Psychological research could play a critical role in informing policies during times of crisis and uncertainty. However, as stated in a previous post by Patrick Forscher, Simine Vazire, and Farid Anvari during this digital event, issues with generalisability, replicability, and validity may limit the practical implications of our research. The problems of reliability are compounded […]
Scientific Practice
By now, you know about preprints, and I bet you’ve read some, too – perhaps a manuscript posted on PsyArXiv, BioRxiv, or MedRxiv. With the posting of unrefereed manuscripts now normalized in psychology and other fields, no longer must new findings gather dust while languishing in journal management systems, waiting for slow reviewers, a busy […]
The COVID-19 crisis has challenged all sectors of society, including science. The crisis demands an all-out scientific response if it is to be mastered with minimal damage. This means that we, as a community of scientists, need to think about how we can adapt to the moment in order to be maximally beneficial. How can […]
So much stuff If there was ever any doubt whether there could be too much of a good thing in science, we are currently witnessing a very clear demonstration of it—both in science in general, and in the behavioral sciences in particular. Stating the obvious: There is just so much COVID-19 related information emerging every […]
Without effective treatment or vaccine, social measures remain at the heart of the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With this, behaviour change remains one of the top three scientific priorities for the coming months, according to the Lancet, and the behavioural sciences are implicated throughout the complex task of bringing societies out of lockdown. […]
Authors: Patrick S. Forscher*, Simine Vazire*, and Farid Anvari* In his 1969 address, former APA president George Miller issued a challenge: psychologists should “give psychology away” by using their science to solve social problems. Miller argued that psychology is relevant to everything that people do, giving it enormous potential to create social good. Yet Miller […]
When it became clear that the world was about to change from the global pandemic, the Psychonomic Society went into action. The Governing Board Chair, Jim Pomerantz, contacted me (I think because I am the Editor-in-Chief of a PS journal, Learning & Behavior) to suggest that we might be able to help stem the spread […]
I’m delighted to kick off this Digital Event called Research in Time of Crisis. This event is the brainchild of Stephan Lewandowsky, the previous Psychonomic Society Digital Content Editor, who approached me with the idea of focusing our Society’s online discussion on research in the time of crisis. Behavioral scientists have a large role to […]
As I write this post, the coronavirus continues to spread across the world. In response, governments have put in place recommendations to self-isolate, create social (physical) distancing, or imposed flat-out lockdowns. One obvious implication for psychological researchers is that we can no longer conduct experiments face-to-face in our labs. Many of us have therefore been […]
There’s much talk about no longer doing “business as usual.” As scientists who have the potential to contribute to reducing the spread of COVID-19, how do we change our ways of doing “science as usual” to rapidly, and responsibly, disseminate information to policymakers and the public? Hahn, Lagnado, Lewandowsky, and Chater (pictured below) recently wrote a […]