Psychology's Credibility Crisis

More replication of published studies is needed if science is to remain dependable and self-correcting, says psychologist Brian Nosek.

By Ed Yong
Jan 20, 2014 11:37 PMNov 12, 2019 6:24 AM

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Brian Nosek has launched several initiatives to make psychological research more robust. | Stephen Voss

In 2011, Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel was revealed as a charlatan who had published dozens of fraudulent scientific papers. The shocking thing was that no one in his field had noticed until courageous students in his lab reported their suspicions. Within a year, two more fraudulent psychologists were outed.

This spate of misconduct happened in tandem with many failed attempts to replicate some of the field’s classic results, prompting its acolytes to question whether psychology was being polluted by quirky and attention-grabbing findings that might not actually be true.

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