Encore of Episode 32: The Scientific Process

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Social Sciences, Arts, Performing Arts, Science

4.6 • 42.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2016

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is a replication "crisis" in psychology: many findings simply do not replicate. Some critics take this as an indictment of the entire field — perhaps the best journals are only interested in publishing the "sexiest" findings, or universities are pressuring their faculty to publish more. But this week on Hidden Brain, we take a closer look at the so-called crisis. While there certainly have been cases of bad science, and even fraudulent data, there are also lots of other reasons why perfectly good studies might not replicate. We'll look at a seminal study about stereotypes, Asian women, and math tests.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So here's the deal. Researchers recently tried to replicate a hundred experiments in psychology
0:08.0	that were published. The Center for Open Science recruited colleagues from around the world
0:11.9	to try and replicate them on the study. In fact, most of them could not be reproduced
0:15.2	with the same results. In fact, I'm Hedden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanthan. Today we're
0:20.9	going to talk about what is being called a replication crisis in science. The replicators
0:26.2	in this recent study fail to get the same findings from the original experiment.
0:30.6	From cancer medicine to psychology, researchers are finding that many claims made in scientific
0:35.8	studies fail to hold up when those studies are repeated by an independent group.
0:43.0	Later in this episode, we're going to explore one provocative study that looked at stereotypes
0:48.2	about Asians, women, and math tests and explain what happened when researchers tried to reproduce
0:54.6	the findings. We're going to use this story to explore a deeper question. What do scientists really
1:01.0	mean when they talk about the truth? Let's take a moment to thank and share a message from
1:08.6	our sponsor LearnVest. LearnVest is an online financial advice company focused on empowering people
1:13.8	nationwide to make good decisions with their money. Studies show that writing down your goals
1:18.6	makes you 49% more likely to achieve them. That's why when you work with LearnVest, you tell them what
1:24.0	you want to accomplish and they create a customized financial plan to help you get there. Plus,
1:29.2	they pair you with a financial planner to help keep you on track. To see a sample plan and get a
1:34.2	$50 credit, go to LearnVest.com slash brain. The crisis has actually been a long time coming.
1:43.7	In 2011, for example, Dutch researchers claim that broken sidewalks encourage racism.
1:49.8	They published their findings in one of the most prestigious academic journals Science Magazine.
1:55.1	A couple of years later, another article in Science showed that when a gay person shows up at
2:00.7	a stranger's door and speaks openly about what it's like to be gay, this has an extraordinary effect.
	...

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