anything to do with behavior at all.