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NicolaHale

Listed below are comments made by NicolaHale between Tuesday, 24th June 2008 and Thursday, 2nd April 2009.

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World leaders: Cheap at the price? 10:19pm on 02 Apr 2009 Why are you using GDP per head, and not GDP? Surely the size of the population is very relevant to the difficulty of governing it? A CEO's salary is related to the size of the company she is running, not the average wage in the company.
I guess this will make Jintao even better 'value'..?
Spotting a sociopath 11:29pm on 26 Nov 2008 Following on from #9 (psychopomp), I wonder what the prospects are of social workers using a scientific test to inform their work... Something like an improved version of Blair's empathy/emotion test for psychopaths..? It wouldn't be a definitive test of course, but surely a useful tool?

You point out an important issue... and I think the problem may be even worse then you state, because social workers tend to be among the more empathic in our society - they certainly aren't doing the job for the money. And since everyone uses their own mind as a model for interpreting the motives of others, social workers are surely among the least likely to posit malevolent intentions.

I'd also like to relate this issue to your recent talk about British people improving their own communities. What has struck me most (though not necessary surprised me) about the Baby P case and others is the total failure of the community to pick up on the abuses or to intervene. There aren't the channels for people to communicate their concerns to the right people.. and on a more fundamental level the overwhelming absence of society and community is demonstrated. Yes, these abuses are not just a recent phenomenon, but there have been important changes... There is now surely less silent acceptance of these atrocities where they are known about. But at the same time people know less about their neighbours' lives - that is a blessing and a curse but I can't believe we have the balance right.
Ecstasy: Class A drug? 5:30pm on 26 Sep 2008 Hah.. So the message the government wants to send out is, you're better off taking ketamine or amphetamine rather than ecstasy...
Births outside marriage - a real cause for concern 5:58pm on 24 Sep 2008 There is a contradiction between your last two paragraphs and it stems from a failing of the rest of the article. Correlation does not imply causation, and you paint a misleading or at least incomplete picture by not mentioning any of the potential confounding factors. Surely there is a correlation between rates of birth in/out of marriage and socio-ecomomic status? Is the important correlation for poor life indicators with 'time spent with a single parent', or 'time spent away from parents' - single parents may be forced by economic circumstances to work and so spend less time with their children. You acknowledge that many non-nuclear families can work well but you have insulted them in the paragraph "The experience of the babies... indicates that being brought up by a lone mum or dad ... translates into lower grades..." by not emphasising that these are average trends and tendencies, not determinants. Surely we need to focus on the specific pressures that (SOME) single parents face which translate into these problems. The nuclear family 'working best' is not an inviolable necessity but true only within specific social and cultural contexts. It remains for debate as to whether it is better (and more cost-effective) to support single parent families or to support the institution of marriage. I hope you agree with that.. but by not addressing these subtleties you play into the hands of the Conservatives' fuzzy logic. Sorry for the rant, I know you have the best of intentions and are probably just passing on what the ESRC say (I'll take a look at their data now!). I really do appreciate your blogging.
Uncomfortable questions 1:16pm on 02 Sep 2008 Good blogging, Nick. Obviously Darling is a man on a tight leash here, fearing a reshuffle. Although frankly it's hard to know why anyone would want his job at the moment.

I don't think there will be any significant reshuffling, for the simple reason that a tight control of his cabinet based on fears of unstated threats is all that Brown currently has going for him, and if he were to undermine that the government would appear to be in meltdown.. and he would rapidly lose any hope of controlling the news agenda.

You can criticise Brown's government for incompetence all you like but, David Miliband aside, they are coming across pretty much united in incompetence. Which is worth something... If they are to have a hope of reelection they surely need to remain united, whilst praying for an economic upswing.
Crime: Lies and statistics 7:49pm on 24 Jul 2008 The Freakonomics abortion argument is interesting, but equally so is the evidence for a link between falling lead pollution (particularly relating to phasing out of leaded fuels) and falling levels of violent crimes. Hardly surprising when you consider the link between lead and impulsivity problems in children.
Do we all need a nudge? 7:36pm on 24 Jun 2008 Hey, looks like this could be a fascinating blog.

Re nudges, I know that some police forces in areas of London with gang problems eat lunch at local secondary schools. Since young people in gangs and at risk of gang involvement are marked out by their hostile attitudes towards the police and criminal justice agencies, I think it's a nice little idea.

Even better - don't know if it is actually happening or was just mooted, but - I've read about an idea to have police officers come into schools to help struggling readers with one-to-one reading assistance. The logic being provided by the correlation between illiteracy and criminal involvement...
(Although it does almost make one think, why not just dress the teachers themselves up in police uniforms..?)

I have to say, as a psychologist myself, the talk of social norms and 'nudges' does seem a tad faddish. I'm not criticising Mr Easton but the wider discourse. For instance, the terrific fly-in-the-urinal nudge has nothing to do with emphasising social norms... Cutting through the hype, what this should really be about is using all the knowledge and creativity we have to change people's behaviour as efficiently as possible (rather than always resorting to unimaginative system of incentives and punishments - usually financial)

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