There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics--Benjamin Disraeli
Yesterday, I was listening to a podcast of the White Horse Inn. Michael Horton and friends were interviewing Os Guinness, who shared that when he was raising his children, he developed a game called "spot the lie." He trained his children to spot non-sequitirs and lies as they consumed the media. I made a mental note to incorporate this concept into my own parenting.
Today, I was able to spot the lie. On a listserv I frequent, someone asked about the American Psychological Association's policy regarding adolescents' ability to consent to abortion and I curiously wanted to know as well. In 1990, the APA filed an amicus brief (Hodgson v. Minnesota) making clear their position that minors were developmentally mature enough to consent to abortion without parental consent. As I read further, however, in 2005 the APA filed another amicus brief with the supreme court (Roper v. Simmons) stating that adolescents were developmentally immature and, therefore, should be exempt from the death penalty. This drew swift criticism from Justice Scalia and many others as well who spotted the lie. In October 2009, an article was published in the American Psychologist by Steinberg, Cauffman, Woolard, Graham, and Banich that attempted to scientifically reconcile these two apparently inconsistent viewpoints. Despite their use of statistical methodology, they, like the APA, began with politically-biased assumptions--that the death penalty is wrong and abortion is right.
I hope the publication of an article in the APAs flagship journal supporting inconsistent viewpoints with science disavows you of the notion that science can be objective and value free. The stance that we should not kill kids who kill others but that we should allow kids to kill their own kids without parental consent is yet another reason why I am no longer a member of APA and why, on days like today, I struggle to even self-identify as a psychologist.
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