Our open science future

2024-12-13

Rick Gilmore

Overview

Announcement

• Final project write-ups due next Wednesday, December 18, 2024.
  • Write-up details

Today

• Our open science future

Our open science future

Three Little Pigs

Pantheon

What is science, really?

• a stock of accumulated knowledge (facts & findings)

• a set of characteristic methods

• a set of cultural values (Merton, 1973, p. 268)

Psychological science is hard…

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/learning-and-memory

Source: https://penn-state-open-science.github.io/bootcamp-2023-open-sci-what-why

https://149365049.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/6-blind-men-hans-1024x654.jpg

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/08/world-elephant-day/401117/

But lawful…

• Fitts law
• aka, speed/accuracy tradeoff

• Stevens’ power law
• aka, non-linear relationship between perceived magnitude and physical magnitude

Sometimes full of (f)laws

• Cognition is often systematically biased.
• Most current data are from WEIRD people (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010)
• Knowing what is and or is not a robust finding is harder than it should be

Science matters…

https://ourworldindata.org

https://ourworldindata.org

Rigorous, robust, reproducible science…

• Has been essential to the improvement of human health and well-being in the past
• Will be increasingly important to these improvements in the 21st century and beyond
• Can be strengthened
• And must be

What you can do…

Science is a human activity

• Humans are…
  • flawed
  • often illogical
  • emotional AND intellectual
  • biased
  • have blind spots
  • sometimes able to learn from mistakes

Advocate for science as

• a stock of accumulated knowledge (facts & findings)

• a set of characteristic methods

• a set of cultural values (Merton, 1973, p. 268)

• an essential tool for solving humanity’s problems

• that can and should be strengthened

• through rigorous, thoughtful criticism

As a producer…

• Commit to openly sharing your
  • data, protocols, code
  • from the very beginning
• Carry through on your commitment
• Encourage, help others
• Strive to get better

As a consumer…

• Keep your skepticism sharp
• Ask how do we know that? Why do they think that?
• Data + reasoning
• Support policies, outlets, leaders who encourage openness, transparency

Richard Feynmann

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.

(Feynman, 1974)

Good luck!

Resources

References

Feynman, R. P. (1974). Cargo cult science. https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm. Retrieved from https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.htm

Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2-3), 61-83; discussion 83-135. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X

Merton, R. W. (1973). The normative structure of science. In R. K. Merton & N. W. Storer (Eds.), The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations (pp. 267–278). The University of Chicago Press.