NEW YORK — A large group of researchers set out to repeat 100 experiments published by leading psychology journals to see how often they would get the same results. The answer: Less than half the time.
That doesn’t mean all those unconfirmed studies were wrong. But it’s a stark reminder that a single study rarely provides definitive answers and why scientists often greet new findings by saying, “More research is needed.”
“Any one study is not going to be the last word,” said Brian Nosek, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia.
The work was carried out by an international team of more than 300 people and released Thursday by the journal Science. Researchers worked with the authors of the original studies in setting up the replication attempts. Only about 40 percent of those attempts produced the original results.
The effort focused on 100 experiments reported during 2008 in three major psychology journals. The studies focused on basic research into how people think, remember and perceive their world.
