"Back in my day" the best example of confirmation bias and the worst example of evidence...

[Humanist_Activist]

for anything really.

The most recent examples are, of course, the apologists of child abuse, really can't think of anything better to call them. You know the ones, there were hit with a switch, spanked, etc. and turned out ok. Of course, the fact of the matter, and surveys and studies over decades have fleshed this out, that most people who suffer anywhere from mild to severe violence in the home don't do too well. They may have problems socializing, may develop learning disabilities and emotional problems as adults.

The problem is that people react differently to stress, and some handle some situations better than others, but what we shouldn't do is use our experiences, alone, as evidence that it is universal. Not to mention that many of the ones who were hit were on the milder end of it, never had broken skin nor any need for medical attention. Memory is a funny thing, eventually the brain "forgets" things that are classed as insignificant, keeping what it classes as significant, whether its negative or positive. This might be the reason this cognitive bias is so prevalent in all sorts of arguments. So mild spankings may be forgotten or glossed over by your brain.

Hell I've argued with people that said seat belts aren't necessary because, when they grew up, cars didn't have them, and they survived a couple of fender benders. I asked them a simple question, what about those who didn't survive?

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. When people do the "Back in my day thing..." I typically respond with...

back in my day, I had to attend the funerals of a few close friends: starting at the age of 6, when a neighborhood boy drowned in the foundation of a house that was being built in our neighborhood and extended through middle school, where I attended the funeral of a friend who lost a moped v. train race, and on into high school with three friends and a fast, fast car.


My children have never had to attend the funeral of a playmate at 6...a playmate dead from something that could have been prevented.

[Humanist_Activist]

2. I did, I only remember it vaguely, but it was childhood leukemia, and was the 1980s....

I was around 4 or 5 I think, don't remember the details. But I also know that my parents had friends that never made it too adulthood for diseases I never had to worry about, mumps, measles, etc. And my grandparents had friends as children who also died or were maimed by polio, smallpox, etc.

We do our best, and get better every year, we can't prevent every possible death, accidents do happen, people do bad things, and we haven't cured every disease, but we should do everything practical to protect children.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. As I tell my 16-year-old son,

Don't go looking for trouble; enough of it will find you on its own.

[oberliner]

4. Would this post not also be an example of confirmation bias and a poor example of evidence?

Literally, what you wrote seems to contain the exact same qualities. Basing conclusions on slim anecdotal evidence.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. I posted what I respond with...what you take from it is purely up to you.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

[oberliner]

10. It just seemed to suffer from the same issues as the initial argument

That is to say that it is drawing conclusions based on limited personal experiences.

[Humanist_Activist]

6. You are correct of course, and I am curious as to whether accident rates in children have fallen...

over time.

[oberliner]

11. I would be curious to know that as well

I wonder if that data is available with some digging around online.

[Humanist_Activist]

13. Yes, plus any difference in deaths vs. rate of accidents...

I strongly doubt that kids today are less accident prone as in the past, just that improvement in safety technology and medical care may have improved their survival rates.

Kids are still stupid, can be clumsy, and even the best helicopter parents can't watch or protect their kids 24/7. One of my friends kids fell off a retaining wall and broke her arm, shit like that happens.

ON EDIT: Just a note, her having a broken arm in a cast certainly doesn't stop her from being, well, nuts. When I babysat less than a week ago, telling her to take it easy was a lost cause. Also having her arm in that cast did NOT stop her from jumping on my back for a piggy back ride, I learned a valuable lesson there, that cast hurts like hell hitting your throat and jaw.

[hollysmom]

7. back in my day

I use examples of how crazy unchecked we were.
We had to walk a mile to school, that was the limit, over that they had buses, it wasa pain, but not so bad, but .. one day a hurricane came, we did not have much warning then, so during the eye, the school met and decided to send us home. A good decision if they had not spent so long that when they released us we ended up in the worst of the winds, we (High school kids) had to catch smaller children and walk them home. My mother heard that the school let us out and tried to drive and pick us up, but there were too many trees in the road and she had to go back home,she did get my 6 year old brother who was walking from the opposite direction. This was not idiocy of parents but of the school. Kids got seriously hurt, but not one died.

Now I had a fellow first grader run over by a truck walking home from school, - that predated crossing guards. And in 4th grade I older boy from out neighborhood when we all played together, died jumping into a reservoir without looking and broke his neck and drowned.


I also grabbed my baby brother when my mother drove into a tree and he started to fly. So, I know what you mean, but I think the stories can be cautionary tales, not an excuse for bad behavior.

My mother was hit a lot as a child, so were her brothers and sisters. She decided she was not going to be like that. Ditto my Dad. When the cousins of my age talked, I was always told I had the good parents. My cousins were all beat, even the one who was only child and spoiled in many other ways. it is what they did, not the right thing. My parents made a decision they did not want to be those parents. Mom and I talked a lot as she got older and didn't have many friends, I would talk to her an hour every night if I did not drive over to have dinner with her and this was one thing she was very proud of and it was conscious decision on her part..

[Humanist_Activist]

8. I think part of the issue is there are easy causal connections there, for example, no crossing...

guard equals greater likelihood of getting run over by an inattentive driver. Double so in bad weather. In addition, the anecdotal evidence could be backed up by actual studies or surveys. Generally the confirmation bias is most obvious when talking about either counter intuitive conclusions, and/or conclusions that run counter to known facts.

[hollysmom]

12. I am agreeibng with you and saying

that anecdotal stories can be just histories, not proof of what happened, but what could have happened. When I was a kid, kids died, that did not happen to my brothers who were 10 and 14 years younger and had some safety involved.

Now I liked the independence and thought it made us grow up faster, compared to helicopter parents, but common sense! Just because you lived does not mean it was not dangerous. I got on a bus to the movies by myself when I was 7, sent by my Mom on most weekends. When my sister was 7 we were sent on the bus together and she was responsible for me when I was 4 and we would go to the movies. I will say that my sister and I were very conscious of money and how to count for bus fares and movie tickets and candy (ha ha) and spend it which followed through to our lives and we both managed to save for a nice retirement but we could have died!!!.

[hfojvt]

9. back in my day

it was considered bad form to try to demonize a debate opponent.

[Humanist_Activist]

14. Pointing out a logical fallacy is not bad form, if you want to make a claim, try to back it up...

with evidence, not just anecdotes.

[silvershadow]

15. Back in my day, the US was a much different place, with unions holding a more prominent place

in the Democratic party.