Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg How f***ed is psychology? (with Adam Mastroianni)
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Apr 20, 2025 
Adam Mastroianni, a psychologist and metascientist known for his blog Experimental History, dives deep into psychology's challenges. He questions the high bar for new knowledge in the field and discusses the replication crisis's lessons. The dialogue explores the effectiveness of mega-studies and critiques traditional research methods. Mastroianni also advocates for transparency in scientific communication and explores innovative approaches to sharing research, emphasizing authenticity over academic norms.
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Psychology's Pre-Science Stage
- Psychology is in a pre-science phase struggling to identify important versus trivial phenomena.
- Some empirical truths, like poor emotional forecasting, are established and useful for future work.
Why Psychology Started Late
- Psychology started centuries later than physics due to strong, satisfying human intuitions.
- Physics progressed earlier because it challenges our intuitions with phenomena outside everyday experience.
Cognitive Biases Highlight Intuition Gaps
- Cognitive biases reveal violations of human intuition and settle debates about human rationality.
- These deviations offer a clear way to identify meaningful psychological facts.