PsychCrunch
Ep 23: Whose psychology is it anyway? Making psychological research more representative
Jan 21, 2021
Bobby Cheon, an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, examines race and culture in psychology, while Steven O. Roberts from Stanford focuses on racial inequality in research. They discuss the dominance of WEIRD participants in studies and its implications for understanding diverse populations. The conversation highlights biases in research titles and calls for more inclusive practices in publication. Cheon and Roberts advocate for greater diversity among authors and editors to enhance the validity and generalizability of psychological findings.
13:34
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Quick takeaways
- Psychological research predominantly relies on Western participants, leading to generalizability issues that overlook diverse cultural contexts in understanding behavior.
- The editorial bias in psychology journals, with a lack of racial diversity among editors, contributes to the marginalization of essential discussions on race and representation.
Deep dives
Implicit Bias in Research Sampling
Psychological research often relies heavily on participants from Western, industrialized societies, which skews findings and creates a perception of white American participants as the standard. Studies indicate that a staggering 94% of participant groups in major psychology journals come from Western countries, with 58% exclusively from the United States. This lack of diversity can lead to significant gaps in understanding human behavior, as over 72% of research abstracts fail to contextualize participant backgrounds. Consequently, this bias towards defaulting to American participants may influence how findings are viewed in terms of their relevance and generalizability across different cultures.
