Skepticism in Evaluating Scientific Claims

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Challenges and mixed incentives within academia can make it difficult for scientists to evaluate claims, leading to skepticism about amplified claims in the media. With messy and complicated subjects like psychology, it's appropriate to be skeptical of claims that sound too good to be true or overly simplistic, and to rely on common sense. While science can overturn common sense, this should be approached differently for different sciences, especially when dealing with the complexity of psychology.

Some of the biggest names in behavioral science stand accused of faking their results. Last year, an astonishing 10,000 research papers were retracted. We talk to whistleblowers, reformers, and a co-author who got caught up in the chaos. (Part 1 of 2)

SOURCES:
- Max Bazerman, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.
- Leif Nelson, professor of business administration at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.
- Brian Nosek, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and executive director at the Center for Open Science.
- Joseph Simmons, professor of applied statistics and operations, information, and decisions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Uri Simonsohn, professor of behavioral science at Esade Business School.
- Simine Vazire, professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne and editor-in-chief of Psychological Science.