It is getting increasingly popular within the social sciences to preregister studies. That is, prior to collecting any data for a study, researchers register their theoretical predictions/expectations (i.e., hypothesis or hypotheses), the data collection procedure, the planned analysis, etc. I am generally in favour of preregistrations. All else equal, more information on how a study […]
Category: science
25 interesting facts #30
726. While most social progress has been made in a nonlinear fashion, people believe progress is made in a linear fashion (Hur and Ruttan 2023) 727. The flow of information provided by East German industrial espionage in the West led to a significant narrowing of sectoral gaps between West and East Germany (Glitz and Meyersson […]
The many causes of Brexit #2
Last year I wrote a post on the endless supply of contextual factors that (might) explain support for Brexit. In brief, I argued that a potential problem with the different studies examining the different factors is that they only contribute to the illusion of cumulative science. That is, just because a new study is able […]
25 interesting facts #29
701. Margarine was invented in response to Napoleon III’s call for a cheap alternative to butter (Vaisey-Genser 2003) 702. People consistently underestimate others’ desire for feedback (Abi-Esber et al. 2022) 703. Dentists with shorter waiting times are more likely to propose unnecessary treatment (Gottschalk et al. 2020) 704. Teaspoons and tablespoons are unreliable dosing devices […]
25 interesting facts #28
676. Many psychology researchers overestimate the evidence in favor of a theory if one or more results from a set of replication studies are statistically significant (van den Akker 2023) 677. The movie Sideways led to an increase in the growing of pinot noir grapes in lower value Central Valley vineyards (Consoli et al. 2022) […]