#  IQSS Faculty and Student Question "Replicability Crisis" 

 





March 07, 2016

 

 

     ![iqss_square_logo_no_text](/sites/g/files/omnuum8171/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/harvard-iqss/files/iqss_square_logo_no_text_02.jpg?itok=bM8Tg97-) 

 



 

 A group of researchers claimed that half of all psychology studies could not be replicated. However, a team that includes IQSS director Gary King, as well as affiliates Daniel Gilbert and Stephen Pettigrew, is calling this claim into question.

 A paper published by the Open Science Collaboration (OSC) in 2015 states that the OSC's attempt to replicate 100 published psychological studies resulted in a mere 36-47% success rate (depending on criteria used). However, [in their recent technical comment in *Science*](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/psychology-replications/files/gilbert_king_pettigrew_wilson_2016_with_appendix.pdf?m=1456973260), Gilbert et al. explain that they found multiple flaws in the OSC's study--regarding statistical error, bias, and infidelity to original methods used. (A more expanded summary of the team's results can be found in [a recent Harvard Gazette article](http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/03/study-that-undercut-psych-research-got-it-wrong/).)

 Additional comments have been published in a continued dialogue over this topic. The OSC's response can be seen [here](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6277/1037.3); Gilbert, King, Pettigrew, and Wilson have followed up with ["A Response to the Reply to Our Technical Comment on 'Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science'"](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/psychology-replications/files/gkpw_response_to_osc_rebutal.pdf?m=1457031863), followed by ["More on Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science'"](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/psychology-replications/files/gkpw_post_publication_response.pdf?).

 <a>Gary King</a> is the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard and Director of IQSS. <a>Daniel Gilbert</a> is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard and an IQSS faculty affiliate. <a>Stephen Pettigrew</a> is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard and an IQSS affiliate. [Timothy Wilson](http://www.people.virginia.edu/~tdw/) is the Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia.



 

 

 



 

 

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