:Blog o' Doom

Holy shit!

In regards to the blood-drawing part, it’s not uncommon actually. For example, if the test involves some stimulus, a quantitative measure might be determining the amount of neurotransmitters/hormones/oxygen levels/etc. in the blood after the stimulus; this would be in addition to what you are probably thinking of, such as a something more qualitative like a questionnaire. You can really come up with any number of experimental setups that require blood: are people with high-cholesterol more likely to lie, does high blood sugar levels inhibit the smokers’ need for a cigarette, etc. These all would fall under the domain of psychology and provide reasonable explanations for the need of blood.

I never said it wasn’t reasonable to want blood. All of your examples are fine… for requesting any research subjects, or a given race or ethnicity. But blood reactions don’t change based on belief! If today I believe Jesus was a man, and tomorrow I believe he was a God, my reaction to a neurotoxin will still be the same. Yes, Judaism can often correlate to a given ethnicity or race, but then ask for that ethnicity or race if that is what you are interested in. Whatever psychological experiment that has physiologicial effects they want to do… shouldn’t relate to beliefs.

In my first comment, I was just trying to respond to your remark “Why do they need blood? We’re human OK? Why is blood needed for psych research?” which suggested to me that you thought blood taking was unreasonable. I wasn’t actually referring to the “Caucasian” or “Jewish” part.

I completely agree that comparing “Caucasian” and “Jewish” is like comparing apples and oranges because, as you said, religion and ethnicity are different things. However, we don’t have all the facts, such as what the study is attempting to measure or even if these flyers are both for the same study.

In response to your last point that experiments shouldn’t relate to beliefs, I disagree. For example, there are studies where they have correlated people’s faith with their recovery time in hospitals. I’m just pointing out that just like many other personal attributes, beliefs could be something worth observing.

Your argument assumes they meant “people who practice Judaism” rather than “people of Jewish descent.” But “Jewish” is used more often as an ethnic term than a religious one. “Judaism” refers to the religion, but “Jew” and “Jewish” usually means “ethnic jew.” See the Wikipedia pages on Jew and Judaism for more details.
Please, before you ask “what the fuck is wrong with these morons,” stop to think about what they meant, rather than what you choose to interpret for the sake of argument.

Don’t get me wrong – I think a flyer asking specifically for Jewish blood for experimentation is a little creepy.
Also, the flyer apparently expired 3 weeks before it was posted. Odd….

I’m well aware of what I feel is a mis-use of the word… your second comment is what the post is about, however.

As a rabbi with a degree in psychology, please allow me to weigh in here. 🙂

Being Jewish is being part of a race of people, and we do have blood conditions that are different from the Caucasian race, such as an unusually high rate of Tay Sachs, IIRC. Being Jewish is a birthright and has NOTHING to do with beliefs — except for those converts who chose to join our race based on their beliefs. The beauty is that by marrying other Jews, those converts’ descendants will soon pick up many of the same genetic make-ups that other Jew have.

But I would bet none of that has anything to do with the “research study”. I would bet no blood will ever be taken from any subject. From my experience as a psych student, the studies were never about how they were actually advertised. It could be that the study is to determine what kind of people respond to such an advertisement — simple as that. Are the respondents actually Jews? Are they upset by the flyer? Are they ok with it? What do they consider “Jewish” — a race or a belief? That kind of stuff.

Thanks for letting me weigh in. 🙂