this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 104 points 11 months ago (10 children)

Before playing the game, the participants sniffed either female tears or a saline solution

Why would they not include male tears in the test?

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 63 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Because dad says boys don’t cry.

[–] metallic_substance@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Is your dad Robert Smith?

[–] bjorney@lemmy.ca 43 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If male tears were the only control, then they run the risk of not finding any result. If you have 3 groups, you need a substantially larger sample size because you are running a less powerful statistical test.

Easier to start with the test that's most likely to work, and narrow it down from there if you succeed

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Having men sniff three different samples would still allow for saline as a control and wouldn't really make the data set that much more complicated.

[–] NewNewAccount@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Is that an assumption or do you have experience with research like this?

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Just college lab courses, but come on, it's pretty basic. The experiment merely tests a single variable by changing it while keeping everything else the same. There could have been dozens of different samples that men sniffed and it wouldn't really make the data complicated.

It would increase the length of the test, though, so dozens of samples would have been cumbersome. But just two? Literally just "see how the test group responds to sample 1, sample 2, and the control sample"? That's not complicated science. You probably did that in highschool lol

[–] criitz@reddthat.com 13 points 11 months ago

Testing multiple hypotheses this way still requires additional sample size because there is an increased error likelihood. From a statistical point of view, the most efficient test may be to stick to one variable like this.

[–] DanglingFury@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I'm guessing they had to stay within their funding/budget and didn't want to reduce the sample size to increase the number of variables tested. MRIs are expensive

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

they should just be getting time on the machine although maybe also tech time. either way doing multiple with a single individual is easier than more individuals.

[–] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But that makes it more complex because you have to start worrying about the order they're done in because it might be different emotions playing your first or third game plus the effect might linger, take time to show, etc.

Far better to answer one simple question and prove there is an effect then follow up tests can look at finding the bounds to that and starting to narrow in on identifying mechanics.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

its been done with other things. its an mri so regardless of order the simuli should light up the brain regions. either it does it or it does not.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml -1 points 11 months ago

I could believe that. Hopefully they can get more funding for further testing.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 2 points 11 months ago

I have experience and yes, it would not make it much more complicated. two types of controls are actually common although using male tears would not be a control. but like 5 research targets and 2 controls would not be beyond belief.

[–] Ryumast3r@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They said they had a hard time finding men who would cry.

They also didn't test women sniffing women's tears, or men sniffing men or women sniffing men, or animal tears.

They left a lot of variables out of this one.

[–] Kolrami@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

I thought the same thing, so I checked the real paper and they do end up explaining their reasoning.

As for social interactions among humans, future research will explore whether the new study’s findings apply to women. “When we looked for volunteers who could donate tears, we found mostly women, because for them it’s much more socially acceptable to cry,” Agron says.

I'm interested if the results are same for male tears and also if they're the same for women who smell either gender's tears.

[–] Silverseren@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I feel like they should also have experimental groups of children and the elderly, to see whether age also has an effect on hormonal responses.

I suppose that applies both in regards to tears from and how tears affect. Hmm, I can see this getting rather complicated and extensive.

[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

I feel like they should also have experimental groups of children and the elderly

I find this is my answer to most things honestly.

[–] bedrooms@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago

Seems there was a study that concluded female tears raise testosterone of men. I thus think it's kinda understandable they did it in this way. But, yeah, not really convincing.

[–] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Too hard to source

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago

I was wondering myself what the effect of male tears would be.