I mean sure if you take self-reports as the absolute truth (...)
Absolute truth doesn’t exist, the range is always ]0;1[. 0 and 1 require infinitely strong evidence. What imprecisions in self-reporting do generate is higher variance, skewing, bias etc., and these can be solved by better causal hypotheses. However, those causal hypotheses must be predictive and falsifiable.
why go with the convoluted point about aro-ace trans women (...)
Because that’s central to the falsifiability requirement. Consider: if transgender individuals explicitly telling researchers they never experienced autogynephilic impulses, nor any sexual impulse or attraction at all, is dismissed by the autogynephilic hypothesis proponents and considered invalid, with proponents suggesting they actually did experience it but {ad hoc rationalization follows}, then what is the autogynephilic hypothesis’ falsifiability criteria? Is there any?
More studies != better integration of the information from those studies into a coherent explanation.
There are several moments in research.
The initial hypothesis is simple: there are identifiable physiological differences between human male and female brains, and transgender individuals’ brains show distinctive traits typical of the brains of the other sex, while cisgender individuals don’t.
This is testable, with clear falsifiability criteria, and provides a pathway for the development of a taxonomy of such differences, including typical values, typical variances, normal distributions for each sex, a full binomial distribution to cover both sexes, and the ability to position an individual’s brain somewhere along that binomial distribution.
Following that taxonomic mapping, if it pans out, there come questions of causality, such as what causes some individual brains to fall so distantly from the average for their birth sex. But that’s a further development way down the line. Right now what matters is the first stage is falsifiable and has been experiencing constant corroboration, not constant falsification.
So now it’s a matter of contrasting this theory’s falsifiability track record with the autogynephilic hypothesis’s falsifiability track record—supposing there’s one.
Absolute truth doesn’t exist, the range is always ]0;1[. 0 and 1 require infinitely strong evidence. What imprecisions in self-reporting do generate is higher variance, skewing, bias etc., and these can be solved by better causal hypotheses. However, those causal hypotheses must be predictive and falsifiable.
Yeah I know, I’ve put a lot of effort into this. See also: my blog.
Because that’s central to the falsifiability requirement. Consider: if transgender individuals explicitly telling researchers they never experienced autogynephilic impulses, nor any sexual impulse or attraction at all, is dismissed by the autogynephilic hypothesis proponents and considered invalid, with proponents suggesting they actually did experience it but {ad hoc rationalization follows}, then what is the autogynephilic hypothesis’ falsifiability criteria? Is there any?
The initial hypothesis is simple: there are identifiable physiological differences between human male and female brains, transgender individuals’ brains show distinctive traits typical of the brains of the other sex, while cisgender individuals don’t.
This is testable, with clear falsifiability criteria, and provides a pathway for the development of a taxonomy of such differences, including typical values, typical variances, normal distributions for each sex, a full binomial distribution to cover both sexes, and the ability to position an individual’s brain somewhere along that binomial distribution.
Following that taxonomic mapping, if it pans out, there come questions of causality, such as what causes some individual brains to fall so distantly from the average for their birth sex. But that’s a further development way down the line. Right now what matters is the first stage is falsifiable and has been experiencing constant corroboration, not constant falsification.
So now it’s a matter of contrasting this theory’s falsifiability track record with the autogynephilic hypothesis’s falsifiability track record—supposing there’s one.
I’d think this only works if you have a shitton of data, which these studies don’t. Maybe I’m confused though, which is where a more coherent explanation would help.
Absolute truth doesn’t exist, the range is always ]0;1[. 0 and 1 require infinitely strong evidence. What imprecisions in self-reporting do generate is higher variance, skewing, bias etc., and these can be solved by better causal hypotheses. However, those causal hypotheses must be predictive and falsifiable.
Because that’s central to the falsifiability requirement. Consider: if transgender individuals explicitly telling researchers they never experienced autogynephilic impulses, nor any sexual impulse or attraction at all, is dismissed by the autogynephilic hypothesis proponents and considered invalid, with proponents suggesting they actually did experience it but {ad hoc rationalization follows}, then what is the autogynephilic hypothesis’ falsifiability criteria? Is there any?
There are several moments in research.
The initial hypothesis is simple: there are identifiable physiological differences between human male and female brains, and transgender individuals’ brains show distinctive traits typical of the brains of the other sex, while cisgender individuals don’t.
This is testable, with clear falsifiability criteria, and provides a pathway for the development of a taxonomy of such differences, including typical values, typical variances, normal distributions for each sex, a full binomial distribution to cover both sexes, and the ability to position an individual’s brain somewhere along that binomial distribution.
Following that taxonomic mapping, if it pans out, there come questions of causality, such as what causes some individual brains to fall so distantly from the average for their birth sex. But that’s a further development way down the line. Right now what matters is the first stage is falsifiable and has been experiencing constant corroboration, not constant falsification.
So now it’s a matter of contrasting this theory’s falsifiability track record with the autogynephilic hypothesis’s falsifiability track record—supposing there’s one.
Yeah I know, I’ve put a lot of effort into this. See also: my blog.
In some of the studies, it included asking wives, looking at prior patient reports, or measuring erections in response to being read stories. Personally, I have done the research by looking at prior responses prior to transition.
I’d think this only works if you have a shitton of data, which these studies don’t. Maybe I’m confused though, which is where a more coherent explanation would help.
See also: 5-HTTLPR: A POINTED REVIEW.