Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.
The Public Domain is a credit.
A team of researchers from the University of Alabama, the University of Melbourne and the University of California have found that social scientists can change their beliefs when given the chance. In a paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group describes how they tested the ability of scientists to change their beliefs when shown evidence of replicability. The News & Views piece written by Michael Gordon and Thomas Pfeifer was published in the same journal issue.
The researchers wanted to study a problem in science. Scientific progress can only be made if scientists update their beliefs when new ideas come along. Humans and scientists are difficult to sway from their beliefs. To find out if this might be a problem in general science endeavors, the researchers created an environment that allowed for testing the possibility.
The work asked social scientists how they felt about the results of several studies. If they could reproduce the findings from the original studies, they'd done a good job. They asked the social scientists if they liked the results of the original team and then sent the results of their replication efforts.
When the researchers could not replicate the results of the studies, most of the scientists that participated lost some confidence in the results. Scientists in social fields are able to rise above their beliefs when faced with scientific evidence, which is a sign that science is allowed to progress despite it being conducted by fallible human beings, according to the researchers.
Alex D. McDiarmid and his colleagues update their beliefs about effect sizes after studies. There is a DOI of 10.1038/s41562-021-01220-7.
Can scientists change their minds? was written by Michael Gordon and his associates. There is a DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01201-w.
Nature Human Behaviour is in a journal.
The Science X Network will be launched in 2021.
Testing social scientists with replication studies shows them capable of changing their beliefs.
The document is copyrighted. Any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research cannot be reproduced without written permission. The content is not intended to be used for anything other than information purposes.
