Great interview. Two points (1) trust in “social science” is undermined by the replication crisis. The grievance studies affair by Peter Boghossian, James A. Lindsay, and Helen Pluckrose, also showed the lack of scientific rigor at least at some journals. (2) the current era of blue skies research is coming to an end. The current budgets in western nations cannot support blue skies research and applied research is going to become the norm. The social sciences, and especially the proliferation of “studies” programs that have exploded over the past few decades won’t survive.
Lastly, I have heard this repeatedly and it is as true now as in the 1990s. “Social science is to science as astrology is to astronomy.”
Anyway, loved the interview. Great to see who watches the watchman in action.
I minored in Sociology (~1990-1992) and remember a particular journal, Society, that offered a good mix of scholarship. I’m wondering if any of its articles were sampled.
Great work, Justin, this was a very informative interview in a short essay.
Great interview. Two points (1) trust in “social science” is undermined by the replication crisis. The grievance studies affair by Peter Boghossian, James A. Lindsay, and Helen Pluckrose, also showed the lack of scientific rigor at least at some journals. (2) the current era of blue skies research is coming to an end. The current budgets in western nations cannot support blue skies research and applied research is going to become the norm. The social sciences, and especially the proliferation of “studies” programs that have exploded over the past few decades won’t survive.
Lastly, I have heard this repeatedly and it is as true now as in the 1990s. “Social science is to science as astrology is to astronomy.”
Anyway, loved the interview. Great to see who watches the watchman in action.
I’m surprised the role of the editors of the publications in which this research was published was not mentioned (perhaps it is in the full paper).
As we know, incentives matter. If to be published requires a left bias, well… then left bias is what we shall see.
And we surely have massive evidence that this is true in certain fields: “climate science” springs immediately to mind.
I minored in Sociology (~1990-1992) and remember a particular journal, Society, that offered a good mix of scholarship. I’m wondering if any of its articles were sampled.