A new study conducted by researchers in multiple universities has revealed that 50% of social science research findings are not replicable, meaning their data cannot be viewed as being reliable. While the findings reveal a crisis, the industry has been gradually decreasing its replicability problem.
Only 50% of social science research can be replicated, study finds– www.thecollegefix.com
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But researcher says psychology publishing still improving
A new study adds further criticism to the “replication crisis” in scientific research.
Researchers from a variety of universities looked at “164 quantitative papers published from 2009 to 2018 in 54 journals in the social and behavioural sciences,” according to the summary in the Nature article. The team “attempted replications of 274 claims of positive results” but found only about half could be replicated.
The researchers found that many published findings did not consistently hold up when tested again, although the exact replication rate varied depending on how success was measured.
For Michael Inzlicht, a professor and one of the study’s authors, the findings matter because psychology research often reaches the public long before its reliability is fully understood.
“Psychology constantly reaches the public through the media. If a finding doesn’t replicate, media headlines about it are closer to entertainment than knowledge, yet people make real decisions based on them,” Inzlicht told The College Fix via email on May 31.
