The Problem Psychology Can’t Shake
“Over the past 10 years, psychology has undergone a
seismic change—just not exactly the one Henrich and others envisioned.
Researchers began to realize that, when they redid many major studies in the
field, they could not replicate the results. Shoddy experimental practices and
bad statistical habits, which helped to make random fluctuations in the data
seem like big, meaningful results, were largely blamed for this replication
crisis. But another and less frequently surfaced culprit, some psychologists
say, is the lack of diversity in the original research samples: Studies tested
in one population were simply not working in other populations.
… some reform-minded psychologists suggest, it can
seem as if the field continues to favor quick, flashy research over
conscientious improvements in study design. In many institutions, “the reward
structure is such where I would get ahead by publishing 20 crappy MTurk studies
instead of one big cross-cultural one,” says Gervais, the Kentucky
psychologist. “I don’t think we’d learn 20 times as much, but my CV would look
better.””
The weirdest people in the world?
https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/pdfs/WeirdPeople.pdf