Defending the idealized version of a practice cannot guide real-world policy

Evidence

The critics responded. Larzelere, writing with Christopher Ferguson in 2018, argued that the meta-analysis still had not isolated the conditional-spanking scenario --- the warm, authoritative parent who spanks rarely and only as a backup. He argued that the pooled effects might still be driven by parents who spank frequently, angrily, or in the context of otherwise harsh parenting. This is a coherent theoretical objection. But it is also an objection that demands a nearly impossible study design --- one that somehow isolates only the idealized version of the practice from the versions that actually occur in the population. And as Gershoff noted in response, the fact that the idealized version is so difficult to isolate in the data may itself be informative. If the practice as actually practiced --- by real parents, in real families, under real conditions of stress and fatigue and frustration --- consistently associates with harm, then a defense based on the theoretical possibility of a harm-free version is not a defense that can guide clinical or policy recommendations. — , The Rod and the Child, 6473

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the conditional-freedom arguments in the FOIA history — putting an idealized version on a pedestal instead of the version that actually occurs. — connects to: Optimal action under ideal assumptions can be useless under real conditions — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1033; Evidence-based advocacy fails when the political configuration is unready for it — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 9030; Rules necessarily overreach their justifications because of their intrinsic generality — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 46 (+10 more)

Related

• A conditional-spanking recommendation is practically uncommunicable to parents (similarity 0.81)
• Larzelere argued mild conditional spanking by warm parents was not equatable to harsh punishment (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Optimal action under ideal assumptions can be useless under real conditions #corroborates (0.85) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1033
• Evidence-based advocacy fails when the political configuration is unready for it #exemplifies (0.60) — , The Rod and the Child, 9030
• Literal application of legal rules sometimes produces absurd against-purpose outcomes #exemplifies (0.60) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 284
• Rules without concrete instances are meaningless hindrances #corroborates (0.60) — Burton, Steven J, An Introduction to Law and Legal…, 148
• Yet Professor Schauer argues that this aversion to formalism should be rethought At times language both can and should restrict decisionmakers. Consequently, the term formalistic should not be… #complicates (0.60)
• Rules necessarily overreach their justifications because of their intrinsic generality #expands (0.55) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 46
• Literal statutory interpretations are defeasible starting points #corroborates (0.55) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 303
• It may be that when the details of this practice are laid bare, the concepts we do use will be shown to be as silly and as thick with illusion as those the nominalists invented. If so, then we… #complicates (0.50)
• One can see how important consensus is for this sort of grammarian. He or she is not describing a practice, but is ‘converting’ it into a different practice altogether, one that would be… #qualifies (0.50)
• Individual persuasion cannot change norm-sustained practices like corporal punishment #exemplifies (0.50) — , The Rod and the Child, 10747