The Replication Crisis: How to Interpret Studies in the Light of the Replica Crisis

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The replication crisis is very suited to kind of haunt interventions and ideas like the ones we're discussing here. People would write papers that deal with complex issues and present certain findings in a way that you might interpret as being fundamental or basic truths. I think this idea that most of the insight goes through publications and papers might not be such a useful analogy. But if you want to be engaged in the kinds of things that we're talking about, you want to have a much tighter loop between research and action.

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Can giving people a sense of agency and dignity be better than giving them access to food, shelter, clothing, or cash? And what exactly can be done in practice to expand human agency? How does the value of agency-oriented interventions compare to the value of more tangible interventions? How robust are the findings about all of the above in light of the replication crisis? In general, how much confidence should we place (with or without the replication crisis) in the findings of social science research? How tight should the feedback loop be for organizations that do both research for and implementation of charitable interventions?

Richard Sedlmayr works with a private foundation called the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, where he funds research and innovation to promote pro-poor economic development. He is also involved in the setup of The Agency Fund, a philanthropic partnership investing in ideas and organizations that support people in the navigation of difficult lives. Richard's background is in behavioral, development, and financial economics, and he has a PhD in Public Policy from Oxford. Richard has lived in a dozen countries and is currently based in the Bay Area. You can get in touch with him on LinkedIn.

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