[Discuss] BLU's SEO

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

On 10/24/2013 12:43 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> Derek Martin wrote:
>> It's based on the study of human behavior, and as such it's no more
>> and no less a science than psychology or sociology, IMO.
> 
> Successful marketing is based on educated guesses and a great deal of
> luck in the face of whimsical markets, not on repeatable experimentation
> and observation like psychology and sociology are.

That statement is tenuous; this article points out one of the problems:
 http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/04/26/reproducibility-an-attempt-to-test-the-psychology-literature-underscores-a-growing-fault-line/

> Replication is also nearly impossible for some trials. The psychology
> literature is available for this because many psychology experiments
> involve a relatively small population performing tasks in a
> manageable timeframe. Longitudinal, invasive, or extremely technical
> studies aren?t as available to replication. Some studies ? especially
> medical studies involving thousands of patients over decades ? can
> never be replicated.

Many of the most famous psychology experiments in fact cannot be
repeated, and when they do, the results are less than impressive:

http://www.wbur.org/npr/209559002/taking-a-closer-look-at-milgrams-shocking-obedience-study

> SIEGEL: If Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments were - and I think
> they were arguably the most famous experiments in social psychology
> that we could cite, at least for the public at large - and if they
> really can't be replicated by scientists anymore because of what
> would be regarded as the unethical treatment of experimental
> subjects, where does that leave social psychology?
> 
> Is this a field that has any wisdom for us if its most famous results
> are, as you would say, notoriously flawed?
> 
> PERRY: I think it leaves social psychology in a difficult situation
> because, as you say, it is such an iconic experiment. And I think it
> really leads to the question of why it is that we continue to refer
> to and believe in Milgram's results. And I think the reason that
> Milgram's experiment is still so famous today is because in a way
> it's like a powerful parable.