Sunday thoughts: social and behavioral sciences have divided and subdivided human behavior into areas represented as departments in higher educ. as if the individuals we study are divided that way. We then layer on causality within that division as if one sub piece will be the cause of behavior

One path out of this might be to get better at synthesising the literature across disciplines and to do more matrix reviews aka study space analyses (which have become my latest obsession:). From there to AI-supported literature-based discovery systems to help us connect the many dots.

Many scientists don't just stick to a single field but essentially to a single *study*, which they repeat with variants for an entire career People tend to think "If I tweaked this method (that I already understand) what would it tell us?" ie. Chose the method 1st and then worked out the question!

Politics & science seem to be reflexively more mono-causal, more essentializing. You see it in Vance/ Rs generally with reference to women & trans people, but also in fierce defense of evo psych, where if you don’t believe effects are strong & proximal “you believe evolution ends at the neck” 🙄ugh

We say this is to focus because how can one scientist take all the variables into account. But when do we ever join together to weave our ideas together? Instead we create separate theories, methods, journals, conferences-creating our own echo chamber within our chosen domain bereft of other ideas