What is intellectual fraud?

[Riddler]

What do you think of this academic paper by a team of academics at Haute Ecole de Gestion de Genève, 7, rte de Drize, 1227 Carouge in Switzerland?:-

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...1709004251

Do you agree with the main results of the study which claim that the stability of marital relations would be improved by 21% if both partners are the same age, cultural background, educational attainment, and both have no previous experience of divorce?:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...efore.html
http://www.bodyspacesociety.eu/2009/11/0...ge-market/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10463132-71.html

Would it be correct to suggest that the study is flawed because the social, cultural, and political climate in Switzerland is unique and different to other Western countries?

Also, is there any chance whatsoever that the study is biased because Switzerland has a relatively recent history of immigration compared to other Western countries such as the UK and US; which implies that most of the ethnic minorities who are married to Swiss nationals in this sample are actually from non-Western countries, and this usually entails a higher risk of cultural difference between the partners; such cultural difference will tend to increase the risk of divorce or separation.

This is in stark contrast to the situation in Britain and the US, whereby, there are more ethnic minorities who are born, educated, and socialized in the respective country, which reduces the cultural difference factor quite significantly; and this in turn will reduce the risk of divorce or separation in the case of interracial relations between ethnic minorities and White people.

The study is flawed in another sense, because there is the underlying assumption that people of a different cultural/national origin will always have a different culture to the White majority, which is only true as an average, but this should not be generalized to include everyone who is an ethnic minority. The study is flawed because it doesn't take into consideration the length of time an individual is exposed to the culture of the White majority; there is considerable difference between a recent immigrant from Africa and a black immigrant who has lived in a Western country from an early age. The latter is more acculturated and better adapted to his environment, but the first example is that of an African immigrant who is fresh off the boat.

There is a considerable difference between immigrants who are American to all intents and purposes and the more recent immigrants who are obviously fresh off the boat and foreigners; but this study is a simplified model of different social groups, which assumes that all people belonging to the same social group are exactly the same.

Hence, the study is biased, subjective, and flawed because the authors obviously have a hidden agenda and what is applicable to the social, cultural, and political climate in Switzerland should not be assumed to apply anywhere else in the world.

Also, it's useful to remember that the 21% increase in the rate of divorce or separation is an estimate based on aggregate but distinct criteria: age, education, cultural background, and previous history of divorce; but on no account are we to assume that differences in cultural origin would account for the entire 21% estimate. On the contrary, differences in cultural origin should account for a mere fraction of that 21% result according to the study.

The study is to some extent an attack on interracial/inter-ethnic marriage where the partners have a different cultural origin; but at the same time, it's important to remember that differences in cultural origin cannot account for the entire 21% result in the study.

The American Clinical Psychologist Maria P.P. Root has written a book about interracial marriage in the US, and she is known to have said that "Conflicts within interracial marriages are more likely to arise from cultural, gender, class, social, and personal differences than from RACIAL ones (Root, 2001, p.175)".

In other words, the Swiss study has made the fundamental mistake of equating cultural difference with racial difference, which are not necessarily the same; but here, they have assumed that ALL people of the same cultural background should be treated as a homogenous group, regardless of individual differences in terms of birth cohort and individual differences in acculturation to the social norms, values, and culture of the host society.

In the final analysis, the results of this study are skewed in favor of homogamous relations between co-ethnic Swiss nationals, and the results do not find in favor of Mixed-race marriage/co-habitation between Swiss nationals and immigrants from non-western countries.
However, the biased statistical data used in the study is largely accounted by the fact that non-White immigration to Switzerland only started in the 1970s, which is in stark contrast to non-western migration to France and Great Britain that started in the late-1940s and 1950s.

Consequently, the Swiss study contains a larger sample of non-acculturated immigrants and foreigners with a distinctive cultural background, whereby, the cultural difference between Swiss nationals and 1st generation immigrants is more pronounced than the cultural difference between the 1.5/second generation immigrants and the indigenous populations in France and Great Britain.

Due to the biased nature of this study, the results cannot, and should not be taken as having any global significance whatsoever; and the study is certainly not representative of other Western societies in Europe and the Anglo-sphere.

The only constant that we might extrapolate from the study is the higher rate of divorce or separation
The only constant that we might extrapolate from the study is the higher rate of divorce or separation for interracial couples in any jurisdiction, but the rate will vary according to the relative proportions of foreign-born 1st generation immigrants used in the sample; and of course, this will vary quite considerably from one jurisdiction to another, which depends on the unique social history of the respective society.

References:

Nguyen Vi Cao, Emmanuel Fragnière, Jacques-Antoine Gauthier, Marlène Sapin and Eric D. Widmer . (2010). Optimizing the marriage market throught the reallocation of partners: An application of the linear assignment model. European Journal of Operational Research. vol. 202 (issue 2), p.547-553.

Maria P.P. Root. (2001). Tens Truths of Interracial Marriage. In: Love's Revolution: Interracial Marriage. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. p.175.

[September]

Its not a crime sir.

[RockIt]

Its yet another way of the Swiss opposing multiculturalism, immigration, and diversity sweeping Europe.

and for good reason, but using a flawed argument unless of course "mixed" marriages in Switzerland means people are rejected or their lives made more difficult like interracial marriages in America in the 1940s and 1950s.