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The Science of Hotness

- September 19, 2013

As “John notes below”:http://tmc.org/2013/09/19/political-scientists-are-pretty-smart-given-how-incredibly-hot-we-are/#comments, hotness science has made some remarkable theoretical and empirical advances since my “2009 post”:http://tmc.org/2009/01/21/hotness/. Nonetheless, the claim that political scientists are unusually smart given how hot we are seems to me to smack of special pleading. After all, even if we’re on the right side of the regression line, we’re still collectively subject to the ironclad law that physical hotness is associated with mental notness. Furthermore, using the precepts of Sound Social Scientific Reasoning1, we can surely draw inferences at the individual level too. And, as a complete aside, it might be interesting to inquire into the implications of the fact that “Sides rates a sizzling pepper”:http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=695580 (the highest possible hotness rating) on _Rate My Professor_ …

1 A term of art, covering the axiomatic statements “ecological problems, schmecological problems,” and “g, a “statistical myth”:http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/523.html except and unless it’s rhetorically convenient.”