NOTE: This was a birthday present for me in 2016. It was so sweet and wonderful that it needed to be shared.
By [CHILD AUTHOR 1], [CHILD AUTHOR 2], Tiberiu Chelcea
Freelance Researchers
Abstract: This paper presents a representative study of the love expressed for Amy Erica Smith within one household in Ames, at the address [REDACTED]. Feelings of love were expressed repeatedly in this household; the authors felt that a study is needed to quantify these feelings and present the results of this study in a way that a political scientist would understand.
Keywords: love, Amy Erica Smith, empirical study
- Introduction
While love has been an exceedingly generous topic in the arts for a very long time, it is only in recent years that researchers are addressing love within the confines of social sciences, and, in particular, political science. Various authors have studied love as applied to politics [2, 4], have studied its formal language within public speeches [3]. Others [1], are more interested in how love is used to create ethnic identities. Finally, in [5], the author studied how love is present even in business transactions.
We feel that all these papers have two shortcomings that we are addressing in our study. First, they are focused on very large populations over large areas; in contrast, our study focuses on one single household. Second, these papers neither discusses nor quantify the love for Amy Erica Smith; in contrast, our study focuses solely on her.
- Methodology
The idea for the study originated during an informal discussion with [CHILD AUTHOR 1], where he observed that he does not know how to present his love for Amy Erica Smith in such a way that a political scientist would understand [6]. To address this, the authors have devised a simple questionnaire that was applied to all adult and children subjects at [ADDRESS REDACTED] in Ames, Iowa. The questionnaire was applied on July 9th, 2016.
The location was picked based on previous field observations. For four years previous, the authors have reported declarations of love addressed to Amy Erica Smith at this address. Intrigued by their frequency, the authors have decided to focus their study on this household anticipating (correctly) a high response rate from the test subjects. We were extremely happy to have a 100% participation rate, thus making our study very representative.
The questionnaire had a single question: “How much do you love Amy Erica Smith?”. The possible answers were: “very much”, “much”, “so-so”, “not much”, “not at all”. In addition, demographic data was collected from each participant.
- Results
Fig. 1 shows the distribution of answers to the questionnaire’s question by age group. The
graph clearly indicates that, irrespective of the age group, Amy Erica Smith is loved “Very Much”. While it is very rare to receive a unanimous answer across all demographic categories, we are not surprised; as mentioned, the impetus for this study were the field observations where declarations of love for Amy Erica Smith were constantly reported.
- Conclusions and future work
This study quantifies the previous field work carried out at [ADDRESS REDACTED]. The anecdotal evidence gathered in these field observations is now supported by a rigorous and comprehensive questionnaire based study. We believe that these results show very clearly that Amy Erica Smith is loved very much in this household.
To understand better why the levels of love for Amy Erica Smith are so high at this particular household, we would like to apply the same questionnaire to other households in the vicinity. We are in the process of applying for funding for this second phase of the study.
References
[1] Keguro Macharia, “Love”, Critical Ethnic Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, (Spring 2015), pp. 68-75.
[2] Thomas Cullinan, “The Passion of Political Love”, CrossCurrents, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Winter 1982-3), pp. 431-439.
[3] Owen Ware, “Love Speech”, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 34, No. 3 (Spring 2008), pp. 491-508.
[4] David Nirenberg, “The Politics of Love and Its Enemies”, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Spring 2007), pp. 573-605.
[5] Antonio Argandoña, “Beyond Contracts: Love in Firms”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 99, No. 1, (March 2011), pp. 77-85
[6] [CHILD AUTHOR 1], Personal Communication, June 2016.
*Notes from the Editor of the Blog:
1. This study has not been peer-reviewed. In preliminary review by the editor of the blog (see COI disclosures below**), the Institutional Review Board approval status of the study is unclear. It also appears some sloppy research protocols may have been followed. For instance, the word “Mommy” was apparently substituted for “Amy Erica Smith” in some interviews, and it appears that subjects were not read all response options in a uniform fashion. Nonetheless, because of the public interest nature of this study, the editor has chosen to publish the study provisionally.
** Conflict of Interest Disclosures: This study followed a non-standard research design. The first and second authors were also the interviewees, while the last author was the interviewer. In addition, the editor of this blog is the attitudinal target that was the subject of the study.
Corresponding author’s responses to the criticisms expressed above:
1. Lack of consultation with the Institutional Review Board: the law mandates that any medical or behavioral study funded directly or indirectly with federal money must be reviewed by IRB. Our study was self-financed and thus outside the purview of this law. Even so, we have followed the guidelines of the law and have obtained excited informed verbal consents from the participants.
2. Substitution of “Mommy” for “Amy Erica Smith” in some interviews: we acknowledge that the uniform application of the questionnaire is extremely important to obtaining quality results. However, this needs to be balanced against the need of the interviewees to properly understand the questions posed. Thus, we have translated the questionnaire into a language that some of the interviewees were comfortable with. We believe that the translation is neutral since all the interviewees which got the translated question expressed both positive and negative views towards Amy Erica Smith in the recent past; the fact that the negative views were usually related to limits on the consumption of candies is irrelevant for the purpose of the study.
3. Not reading all the response options: we acknowledge that all response options need to be read. However, our situation was somewhat different in that the authors of the study were also part of the interviewed group. Thus, since the authors were fully aware of all the response options and, in order to return faster to their Lego building activities, we have agreed that they can just communicate their response option directly.
Thank you for your valuable comments. We will incorporate them in the next version of the paper.