Author Archives: russellschutt
How Low Can It Go?
Field researchers like to talk about the joys of “getting your hands dirty” by immersing yourself in the ongoing social life of a community. But I’ll bet many researchers would balk at climbing down into sewers to collect their data! … Continue reading
Rigorous Evidence Should Inform Spending
Ron Haskins began the new year on a positive note. The co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, Haskins reports that “a growing body of evidence shows that a few model social programs” work, and … Continue reading
Who We Are and Who We Are Becoming
As a long-term resident of the Boston area and a college professor, it’s heartening to learn that Bostonians spend more on college than residents of others cities. As I write yet another blog entry based on a newspaper article, it’s … Continue reading
Health Care Myths and Randomized Trials
Once people have health insurance, they are going to be less likely to go to the emergency room for acute health problems and will instead see doctors in their offices and use more preventive care services. Right? Well, it seems … Continue reading
The Person Particle?
We all value our individuality, so it might be disconcerting to know that in new research about crowd behavior, some physicists have improved understanding of human behavior by thinking of people as particles. Using cameras and analyses of big data sets … Continue reading
More Money, More Marriage
Back in the 1970s, when I married, it seemed that everyone was getting divorced. Articles by social scientists and others were full of prognostications about the end of marriage as an institution. But a recent New York Times article by Johns … Continue reading
The Census in Afghanistan
Conducting a census is a challenge for any government, but imagine how those challenges are multiplied as the current government in Afghanistan makes a new effort to conduct a national census. It’s not just the continued threat of violence in … Continue reading
Research That Matters, Testing That Counts
How many students would vote to have more tests in their classes? It’s hard to imagine that adding more tests would increase instructor popularity, but new research indicates that when testing is done in the right way, it can increase … Continue reading
Secret photographing of classes at Harvard??
Maybe you missed it, but it has been big news in the Boston area: classes were secretly photographed in spring 2014 as part of a Harvard University research project about classroom attendance. About 2,000 students in 10 lecture halls were … Continue reading
The joys of electronic media
With all due respect to the research that suggests reading on paper results in better understanding and learning…, it’s hard to resist the appeal of a well-constructed e-book. Consider chapter 1 of Investigating the Social World: It’s an introduction to … Continue reading
Researching in a Social World 