Under the macroscope

[andrewducker]

Over here pigeonhed asked _why_ we needed to know what caused certain kinds of behaviour.

To which my response was that we didn't _need_ to know, but that many people want to know why people behave the way we do - me included. I'd love to know why I'm straight, geeky, smart, unable to draw (beyond very bad stick men), able to write tolerably well (but was completely incapable when at school), etc. I've spent huge numbers of hours reading about human behaviour, in an attempt to understand both myself and others better.

But I know that not everyone does this. And clearly some people find investigation of their behaviour uncomfortable - even when it's in the abstract (i.e. investigation of people that do the things they do).

[Poll #1245164]

Comments

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Just to roll with the most obvious, and most mentioned example...

I am pretty sure that most of the sexual-orientation researchers are just interested, no agenda. It's the people with the agenda (whatver that may be) putting their spin on the results that's the problem - but that's the problem with all science - the use the knowledge is put to. Long and old debate... but I am all for knowledge, once you start trying to proscribe that then (IMO) that's the first steps on a very long and dark road indeed...

Of course it's not just the homophobes who have an agenda.

I'd imagine (which is all I can do being straight) that there might be some gay folks who wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about why, perhaps *especially* if there could be proven to be a strong genetic influence.

Of course this could be used for not-very-savoury purposes - e.g. (if it was at all feasible) parents choosing to abort/meddle with 'gay' foetuses, to ensure a 'straight' child, OR gay parents choosing to do the same thing in reverse...

But - there may be uses of such research that all to the good.

Now here, I *really* don't know, but just suppose there might also be gay folks who aren't happy with how they are, and that unhappiness might not all be due to the surrounding society and its pressures, but internal somehow - and they might like to try a "cure".

Or (if, hypothetically speaking, it could be a temporary thing) just fancy a change for a bit. With that one, there may well be straight people who'd quite like to try out being gay - just for kicks. I mean yeah, you can always *do* it, but it's not the same as having the real desire...

So I say roll on all research (on this and all other topics!), but don't let the results fall solely into the hands of those with *any* agenda. Pick them up and analyse them yourself, see if they can be interpreted another way. Discuss, advertise, publish that. Encourage those who do so. It's, y'know science, that's how it works....