Autism: Technically, autism can't be an epidemic because it's not (medically) contagious (although there's currently an, um, epidemic of using the word "epidemic" for things that aren't contagious ;) ).
IQ test: I haven't read their book, but I think it depends on which IQ tests. It's difficult to see where the bias would be in, say, shape matching questions, but certainly when we get into IQ tests that depend on language interpretation skills (even indirectly), there's a bias towards people who speak dialects close to the standard (which, in the US, is effectively a racial and economic bias).
Full moon madness: I've seen several programs in my life on this topic. Quite a few cops apparently believe it, which tends to have a detrimental effect on how they do their jobs. Unfortunately, it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy (cops think crimes will go up, they act jumpy and are more likely to see crimes, they respond in certain ways that increase the defensiveness of people on the streets, and so on). It's been a while since I've seen a program on it, though, so maybe it's not as widely believed as it once was.
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Date: 2010-05-17 10:34 pm (UTC)IQ test: I haven't read their book, but I think it depends on which IQ tests. It's difficult to see where the bias would be in, say, shape matching questions, but certainly when we get into IQ tests that depend on language interpretation skills (even indirectly), there's a bias towards people who speak dialects close to the standard (which, in the US, is effectively a racial and economic bias).
Full moon madness: I've seen several programs in my life on this topic. Quite a few cops apparently believe it, which tends to have a detrimental effect on how they do their jobs. Unfortunately, it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy (cops think crimes will go up, they act jumpy and are more likely to see crimes, they respond in certain ways that increase the defensiveness of people on the streets, and so on). It's been a while since I've seen a program on it, though, so maybe it's not as widely believed as it once was.