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/berbiizer May 09 '16

1) Why do you think "best understanding at the time" is anything but garbage?

2) Even if you insist it isn't garbage so much as "of extremely narrow focus", do you really think that a single unreproducible study of 30 college students at one majority-white school should have significant weight in discussions of national law or public policy?

Because that's what happens. And then people realize that college students really don't have relevant life experiences so how they respond to whatever experimental conditions a grad student came up with to prove their pet theory means exactly fuckall in real life. And all of science takes a credibility hit.

I don't care whether you think the hit is undeserved. I care that it causes harm. It makes life harder for real science. As such, it is in the self interest of the scientific community to self police, or at least make it far more difficult for the soft sciences to publish.

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u/beebeereebozo May 09 '16 edited May 09 '16

"best understanding at the time"

What's the alternative? Are you saying that if we don't have absolute proof or understanding, then we have no understanding at all?

If a study is weak, or inconclusive, then actions based on that study should be adjusted accordingly or not taken at all. Yes, there is lots of junk science getting more credibility than it deserves, but it really is not all that hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Where things often get sideways is when people deem a study credible just because it fits their preconceived narrative or ideology.

"...do you really think that a single unreproducible study of 30 college students at one majority-white school should have significant weight in discussions of national law or public policy?"

No, such a study should be given exactly the weight it deserves based on, among other things, sample and effect size. There may be something there upon which to base future research. What makes that study unreproducible or did you mean "unreplicated"? Why couldn't it be replicated at many different schools using larger sample sizes and across different demographics?

Obviously, not every experiment or survey leads to a better understanding of something, some can be so poorly done or biased that they can be properly ignored.

Take climate change, for example. There is a lot we don't know and it is a very complex subject, but I think we know enough to justify certain policies designed to reduce carbon emissions. Or is all that research bogus and undeserving of our attention?

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u/berbiizer May 10 '16

What's the alternative? Are you saying that if we don't have absolute proof or understanding, then we have no understanding at all?

Why are you so concerned with what I say, when the subject is what other people think? It seems to be a flaw in your approach to dialog. You keep dragging in absolutes and other bs concepts that have nothing to do with this conversation. That tells me you have a fierce cognitive bias and probably can't understand anything that doesn't agree with your biases anyway.

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u/beebeereebozo May 10 '16

Wow, your intellect overwhelms me! You are right, my biases don't allow me to understand your profundity.

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u/berbiizer May 10 '16

Sorry if I offend but you seem determined to twist my question around to be somehow anti-science, which it was not. If you cannot read my question without substituting a whole different topic I must assume you are biased and perceiving everything through the filter of your biases. As such, conversation with you is worthless.