Andrzej Szmajke
Abstract:
In his textbook titled „Cultural frameworks of social behaviour” (2009) Paweł Boski severely criticised some of the formulations which I used in my works on the anatomical determinants of attractiveness of the human figure (Szmajke, 2004; 2005). I was accused of „fable-writing”, „lack of elementary criticism” and „impertinence”. In the same book, after analysing the results of one of the criticised experiments (Szmajke, 2004), he stated that they confirmed his own thesis on the femininity of Polish culture, as the one where 'modelling the shape of the man’s body follows a feminine pattern (in America it would be labelled as „effemination” (p. 420). In this polemic I prove that Boski’s objections are very poorly justified as they originate from his striking difficulty of distinguishing between an „introduction” and „conclusions” or „deductions”. I also demonstrate that nothing but his casualness or reading comprehension problems might have led him to formulate the thesis that the finding of one of my experiments shows that Polish women (as opposed to American ones) are characterized by a „feminine” and „effeminate” pattern of the attractiveness of the masculine figure.
Keywords: physical attractiveness, WHR, SHR, femininity of Polish culture
Cite this article as:
Szmajke, A. (2010). Some remarks about the methods of scientific criticism and the necessity for reading comprehension by a fable writer to the most prominent authority in the field of cross-cultural psychology. Psychologia Społeczna, 15, 355-361.