I fear that many people are drawing the wrong lessons from the Wansink saga, focusing on procedural issues such as “p-hacking” rather than scientifically more important concerns about empty theory and hopelessly noisy data. If your theory is weak and your data are noisy, all the preregistration in the world won’t save you.
Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science 2018-03-13
Summary:
Someone pointed me to this news article by Tim Schwab, “Brian Wansink: Data Masseur, Media Villain, Emblem of a Thornier Problem.” Schwab writes: If you look into the archives of your favorite journalism outlet, there’s a good chance you’ll find stories about Cornell’s “Food Psychology and Consumer Behavior” lab, led by marketing researcher Brian Wansink. […]
The post I fear that many people are drawing the wrong lessons from the Wansink saga, focusing on procedural issues such as “p-hacking” rather than scientifically more important concerns about empty theory and hopelessly noisy data. If your theory is weak and your data are noisy, all the preregistration in the world won’t save you. appeared first on Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science.