Abstract
Advocates of the self-corrective thesis argue that scientific method will refute false theories and find closer approximations to the truth in the long run. I discuss a contemporary interpretation of this thesis in terms of frequentist statistics in the context of the behavioral sciences. I show how long-run correction of error depends on the interaction between statistical inference methods and social conditions that affect every experiment: availability of resources (economic), experimenter biases (psychological), and accepted norms of publication (social norms). I argue that this interaction explains the "replicability crisis" in social psychology better than purely methodological explanations.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 55 |
Number of pages | 69 |
Journal | Studies in History and Philosophy of Science: Part A |
Volume | 60 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |