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Investigating the analytical robustness of the social and behavioural sciences

  • Balazs Aczel
  • , Barnabas Szaszi
  • , Harry T. Clelland
  • , Marton Kovacs
  • , Felix Holzmeister
  • , Don van Ravenzwaaij
  • , Hannah Schulz-Kumpel
  • , Sabine Hoffmann
  • , Gustav Nilsonne
  • , Livia Kosa
  • , Zoltan A. Torma
  • , Yousuf Abdelfatah
  • , Christopher L. Aberson
  • , Oguz A. Acar
  • , Ensar Acem
  • , Matus Adamkovic
  • , Timofey Adamovich
  • , Krisna Adiasto
  • , Love Ahnstrom
  • , Atakan M. Akil
  • Adil S. Al-Busaidi, Ali H. Al-Hoorie, Casper J. Albers, Peter J. Allen, Taym Alsalti, Micah Altman, Shilaan Alzahawi, Ettore Ambrosini, Saule Anafinova, Rahul Anand, Martin Angerer, Ariadna Angulo-Brunet, Alberto Antonietti, Jozsef Arato, Andreu Arenas, Marco M. Avina, Flavio Azevedo, Marko Bachl, Bence Bago, Stepan Bahnik, Bradley J. Baker, Elza Balayan, Cassandra L. Baldwin, Benjamin Banai, Kasia Banas, Frantisek Bartos, Ernest Baskin, Jojanneke A. Bastiaansen, Nadege Bault, Christopher W. Bauman, Quintin H. Beazer, Maciej Behnke, Theiss Bendixen, Sebastian Berger, Anna Bernard, Ursa Bernardic, Paul A. Bloom, Annika Boldt, Ciril Bosch-Rosa, Rotem Botvinik-Nezer, Adam Bouyamourn, Ozge Bozkurt, Laurel Brehm, Johannes Breuer, Ryan Briggs, Hilmar Brohmer, Erin Buchanan, Johannes Buckenmaier, Jeffrey Buckley, Jacek Buczny, Matthias Burghart, Bilal H. Butt, Nick Byrd, Valentina Cafarelli, Patrick Callahan, Tabare Capitan, Kevin Carriere, Andrea M. Cataldo, Gabriel Cepaluni, Eugene Chan, Jesse J. Chandler, Chia-chen Chang, Xi Chen, Shirley Shuo Chen, Fadong Chen, Hao Chen, Valerii Chirkov, Daniela Cialfi, Beth Clarke, Sophie G. Coelho, Clara Cohen, Jason Collins, Susan W. Cook, Gaia Corlazzoli, Jamie Cummins, Christian Czymara, Jonathan D'hondt, Anna Dalla Rosa, Abi M. B. Davis, Charles P. Davis, Martin V. Day, Freya De Keyzer, Joshua R. de Leeuw, Tjeerd Rudmer de Vries, Ramit Debnath, Filip Dechterenko, Elif E. Demiral, Marc Desgroseilliers, Dominik Dianovics, Veronica Diveica, Stephan Dochow-Sondershaus, Simone Dohle, LiChen Dong, Jonas Dora, Angela R. Dorrough, Anna Dreber, Hongfei Du, John E. Edlund, Anita Eerland, Emir Efendic, Jacob Elder, Mahmoud M. Elsherif, Mareike Ernst, Eduardo Estrada, Luis Eudave, Thomas R. Evans, Arodi Farrera, El Mehdi Ferrouhi, Lenka Fiala, Fabricio M. Fialho, Joshua L. Fiechter, Milos Fisar, Pablo Ezequiel Flores-Kanter, Michal Folwarczny, Jessica L. Fossum, Vithor R. Franco, Rene Freichel, Danilo Freire, Joris Frese, Alexander C. Furnas, Johann D. Gaebler, Lisa C. Gajary, Carl Michael Galang, Benjamin Ganschow, S. Mason Garrison, Agata Gasiorowska, Bruno Gasparotto Ponne, Romain Gauriot, Alice Geminiani, Diogo Geraldes, Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Cinzia Giani, Enrico Glerean, Vukasin Gligoric, Timo Gnambs, Amelie Godefroidt, Bastian Gonzalez-Bustamante, Andreas Goreis, Lorenz Graf-Vlachy, Manuel Grieder, Dmitry Grigoryev, Sandra Grinschgl, David J. Gruening, Joao F. Guassi Moreira, Clement Guichet, Lilas Gurgand, Hooman Habibnia, Andrew C. Hafenbrack, Sebastian Hafenbraedl, Carolin Haeffner, Felix Hagemeister, Matthew Haigh, Nandor Hajdu, Narges Hajimoladarvish, Jonathan D. Hall, Maik Hamjediers, Robert M. Hardwick, Mehmet Harma, Nicholas R. Harp, Aron D. Hartvig, Raphael H. Heiberger, Arthur Heim, Oystein Hernaes, Dennis Hernaus, Tom Heyman, Joshua Hicks, Jeremy Hogeveen, Julia Hoepler, Sean Dae Houlihan, Christoph Huber, Conor Hughes, Teresa Hummler, Karoline Huth, Moritz Ingendahl, Tatsunori Ishii, Ozan Isler, Kamil Izydorczak, Iain R. Jackson, Andrew Jahn, Maitri Jain, Alexander Jakubow, Daisung Jang, JunHyeok Jang, Marc Jekel, Fanli Jia, William Jimenez-Leal, Rebecca Johnson, Alex Jones, Sebastian Jungkunz, Pavol Kacmar, Caspar Kaiser, Yagmur Kalayci, Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Anil Karabulut, Julian D. Karch, Hamid Karimi-Rouzbahani, Johannes A. Karl, Austeja Kazemekaityte, Aliaksandr Kazlou, Zoltan Kekecs, Jin Kim, Michael H. Kirchler, Bence Kiss-Dobronyi, Kai N. Klasmeier, Jack W. Klein, Cemal Koba, Marta Kolczynska, Pavlos Kolias, Matej Kolouch Grabovsky, Max Korbmacher, Ziva Korda, Marta Kowal, Andre Kretzschmar, Vladislav Krivoshchekov, Angelos-Miltiadis Krypotos, Marcus Kubsch, Yoshihiko Kunisato, David Lacko, Jan R. Landwehr, Martin Lange, Hongmi Lee, Daniel Lee, Sangil Lee, Edward P. Lemay, Daniel Lempert, Andrea Leo, Elise Lesage, Joel M. Levin, Peng Li, Jing Lin, Luke Lindsay, Daria Lisovoj, Meng Liu, Sihong Liu, Tingshu Liu, Sergio Lo Iacono, Paul Lodder, Ruben Lopez-Bueno, Ruben Lopez-Nicolas, Katharina Loter, Nigel Mantou Lou, Andrey Lovakov, Jackson G. Lu, Jonas Ludwig, Finn Luebber, Jiri Lukavsky, Charles Q. Luo, Xuanyu Lyu, Esther Maassen, Martin Macel, Michael L. Mack, Christopher R. Madan, Andreas Madebach, Joseph Maffly-Kipp, Daniel J. Mallinson, Igor Marchetti, Tyler Marghetis, Matteo M. Marini, Diego Marino Fages, Mayte Martinez, Mario Martinoli, Aidas Masiliunas, Sebastien Massoni, Kaleb C. Mathieu, Stefan Mayer, Duncan J. Mayer, Maren Mayer, Ethan M. McCormick, Ian M. McDonough, Amanda L. McGowan, Miranda M. McIntyre, Paul Mckee, Armando N. Meier, Pascal F. Meier, Helena Melero, Christoph Merkle, Raphael Merz, Michalis P. Michaelides, Patrik Michaelsen, Gosia Mikolajczak, Wladislaw Mill, Philip Millroth, Kirill G. Miroshnik, Michal Misiak, Youri L. Mora, David Moreau, Chris Moreh, Coby Morvinski, Faisal Mushtaq, Tamas Nagy, Christa Nater, Elias Naumann, Gorka Navarrete, Stephan Nebe, Andre Nedderhoff, Richard Nennstiel, Martin Neugebauer, Eliana Nicolaisen-Sobesky, Yngwie A. Nielsen, Guiomar Niso, Benjamin Nowak, Mehmet Okan, Kenneth Ong, Adrian I. Onicas, Christian Oswald, Kasper Otten, Shubham Pandey, Myrto Pantazi, Paolo Papale, Philip Parnamets, Shiva Pauer, Yuri G. Pavlov, Samuel Pawel, Jonathan E. Peelle, Hannah K. Peetz, Anton Peez, Francesca Pesciarelli, Brenton D. Peterson, Benjamin Petruzelka, Jonas Petter, Jan Pfander, Gerit Pfuhl, Joseph Phillips, Matthew T. Pietryka, Angelo Pirrone, Ilse L. Pit, Anna Plachti, Irene Sophia Plank, Matteo Ploner, Russell A. Poldrack, Monique M. H. Pollmann, Simon Porcher, Patrick Prag, Andrew Adrian Y. Pua, Jessica Pugel, Rohan Puri, Marcell Puski, Setayesh Radkani, Louis Raes, Ismael Rafai, Klara Raiber, Steve Rathje, Raphael Rehms, Mikhail Reshetnikov, Caleb J. Reynolds, James P. Reynolds, Kevin Rigaud, Charlie Rioux, Sebastian Rivera, Olly Robertson, Rafael Roman-Caballero, Ivan Ropovik, Lukas Roseler, Robert M. Ross, Amanda Rotella, Franziska F. Ruffer, Felix Rusche, Massimo Rusconi, Irene Russo, Alexander H. J. Sahm, Janos Salamon, Margaret Samahita, Ali Sanaei, Arshiya Sangchooli, Alexandra Sarafoglou, Michele Scandola, Henning Schaak, Michael Schaerer, Eric Schares, Hayden T. Schilling, Xenia Schmalz, Kathleen Schmidt, Tom Schonberg, Marcel R. Schreiner, Joris M. Schroder, Anna-Lena Schubert, Brendan Schuetze, Douglas H. Schultz, Lars Schulze, Shawn T. Schwartz, Nicole Schwitter, Bermond Scoggins, Yashvin Seetahul, Raffaello Seri, David R. Shanks, Stacy T. Shaw, Joseph Shaw, Qiang Shen, Christoph Siemroth, Martina Sladekova, Angela Somo, Arjun Sondhi, Burak Sonmez, Lisa Spantig, Maarten Speekenbrink, Angelos Stamos, Lukasz Stasielowicz, Leonie C. Steckermeier, SimonR. Steinkamp, Andrea H. Stoevenbelt, Chris N. H. Street, Jordan W. Suchow, Hans Fredrik Sunde, James Sundquist, Vsevolod Suschevskiy, Scott D. Swain, Peter Szecsi, Raluca D. Szekely-Copindean, Ewa Szumowska, Alessandro Tacconelli, Eli Talbert, John P. Tang, Jorge N. Tendeiro, Martina Testori, Enrico Toffalini, Aleksandar Tomasevic, Selin Topel, Lasse Torkkeli, Leonardo Tozzi, Jakub Traczyk, Alexander Trinidad, Darinka Trubutschek, Konrad Turek, Maximiliane Uhlich, Eric L. Uhlmann, Karolina Urbanska, Jasper Van Assche, Marcel A. L. M. van Assen, Noah N. N. van Dongen, Kenny van Lieshout, Roel van Veldhuizen, Marton A. Varga, Leigh Ann Vaughn, Fruzsina Venczel, Michela Vezzoli, Paul Vierus, Antonino Visalli, Emily Voldal, Fabio Votta, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, Anica Waldendorf, Matthew J. Walker, Matthew B. Wall, Henri Wallen, Ke Wang, Iris Wang, Y. Andre Wang, Markus Weinmann, Martin Weiss, Christian Westheide, Aaron Wichman, Juliane C. Wilcke, Benedict J. Williams, David Wisniewski, Thomas K. A. Woiczyk, Mateusz Wozniak, Joshua D. Wright, Wu Youyou, Jesper N. Wulff, Tao Yang, Siu Kit Yeung, Kenneth S. L. Yuen, Michal Zawistowski, Rizqy A. Zein, Xian Zhao, Zefan Zheng, Steven Zhou, Conrad Ziller, David Zimmerman, Cristina Zogmaister, Ro'i Zultan, Nicholas Fox, Timothy M. Errington, Brian A. Nosek

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

The same dataset can be analysed in different justifiable ways to answer the same research question, potentially challenging the robustness of empirical science(1-3). In this crowd initiative, we investigated the degree to which research findings in the social and behavioural sciences are contingent on analysts' choices. We examined a stratified random sample of 100 studies published between 2009 and 2018, in which, for one claim per study, at least five reanalysts independently reanalysed the original data. The statistical appropriateness of the reanalyses was assessed in peer evaluations, and the robustness indicators were inspected along a range of research characteristics and study designs. We found that 34% of the independent reanalyses yielded the same result (within a tolerance region of +/- 0.05 Cohen's d) as the original report; with a four times broader tolerance region, this indicator increased to 57%. Of the reanalyses conducted, 74% reached the same conclusion as the original investigation, 24% yielded no effects or inconclusive results and 2% reported the opposite effect. This exploratory study indicates that the common single-path analyses in social and behavioural research should not be simply assumed to be robust to alternative analyses(4). Therefore, we recommend the development and use of practices to explore and communicate this neglected source of uncertainty.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)135-142
Number of pages21
JournalNature
Volume652
Issue number8108
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2026

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