•  10
    Path-Dependence in Measurement: A Problem for Coherentism
    Philosophy of Science 1-11. forthcoming.
    Racial discrimination is a multidimensional concept. Yet, subjective measures of racial discrimination focus on particular dimensions (interpersonal over institutional, attributable over ambiguously attributable). I argue that there is path dependence in the development and validation of subjective measures, such that existing scales prevent the development of scales that are better for some purpose. Path dependence can occur when researchers: (1) adopt a coherentist view of measurement, namely,…Read more
  •  18
    One important strategy for dealing with error in our methods is triangulation, or the use multiple methods to investigate the same object. Current accounts of triangulation assume that its primary function is to provide a confirmatory boost to hypotheses beyond what confirmation of each method alone could produce. Yet, researchers often use multiple methods to examine new constructs about which they are uncertain. For example, social psychologists use multiple indirect measures to provide conver…Read more
  •  21
    Experiences of racial discrimination can seem to be caused by one’s race, a combination of social identities, or non-social features. In other words, racial discrimination can be intersectional or attributionally ambiguous. This poses challenges for current understandings and measurement tools of racial discrimination in public health research, such as the explanation of racial health disparities. Different kinds of discriminatory experiences plausibly produce different psychological effects tha…Read more
  •  76
    Our understanding of implicit bias and how to measure it has yet to be settled. Various debates between cognitive scientists are unresolved. Moreover, the public’s understanding of implicit bias tests continues to lag behind cognitive scientists’. These discrepancies pose potential problems. After all, a great deal of implicit bias research has been publicly funded. Further, implicit bias tests continue to feature in discourse about public- and private-sector policies surrounding discrimination,…Read more
  •  99
    Explanations of the gender gap in philosophy
    Philosophy Compass 12 (3). 2017.
    Recently, researchers have begun to empirically investigate the gender gap in philosophy and provide potential explanations for the underrepresentation of women in philosophy relative to their representation in other disciplines. This empirical research as well as research on the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields has shed light on a priori, armchair explanations of the gender gap. For example, implicit bias and stereotype threat may contribute much less to th…Read more
  •  4697
    Do men and women have different philosophical intuitions? Further data
    with Toni Adleberg and Eddy Nahmias
    Philosophical Psychology 28 (5): 615-641. 2015.
    To address the underrepresentation of women in philosophy effectively, we must understand the causes of the early loss of women. In this paper we challenge one of the few explanations that has focused on why women might leave philosophy at early stages. Wesley Buckwalter and Stephen Stich offer some evidence that women have different intuitions than men about philosophical thought experiments. We present some concerns about their evidence and we discuss our own study, in which we attempted to re…Read more
  •  264
    Why Do Women Leave Philosophy? Surveying Students at the Introductory Level
    with Toni Adleberg, Sam Sims, and Eddy Nahmias
    Philosophers' Imprint 16. 2016.
    Although recent research suggests that women are underrepresented in philosophy after initial philosophy courses, there have been relatively few empirical investigations into the factors that lead to this early drop-off in women’s representation. In this paper, we present the results of empirical investigations at a large American public university that explore various factors contributing to women’s underrepresentation in philosophy at the undergraduate level. We administered climate surveys to…Read more
  •  208
    Causally Interpreting Intersectionality Theory
    Philosophy of Science 83 (1): 60-81. 2016.
    Social scientists report difficulties in drawing out testable predictions from the literature on intersectionality theory. We alleviate that difficulty by showing that some characteristic claims of the intersectionality literature can be interpreted causally. The formalism of graphical causal modeling allows claims about the causal effects of occupying intersecting identity categories to be clearly represented and submitted to empirical testing. After outlining this causal interpretation of inte…Read more
  •  1220
    A Naturalistic Vision of Free Will
    In Elizabeth O'Neill & Edouard Machery (eds.), Current Controversies in Experimental Philosophy, Routledge. 2014.
    We argue, contra Joshua Knobe in a companion chapter, that most people have an understanding of free will and responsible agency that is compatible with a naturalistic vision of the human mind. Our argument is supported by results from a new experimental philosophy study showing that most people think free will is consistent with complete and perfect prediction of decisions and actions based on prior activity in the brain (a scenario adapted from Sam Harris who predicts most people will find it…Read more