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Can the Behavioral Sciences Self-Correct? A Social Epistemic Study

Romero, Felipe (2016) Can the Behavioral Sciences Self-Correct? A Social Epistemic Study. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 60. 55 - 69.

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Abstract

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. First, I identify experimental replications and systematic aggregation of evidence (meta-analysis) as the self-corrective mechanism. Then, I present a computer simulation study of scientific communities that implement this mechanism to argue that frequentist statistics may converge upon a correct estimate or not depending on the social structure of the community that uses it. Based on this study, I argue that methodological explanations of the “replicability crisis” in psychology are limited and propose an alternative explanation in terms of biases. Finally, I conclude suggesting that scientific self-correction should be understood as an interaction effect between inference methods and social structures.


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Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Romero, Felipef.romero@uvt.nl
Keywords: Social structure of science, Social epistemology, Scientific self-correction, Replication, Frequentist statistics
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Psychology
General Issues > Theory Change
Depositing User: Dr. Felipe Romero
Date Deposited: 04 Apr 2017 14:08
Last Modified: 04 Apr 2017 14:08
Item ID: 12957
Journal or Publication Title: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A
Official URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2016.10.002
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
General Issues > Confirmation/Induction
General Issues > Experimentation
Specific Sciences > Psychology
General Issues > Theory Change
Date: 2016
Page Range: 55 - 69
Volume: 60
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12957

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