Are Small Effects the Indispensable Foundation for a Cumulative Psychological Science? A Reply to Götz et al. (2022).
In: Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Jg. 18 (2023-03-01), Heft 2, S. 508-512
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Zugriff:
In the January 2022 issue of Perspectives , Götz et al. argued that small effects are "the indispensable foundation for a cumulative psychological science." They supported their argument by claiming that (a) psychology, like genetics, consists of complex phenomena explained by additive small effects; (b) psychological-research culture rewards large effects, which means small effects are being ignored; and (c) small effects become meaningful at scale and over time. We rebut these claims with three objections: First, the analogy between genetics and psychology is misleading; second, p values are the main currency for publication in psychology, meaning that any biases in the literature are (currently) caused by pressure to publish statistically significant results and not large effects; and third, claims regarding small effects as important and consequential must be supported by empirical evidence or, at least, a falsifiable line of reasoning. If accepted uncritically, we believe the arguments of Götz et al. could be used as a blanket justification for the importance of any and all "small" effects, thereby undermining best practices in effect-size interpretation. We end with guidance on evaluating effect sizes in relative, not absolute, terms.
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Are Small Effects the Indispensable Foundation for a Cumulative Psychological Science? A Reply to Götz et al. (2022).
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | Primbs, MA ; Pennington, CR ; Lakens, D ; Silan, MAA ; Lieck, DSN ; Forscher, PS ; Buchanan, EM ; Westwood, SJ |
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Zeitschrift: | Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Jg. 18 (2023-03-01), Heft 2, S. 508-512 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2010- : Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage ; <i>Original Publication</i>: [Washington, D.C.] : Association for Psychological Science, 2006-, 2023 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 1745-6924 (electronic) |
DOI: | 10.1177/17456916221100420 |
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