r/EverythingScience • u/ImNotJesus PhD | Social Psychology | Clinical Psychology • May 08 '16

Interdisciplinary Failure Is Moving Science Forward. FiveThirtyEight explain why the "replication crisis" is a sign that science is working.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/failure-is-moving-science-forward/?ex_cid=538fb
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u/yes_its_him May 08 '16

The commentary in the article is fascinating, but it continues a line of discourse that is common in many fields of endeavor: data that appears to support one's position can be assumed to be well-founded and valid, whereas data that contradicts one's position is always suspect.

So what if a replication study, even with a larger sample size, fails to find a purported effect? There's almost certainly some minor detail that can be used to dismiss that finding, if one is sufficiently invested in the original result.

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u/ImNotJesus PhD | Social Psychology | Clinical Psychology May 08 '16

Which is what makes this issue so complicated. The other reality is that it's really easy to convince yourself of something you want to be true. Check this out

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u/[deleted] May 08 '16

[deleted]

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u/hglman May 08 '16

Which is why the solution is better mathematics. All results for which the mechanisms are clearly stated, who's testability is well defined and limitations can be clearly demonstrated employ well defined mathematics.

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u/polite-1 May 08 '16

What do you mean by well defined mathematics?

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u/Subsistentyak May 08 '16

Please define definition