"Turban Effect"

Re: this ground breaking new research.

66 people (demographic unknown) are asked to play a computer game, where statistics are collected on the 'innocents' shot, and the proportion of those shot wearing turbans or hijabs is enough to conclude that "A MUSLIM-style turban is seen as a threat by the average Australian, even those who think they are free from racial prejudice". [capitalisation from the article]

If we completely overlook making a generalisation of 20 million people on the basis of a sample of 66 individuals, and then factor in a methodology of the research which involves a computer game in which every facet can be programmed (what is the proportion of turbanned 'innocents' to say jeans wearing 'innocents'? Are they programmed to walk in between the shooter and their desired targets? etc etc etc), I believe the inference is, to put it nicely, a bit of a stretch.

And of course this phenomenon is sooo widespread (66/20,000,000 = 0.0000033, or to put it in english, the study has shown that 0.00033% of the Australian population act this way) that they have dubbed this the "turban effect".

Well I propose my own study which will be as scientifically robust as the one mentioned in the article, based principally on observing myself playing computer games and then making sweeping generalisations to the rest of the Australian population. Here are my conclusions:


The "drug dealer effect": When I'm playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City, I target drug dealers with whatever weapons I have on hand (including cars) to kill/maim/incinerate/crush them and then take all their money. On this basis I now assume that most Australians believe that the death penalty is too good for drug dealers.


The "ghost effect": I have probably seen in excess of 60 people play Pac-Man in my entire life, and I can say with 100% certainty that each and everyone of those players, when they had the chance, gobbled up the ghosts, proving that 0.0003% of the Australian population are Phasmophobic, which clearly shows that Australians are religiously intolerant and do not accept alternate beliefs or worlds.

The "big ears effect": When I'm playing World of Warcraft (WoW), I don't care if I'm in the middle of a raid, or just walking around the countryside, if I see Night Elves, I just have to attack them. I hate those purple bastards! With their long ears and purple flesh, and I know I'm not the only one, and since WoW is accessible by anyone in the world with an internet connection, there is a percentage of world population that will attack and kill digital creatures who don't have the standard humanoid features. That is scary. What an intolerant world we live in.

Back to the 2nd last sentence in the article:

"He said that although the findings demonstrate stereotyping, the research, did not assess actual aggressive behaviour."

So in other words, completely contradicts the conclusion you were hoping to draw.