A study’s coding rules can foreclose its conclusions before any data are gathered.
Evidence
The possibility that someone could remain loyal to the Communist Party or to its programme and nevertheless be authoritarian was thus excluded. The possibility was also excluded that someone who was not a declared believer in the Communist Party or its programme could nevertheless be definitely radical. The programme of attempting to `form a picture of the depth and consistency of individuals’ political opinions’ by analysing their relation to party membership and their character structure led to the conclusion that the supporters of the workers’ parties could be accused of not supporting decisively enough their most progressive sections, represented above all by the ranks of the party officials. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 194
Categorization
- SEED: Article angle: ‘The Categories Decide the Answer’ — how operationalizing political conviction through party membership built the Frankfurt School’s discouraging verdict into the instrument itself.
- XREF: Connects to the institute’s own suppression of Fromm’s worker study and to the later positivist dispute over whether method can be value-neutral. — connects to: Empirical research method inherently negates the coherent significance a final report must claim. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2118; Discovery rules exist to prevent surprise tactics and evidence hiding.; Legal discovery rules exist to prevent trials from being contests of concealment — Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, 2903 (+2 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Empirical research method inherently negates the coherent significance a final report must claim. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2118; Discovery rules exist to prevent surprise tactics and evidence hiding.; Legal discovery rules exist to prevent trials from being contests of concealment — Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, 2903 (+2 more)