UW study of fantasy baseball proves controversial

[RU Rah Rah]

You might have seen some mention of this last week. UW researchers are studying fantasy baseball in an effort to learn more about "competitive fandom":

 

www.news.wisc.edu/13936

 

At least one Wisconsin lawmaker seems pretty unhappy about it, however.

 

thewheelerreport.com/rele...nassuw.pdf

[samwise]

I don't want this to become a political thread, but I would assume that most of the funds from this are going to be coming from research grants, not taxpayer money.

 

Since I graduated and work here I am going to be following this closely.

[igor67]

I hate it when people can't read even a complete paragraph before they make some kind of judgement. I am ashamed that this elected official is from Wisconsin and somehow managed to make it onto a board controling the UW system. 'We hope to learn more about how people learn by studying fantasy baseball leagues' Now perhaps being involved in education, research, and enjoying baseball it is too obvious to me how these concepts relate. But his implied claim of crusading for the tax payer with this sort of terrible oversight is the height of hypocrisy.

[rluzinski]

It's not necessarily ignorance. Most politicians are willing to spew whatever nonsense they think we help their popularity. They take advantage of the ignorant, emotional masses.

[igor67]

This is almost certainly true Rluz, but it is much more charitable given the choice between ignorance and evil to assume ignorance.

[bjkrautk]

I don't want this to become a political thread, but I would assume that most of the funds from this are going to be coming from research grants, not taxpayer money.

 

I'll just assume that you mean private research grants, and leave it at that. (Took me a few seconds to make the distinction.) In this case, the press release even cites the MacArthur Foundation as having provided a grant.

 

Whether or not this is political grandstanding may largely depend on how much of the study is paid for with private money v. how much is being picked up by the department (and thereby, the university).

[gregmag]

The study, like any academic study, may or may not be worthwhile. Of course, that's a difficult judgment to make before we allow time to see whether the knowledge the study generates does any good. That's why academics study things -- to learn something we didn't know before, which may or may not save money or improve lives down the line.

 

But leave those nuances aside. My problem with Nass' press release is that he provides no concrete basis for criticizing the study. None. Does he think it's intellectually baseless? Why? Is its purpose illegitmate? If the purpose is legitimate, is the study unlikely to advance the purpose? Nass doesn't provide the barest hint of why the study might be wasteful -- except that it sounds strange on first hearing. That's the definition of a cheap shot.

 

A lot of politicians, like a lot more academics (hey, I am one; I'm biased), do a great deal of good for society. Many politicians don't stoop to cheap shots and political grandstanding. Nass, in contrast, appears to believe his constituents hate and fear any intellectual endeavor more abstract than a scratch-and-win lotto game. I bet he's wrong.

 

BTW, did you notice he's the Chair of the Assembly's Standing Committee on Colleges and Universities? Good luck to the UW System.

 

Greg.

[DHonks]

it's also a person's opinion. What if the lawmaker simply made the statements, and we later find out he doesn't use the internet or fantasy sports? Suddenly it makes sense, just as 60 year olds blaming cell phones for accidents, or teachers that claim technology is a waste (lots of them exist, surprisingly). I can't ridicule an elected official for this...if they want answers or an explanation, they are entitled to them

[sbrylski]

All I want to know is where to sign up for Fantasy Congress. That just sounds like a blast! (The half-kidding color there.)

[mothershipconnection]

Often, you get grants from institutions such as NIMH and such to conduct psychological research. Some studies provide pretty interesting data regarding compulsion, addiction, and cultural contingencies for very cheap prices. You have students working on practica and professors trying to get published or tenured. When you consider the student researchers working on this, it's often cheaper to give them valuable research experience than it is to put them in a lecture hall to learn about some GE topic they have no interest in.

 

My research, for example, cost a whopping $316 to complete and addressed what many in our field consider a very important empirical issue - namely, efficient methods of training reading performance. If public institutions can train better readers in less time, that saves the government lots of money.

 

Similarly, studies that cost a couple grand sometimes impact the ways states deal with societal issues they currently pump huge money into with little benefit.

[MrAgro]

Politicians seem to be taking shots at UW all the time since I left the state, about 5 years ago. What's the deal? When did it become popular to bash UW?

 

For anyone living in Wisconsin, the University is well-respected nationwide and something you should be proud of. Some of those silly studies turn up a nugget of knowledge and they almost always produce a grad student with critical thinking tools.

 

By the way, I did my grad work out of state and my major project was in the area of $250K. As an offshoot, just a strange idea I had one day, I came up with another study that I wanted to try. Now, everyone told me it was a waste of time because everyone already knew the answers. Guess what, everyone was wrong and the silly study was accepted for publication. That silly study had a final cost of $0.00 b/c I talked the suppliers and lab folks into giving me the equipment and material for free.

 

So if you ever think some academic exercise is a waste of time and resources, just let it slide because someone might learn something.