Research Needs Red Teams
Fast science in a pandemic — that’s a good thing, right?
Often yes. But sometimes no.
And right now, we have no idea how big that “no” is.
More than 10,000 research studies have been published on COVID-19 since January.…
Overframing
Nefarious? Or Just Science?
Conservatives are biologically and neurologically different from liberals. Science says so.
If you follow politics at all in the United States, you’ll have heard that claim, and even perhaps read about some of the individual studies supporting it. Social or political conservatives, these studies have found, are more reactive to threats, more easily disgusted, more dogmatic and more receptive to authoritarian structures and leaders.…
Nerds vs. Trees
There should be a German word for the special despair researchers feel when an idea they’ve debunked takes off in the mass imagination.
For if we had such a word, we’d be using it right now to describe the pain and frustration researchers feel at the Trillion Tree Initiative.…
How Can We Trust Your Research?
How do you justify that the study you’ve just published (or that a staff researcher has just published and that you’re being asked to promote) is sound?
Well, it was published in a peer-reviewed journal, wasn’t it? Isn’t that enough justification?…
Climate Change & Indefensibly Big Numbers
Climate change is a potential widespread catastrophe, and in some cases an actual living catastrophe.
Our species uses big numbers as one of its primary signifiers of catastrophe: deaths; property damage; lost economic growth; etc.
It’s understandable, then, that some scientists have gravitated to using big numbers to bring into focus the catastrophe of the recent Australian wildfires.…
Bad Research Communication: A Partial Taxonomy
There’s a strong happy-talk, booster culture in research communications, especially on Twitter — it’s all good! get out there and communicate!
That culture stands as a corrective to the still-common attitude in science that research communication is at best an afterthought and certainly nothing reputable scholars need invest in.…
What If We Waited Four Months?
Science covered in the news is “pretty likely to be overturned,” according to a 2017 PLoS ONE study (which, admittedly, was covered in STAT.)
So a new article in WIRED won’t surprise anyone: the findings of a big-journal, splashy-headline, lots-of-coverage recent study are in dispute.…
Stop Overplaying Your Study
My blood runs cold every time I hear researchers say: “We hope our study won’t be interpreted as saying (insert horrible unintended conclusion not warranted by the study’s findings).”
Because it means a) they don’t have clear messaging for their study, b) they’ve overframed their study, or c) they have clear messaging but haven’t enforced it.…