52 pointsby doener5 hours ago8 comments
  • lambdaone3 hours ago
    There is a medical treatise, "On Assholes", just waiting to be written here, in much the same way that Harry G. Frankfurt introduced us to the technical academic concept of 'bullshit' in his book "On Bullshit".
  • Animats3 hours ago
    Participants were 529 (289 men, 234 women, and 6 identified as other) undergraduate business students with a mean age of 18.14 years (SD = 1.19, range 16 to 37).

    Sigh. A sample of convenience. Psychology remains the study of undergraduates.

    If they wanted real answers, they'd go to bike events.

    • altairprime3 hours ago
      I’ve noticed in my own car’s forums that over about ten years, most of the loud-seekers moved on to other cars while the remainder of us have much more diversity of gender and ‘loudness’ interests. Our sample size of self-nominated participants is also a couple thousand, not at all restricted to undergrads, and anecdotally parallels the study: those who seek loudness uniformly present as men, and in large majority tend to treat prosocial-community responses with disregard, hostility, or mockery. So, this study tracks :) but that doesn’t excuse the sampling bias of business-degrees (a field of graduates which includes corporate executives and daytraders, neither particularly well known for their social concerns), nor the self-selecting and anecdotal nature of my own separate experience. Perhaps we’ll see a wider study someday.
      • autoexec2 hours ago
        > those who seek loudness uniformly present as men, and in large majority tend to treat prosocial-community responses with disregard, hostility, or mockery.

        Is the loudness then just a big "fuck you" to the rest of the world or does it provide the loudness seeker with something besides the joy of knowing that they're pissing off everyone within earshot? If they were the last living person on Earth would they still go to the trouble to modify their vehicle for loudness?

        • m4632 hours ago
          I wonder too. Maybe it could be plumage to seek attention, maybe asserting "superiority", maybe dominating. security/insecurity?

          I do know sometimes when someone pulls up nearby with loud music coming out of their rolled-down windows... I wonder what putting on loud disney princess music would do?

    • autoexec2 hours ago
      Self-reported data via an internet survey. Garbage science means garbage data. I wouldn't put any faith in these results. You can't swing a dead cat in a room full of business students without hitting a bunch of sadistic psychopaths anyway.
  • aldanor4 minutes ago
    Correlation doesn't imply causation
  • burnt-resistor2 hours ago
    Have a look at every owner of excessively loud pickem up trucks and motorcycles too.
  • 5 hours ago
    undefined
  • m4633 hours ago
    fascinating:

    Crafty – Machiavellianism

    Special – narcissism

    Wild – psychopathy

    Mean – sadism

  • nephihaha5 hours ago
    Also mid life crisis.
  • coldtea5 hours ago
    Manliness is the confounding factor.