Improving Psychological Science
Figure 2, Klein et al., 2018Psychological science, and social psychology in particular, has faced a number of challenges over the last several years. This includes failed replications, publication bias, underspecified theories, and a science that often ignores the perspectives of underrepresented and marginalized groups. We won’t always live up to our high expectations for a solid science, but my preferred response is to try our best to do better in terms of the replicability of our results, the robustness of our methods, and the quality of our theories.
The lab has contributed to these efforts in several ways. For example, we have published replications (e.g., Brandt, 2020) and developed guidelines for conducting high quality replications (Brandt et al., 2014). We have also contributed to (e.g., Klein et al., 2018) and lead (Brandt et al., 2020) a variety of large-scale projects that leverage data collection from around the world. A key part of a rigorous science is training the next generation of scientists to do rigorous work. Our contributions to CREP (e.g., Wagge et al., 2023) is one contribution to doing that.
Key Project Publications
Bracic, A., Brandt, M. J., & Lajevardi, N. (2022). Minority politics online seminar series. PS: Political Science & Politics, 55, 557-558. doi | pdf
Brandt, M. J. (2020). Estimating and examining the replicability of belief system networks. Collabra: Psychology, 6, 24. doi | pdf | code
Brandt, M. J., IJzerman, H., Dijksterhuis, A., Farach, F. J., Geller, J., Giner-Sorolla, R., Grange, J., A., Perugini, M., Spies, J. R., & van ’t Veer, A. E. (2014). The Replication Recipe: What Makes for a Convincing Replication? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50, 217-224. doi | pdf
Brandt, M. J., & Proulx, T. (2015). QTIPs. Questionable theoretical and interpretive practices in social psychology. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 38, 19-20. doi | pdf
Brandt, M. J. & Proulx, T. (2016). Conceptual creep as a human (and scientific) goal. Psychological Inquiry, 27, 18-23. doi | pdf
Brandt, M. J. & Spälti, A. K. (2018). Norms and explanations in social and political psychology. In J. T. Crawford & L. Jussim (Eds.) Frontiers of Social Psychology Series: Politics of Social Psychology (pp 26-43). Psychology Press. doi | pdf
Brandt, M. J. & Wagemans, F. M. A. (2017). From the political here and now to generalizable knowledge. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 3, 317-320. doi | pdf
IJzerman, H., Grahe, J., & Brandt, M. J. (2018). How to make replications mainstream. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41, e136. doi | pdf
Isager, P. M., van Aert, R. C. M., Bahník, Š, Brandt, M. J., DeSoto, K. A., Giner-Sorolla, R., Krueger, J. I….Lakens, D. (2023). Deciding what to replicate: A decision model for replication study selection under resource and knowledge constraints. Psychological Methods, 28, 438-451. doi | pdf
Wagge, J. R., Brandt, M. J., Lazarevic, L. B., Legate, N., Christopherson, C., Wiggins, B., & Grahe, J. E. (2019). Publishing research with undergraduate students via replication work: The Collaborative Replications and Education Project. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 247. doi | pdf
Wagge, J. R., Hurst, M. A., Brandt, M. J., Lazarvic, L. B., Legate, N., & Grahe, J. E. (2023). Teaching research in principle and in practice: What do psychology instructors think of research projects in their courses? Psychology Learning and Teaching, 22, 4-19. doi | pdf
