Count the tempestuous assumptions

Blustery academia sometimes coughs up a perfectly delight-filled storm of assumptions. With that quasi-thought in mind, can you count the assumptions in this new study? The study is:

“Female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes,” Kiju Jung, Sharon Shavitt, Madhu Viswanathan, and Joseph M. Hilbe, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, epub June 2, 2014.

Here’s one, not atypical, chunk of the study:

“Experiment 6. Participants. A total of 201 students at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign participated for course credit (age, 18–24 y; 113 females).

“Stimuli and procedure. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Hurricane Alexander vs. Hurricane Alexandra. The procedure was identical to experiment 5 ["Participants reported intentions to follow a voluntary evacuation order..."] with the following exception. After reporting evacuation intentions, participants completed two unrelated tasks for about 20 min and then reported their gender-trait beliefs.”

If you’d like a head start in counting those assumptions, read this essay by Ed Yong.

Keep this study in mind the next time you hear someone explain the intrinsic worth, power, and majesty of the peer review process.

(Thank you to the sudden deluge of persons who alerted us to the existence of this study.)