Re: virus: Experimental memes.
Nathaniel Hall (natehall@WORLDNET.ATT.NET)
Mon, 17 Aug 1998 22:09:18 -0600
Wade T.Smith wrote:
>
> >If they answer the question correctly, they had to know the answer and
> >therefore had the meme.
>
> I am not convinced that rote answering is any sort of meme at all- or an
> indication of the prescence of one. Why are you?
By the definition of a meme: an idea that duplicates itself into another
mind. I'm not claiming that it's necessarily doing anything to behavior:
just that it is there.
>
> And, as well, a situation where someone answers 'I am not a crook' to the
> cops, while perhaps the 'correct' answer, the fact is, a test of
> questions with expected answers is a highly complex and unreliable
> indicator of memetic intent, ain't it? Honestly, where _are_ your
> controls? Valuable psychological data only comes from highly structured
> experiments, with rigid and narrow confines of data.
Wade T. Smith
A cop asking questions is one of the best examples of what not to do.
A good technique would be to only ask questions where someone has no
incentive to lie or better yet has the incentive to give the answer they
truly believe is correct. Taking a test for a letter grade for example .
The control would be asking a bunch of people the same question when you
have no reason to believe they have been exposed to the meme in
question. I'll admit the "black box" your trying to access is a tricky
one but have you ever heard of an experiment with zero error?
Nate Hall