Improving Psychological Science

Psychological 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.

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