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Paper combining machine learning, evolutionary psychology, and literal, unironic phrenology somehow passes peer review (https://twitter.com/baumard_nicolas/status/1308715609795039232)
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As a (non-tenured) professor working at the intersection of machine learning and causal inference, I cannot begin to express how depressing it is that this ended up in fucking Nature. Why do I bother to try to do careful work?

All you really need apparently is a few Pinker citations and some dipshit undergrad to run a fucking facial recognition Python library.

> working at the intersection of machine learning and causal inference Ooh, ooh, ooh, super cool. What is that you do specifically? I feel like there isnt nearly enough development in this area.
Though there's a ton of work in this area. Everyone is trying to figure out a way to mix ML "discovery" with CI "identification" (at least that's my sense from my corner).

Perhaps I’m misreading something or being too generous, but it doesn’t seem to me that the author is saying anything about actual trustworthiness, but rather only perceived trustworthiness, including all of our biases. In this tweet he says they compared their model to make sure it had all the biases that humans have when we unconsciously judge trustworthiness. Or at least some of the biases - he manages not to mention race.

Am I missing something?

You are not, this is absolutely a legitimate piece of anthropological research
[deleted]
No, they trace how our _current, interconnected_ "perception" of "trutworthiness" maps to a historical selection of portraits. And they routinely conflate it with _actual_ trustworthiness.
I mean, granted, but that hardly makes the whole thing an attempt to resurrect phrenology- they’re pretty clearly only talking about perceived traits.
the lead author's bio: > Evolutionary Psychology for the Social Sciences. Morality, Religion, Public Policy, History, Economic Development. 0% chance he hasn't read moldbug
What even fucking field is that? I guess phrenology.
He’s French and is an university academic and very high up in a French Government Scientific Institute per his website bio. He seems fine, this may not have the same resonance as an issue in France
dog whistles still work in France
Won’t be the same dog whistles
Le dog whistle.
le doghorn contrebasse
I mean phrenology is intelligence and other traits based on skull shape regardless of race. But it usually evolves into racism pretty fast.

Excuse me, sir, this is physiognomy, not phrenology.

I am full of deepest regret for violating decorum by misrepresenting an ideological opponent

Sorry but just no, phrenology isn’t the same thing as “We tend to judge people based on their physical appearance”.

Isn’t it great how blatantly they are associating skull shape with trustworthiness?

*nose width* with trustworthiness the gold in the responses to this terrible tweet are in the quote retweets
They’re not, people’s perceptions are. That’s the point of the study

Whew lad.

Skull calipers seem to be coming back into fashion like so many other things from the 20s.