Executive summary: The author describes several heuristics for evaluating the trustworthiness of scientific results, focusing on the strength of evidence, scrutiny from practitioners, consensus in the literature, social biases, and tests for publication bias.
Key points:
Results based on experimental evidence are more trustworthy than those relying solely on observational data and causal inference.
Results used extensively by practitioners under high scrutiny warrant more trust.
A large, diverse academic literature supporting a finding instills confidence.
Consider the study’s external validity and statistical power.
Account for potential social desirability biases.
Formal tests showing no publication bias increase trustworthiness.
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Executive summary: The author describes several heuristics for evaluating the trustworthiness of scientific results, focusing on the strength of evidence, scrutiny from practitioners, consensus in the literature, social biases, and tests for publication bias.
Key points:
Results based on experimental evidence are more trustworthy than those relying solely on observational data and causal inference.
Results used extensively by practitioners under high scrutiny warrant more trust.
A large, diverse academic literature supporting a finding instills confidence.
Consider the study’s external validity and statistical power.
Account for potential social desirability biases.
Formal tests showing no publication bias increase trustworthiness.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.