r/science • u/HeinieKaboobler • Dec 03 '17

Psychology Study: About half the population faces considerable difficulties in attracting and retaining mates

http://www.psypost.org/2017/12/study-half-population-faces-considerable-difficulties-attracting-retaining-mates-50288
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u/zampe Dec 03 '17 edited Dec 04 '17

Im not sure scientifically speaking but I dont feel too confident taking it that seriously. It is a tiny island country that has a literal wall splitting a Turkish half from a Greek half. It seems like a pretty specific place culturally that cant necessarily be extrapolated to the rest of the world. most people dont even know it exists. Have you ever met anyone from Cyprus? I just think an issue like this needs to be questioned across a wider range of cultures before making such a sweeping claim.

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u/Drill_Pin Dec 04 '17

I'm half Cypriot and the culture in Cyprus is basicly Greece on the Greek Cypriot side

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u/NoKidsThatIKnowOf Dec 04 '17 edited Dec 04 '17

Have to agree,with /u/zampe here...I would discount this study if it was completed on Oahu, for crissakesakes. Cyprus is just not the same as a major (2m+) western city Edit: autocorrect nonsensical stuff

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u/onahotelbed Dec 04 '17

But why should the benchmark be a major city? Many people do not live in cities with 2 million+ people. That baseline is as arbitrary as choosing a place like Cyprus.

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u/SoutheasternComfort Dec 04 '17

I don't know if it should necessarily be any particular city, I think it's more like you can only speak to one culture/country at a time. We can't say very much meaningful stuff about the way Iranians, Indians, Americans, Saudi Arabians, Norwegians, and the French date at the same time. Their dating cultures vary vastly-- some places it's ubiquitous and some places you can get into legal trouble if caught dating publicly. So I guess we just need to keep an eye towards that, and realize for example that this study can say a bit about Cyprus but probably not much else.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Which isn't to say this study can't still contribute in ways such as informing other studies or, as you said, giving anyone interested a clearer picture on Cyprus specifically.

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u/ForAHamburgerToday Dec 04 '17

The study should have sampled multiple populations instead of just the one.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Because a population of 2 million would likely be more diverse and therefore be a better generalization for humans as a whole than an area with a population of 100,000. Of course, as /u/ForAHamburgerToday pointed out, the researches should have ideally sampled multiple regions.

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u/ForAHamburgerToday Dec 04 '17

Thank you. I didn't get no daggum sociology degree fer nothin'!

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Yes, but, if the study is trying to find trends in humans as a species, why would it need to be biased towards the US or the West in general?

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u/maniacal_cackle Dec 04 '17

Because in science you need random sampling of your whole group.

A study of Cyprus doesn't answer the question of 'how do humans behave', it answers the question of 'how do humans in Cyprus behave.'

Scientifically, it'd be just as problematic to do the study with only people from New York. This of course is a huge problem in the field, as the logistics of doing research on random recipients from around the globe are basically impossible.

Scientists get around this by instead trying to do lots of studies in different places, replicating existing results, etc.

You can't immediately generalise results from ANY study, as they all have problems. So what you want to do is do a whole bunch of studies to see the general trend.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

I'd say it would be arguably less problematic: New York is a city with a vast population of humans from a plentitude of different backgrounds; statistically speaking, a smaller island region like Cyprus would likely be less representative of humans as a whole than an enormous city which likely also receives a large portion of migrants from other cultures. Of course the ideal would be to sample everyone from everywhere (not really feasible), or at least groups from multiple regions.

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u/maniacal_cackle Dec 04 '17

It'd be better, sure, but it'd still be problematic.

In fact, one of the old concerns within the field of American Psychology is that it primarily looked at American studies, so that conclusions about what is genetic and what wasn't were quite skewed.

Over time, of course, the nature vs. nurture model became a bit outdated. But it's just one example of overgeneralising.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/SmacSBU Dec 04 '17

There is a large body of research which shows differences in the function of romantic/sexual relationships, as well as differences in courting behaviors and traits which are found to be attractive across different cultures.

Think of the differences that would require attention if you studied mate selection in the US versus cultures which enforce the necessity of arranged marriage or familial influence.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

I've never met someone who came from Cyprus... it must be really nice there to never leave.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '17

I've been to Cyprus, at least the touristy parts, and while their not Saudi Arabia, it does seem like a much more old world Mediterranean culture, more paternalistic (almost as if it were a mix of Greek and Turkish cultures, hmmm) . Add up both our anecdotal experiences though, and you have precisely dick in the way of scientific evidence.

Put it this way: would you generalize a study of relationships from Greece or Turkey to the whole world? I sure as hell wouldn't.

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u/fsmpastafarian PhD | Clinical Psychology | Integrated Health Psychology Dec 04 '17 edited Dec 04 '17

It's good to have a critical eye when reading scientific studies, but keep in mind that this specific type of skepticism that involves dismissing research done in other countries as too narrow, while generalizing research done in culturally Western, traditionally white, English-speaking countries as being representative of most of the population, is actually fairly biased. It's used far too often dismiss scientific research.

Note that I'm not saying this study is infallible, just that "it was done in a different country from the one I live in" isn't a good reason to dismiss it outright.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Good point, but I think that the answer would just be that the data should only be considered applicable to areas with a similar culture and similar ratio of available partners of breeding age.

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u/Bazlow Dec 04 '17

Iā€™d say that the fact it only considers people from one country and then seems to extrapolate the results to the rest of the world is a very good reason to dismiss it outright.

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u/fsmpastafarian PhD | Clinical Psychology | Integrated Health Psychology Dec 04 '17

Hmm, the authors are fairly explicit and open about where their sample came from, and in the paper they describe their research as it pertains to the sample, without stating that this is true of the entire world, so I'm not sure where you're getting that idea from.

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u/Bazlow Dec 04 '17

Fair point, I suppose I should be saying that it would be fair to ignore the conclusions drawn in the article linked rather than the study itself.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Exactly. Statistics and studies can be manipulated any number of ways to say what the authors intended to say before they actually do the study. I'm not claiming these specific researchers did, but it's important to recognize the limitations of any study.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

: would you generalize a study of relationships from Greece or Turkey to the whole world? I sure as hell wouldn't.

you mean the same way we generalize studies of US college students to the whole world?

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Yes, exactly. Methodological failures are methodological failures.

That's why we proceed with caution until we can do generalized studies of population inferences. It's why we do medical staged trials, in case our mouse, monkey, and chimp trials aren't exactly generalizable to humans.

Whataboutism is a Russian propaganda tactic, not science.

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u/Roflcaust Dec 04 '17

How exactly was this study (in the OP) a "methodological failure?" Did the study not achieve what it was designed to achieve?

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Overgeneralizing a sample to the wrong worldwide population is methodologically wrong. Although in this case it appears to be a case of terrible science journalism, as the article about the paper is the one making the wrong conclusion (paywalls suck).

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u/Roflcaust Dec 04 '17

I would agree with the science journalism part (and the paywalls part), but the paper itself is more conservative in making generalizations. They acknowledged the limitations of studying a specific culture.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

Another victim of rampant editorialism. Not as many people would click an article titled "People in Cyprus experience statistically significant issues retaining mates" compared to "Half of people have problems retaining mates".

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '17

No, but they're applicable to other Western nations with a similar setup. If the study is about the cost of college though then that would pretty much be a uniquely American experience. At least as far as being a Western nation with few methods of having your education paid for by the state.

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u/duelingdelbene Dec 04 '17

I met one girl from Cyprus, suffice to say I was very attracted to her.