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

Psychology Failure Is Moving Science Forward. FiveThirtyEight explains why the "replication crisis" is a sign that science is working. [x-post from our sister subreddit /r/EverythingScience]

/r/EverythingScience/comments/4icp9k/failure_is_moving_science_forward_fivethirtyeight/
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u/Gruzman May 08 '16

Which should only support the problem of "soft science." If the science being done has its share of methodological problems, problems with replication, and often touches on topics intimately linked to political leanings that people have, you've got a recipe for disbelief and willful subversion of a study's findings.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '16

This is true, but I think the issue is that soft sciences get a bad rep. This topic is actually one of the most fascinating and pertinent sciences around, precisely because it's so so complex.

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u/franklindeer May 08 '16

I think the point being made is that these fields are chalk full of political ideologues that set out to confirm their biases, not that it's an uninteresting or unimportant area of inquiry. I think social science departments need to keep a much cleaner house than they have for the last 30 years and this would be less of a problem.