The world is full of statements like “there is a study that says…” or “according to a study…”. To this is added a large number of affirmations that traditionally have been taken for true but have never been replicated. Welcome to the rampant replicability crisis that you’ve recently been experiencing.
This problem is particularly insidious in the field of soft sciences, such as psychology, sociology, etc. In other words, sciences where there are too many variables and the complexity is so high that affirming anything it should be done with care that it advances through a land full of mines.
studies in doubt
Ultimately, it is possible that the number of false positives in the scientific literature is much higher than desirable due to a combination of low statistical power, publication bias, and flexibility in analyzing the data. And that is why we are experiencing this great replication crisis.
Next, I am going to introduce you to some of the most popular statements in psychology and sociology that, however, have not been replicated. This does not mean that they are necessarily false, but that the evidence we have for their veracity is very weak.: