{"id":25274,"date":"2014-04-23T08:48:34","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T13:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=25274"},"modified":"2014-04-23T08:48:34","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T13:48:34","slug":"what-most-studies-really-show-is-that-most-studies-are-crap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/04\/23\/what-most-studies-really-show-is-that-most-studies-are-crap\/","title":{"rendered":"“[W]hat most ‘studies’ really ‘show’ is that most ‘studies’ are crap”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathy Shaidle<\/a>‘s investigation of the “science of cool”:<\/p>\n

Then something calling itself \u201cscience\u201d appeared to offer me an in. Alas, what most \u201cstudies\u201d really \u201cshow\u201d is that most \u201cstudies\u201d are crap. This latest one proved the rule that \u201csocial science\u201d is to the real thing what Anna Anderson was to the Romanovs.<\/p>\n

The Week<\/em> promised to teach us \u201cHow To Be Cool, According to Science,\u201d relying upon the findings of one Olivia Fox Cabane. Ms. Cabane is not, however, a scientist (of either the \u201csocial,\u201d \u201chard,\u201d or even \u201cChristian\u201d varieties), but an \u201cexecutive charisma coach for Fortune 500 companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

So shame on you, The Week<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Scientific or not, does Ms. Cabane\u2019s grand unified theory of \u201ccool\u201d withstand scrutiny?<\/p>\n

At first, she\u2019s persuasive, if prosaic. \u201cCool,\u201d she declares, \u201cdoesn\u2019t try too hard.\u201d In everything \u2014 words and deeds \u2014 less is more.<\/p>\n

Cabane insists that robotically calm, collected mannerisms and Zen master body language are the outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual cool.<\/p>\n

A cool individual, Cabane continues, exudes confidence. James Bond, she points out, neither fidgets, nor does he plead.<\/p>\n

Tellingly, Fleming\u2019s 007 is the only \u201cproper noun\u201d example she serves up, maybe because a moment\u2019s reflection on other archetypes of cool reveals the flaws in her theory.<\/p>\n

Placed side by side, James Cagney fits Cabane\u2019s criteria for cool far better than Humphrey Bogart. Even when merely striding cockily down a sidewalk (then dodging machine gun fire), Cagney\u2019s background as a professional dancer was evident in almost every film he made, not just in Yankee Doodle Dandy<\/em>. His sharp, frugal gestures and bits of business also live up to Cabane\u2019s bonsai tree ideal. (When you learn that Malcolm McDowell based his performance as \u201cAlex\u201d on Cagney\u2019s screen persona, you never watch A Clockwork Orange<\/em> the same way.)<\/p>\n

We are often surprised to discover how short certain charismatic performers really are, or were. (I still refuse to accept that Freddy Mercury was anything less than 6\u2019 1\u201d.) The bantamweight Cagney, on the other hand, always<\/em> seemed short \u2014 but it didn\u2019t matter<\/em>. That alone places him in an even higher stratum of cool, one occupied by a very few, including Cagney\u2019s rival, Humphrey Bogart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathy Shaidle‘s investigation of the “science of cool”: Then something calling itself \u201cscience\u201d appeared to offer me an in. Alas, what most \u201cstudies\u201d really \u201cshow\u201d is that most \u201cstudies\u201d are crap. This latest one proved the rule that \u201csocial science\u201d is to the real thing what Anna Anderson was to the Romanovs. The Week promised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[122],"class_list":["post-25274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","tag-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-6zE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25275,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25274\/revisions\/25275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}