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.
“Each individual study has some evidence. It contributes some information toward a conclusion. But the real conclusion, when you can say confidently that something is true or false, is based on an accumulation of evidence over many studies,” said Nosek, who led the project.
