U.S Behavioral Research Studies Skew Toward Positive Results

Researchers from the Universities of Stanford and Edinburgh found, in a comparison of 1,174 primary outcomes from 82 meta-anlyses of biological and behavioral research, that U.S.-based behavioral researchers were more likely to exaggerate overall effect sizes in relation to individual results. “These problems are hypothesized to be worsened by lack of consensus on theories and methods, by selective publication processes, and by career systems too heavily oriented toward productivity, such as those adopted in the United States,” say the authors, “Behavioral studies have lower methodological consensus and higher noise, making US researchers potentially more likely to express an underlying propensity to report strong and significant findings.”  (more...)

U.S Behavioral Research Studies Skew Toward Positive Results