What Happens When Scientists Get It Wrong?
A couple of years ago, Julia Strand was trying and failing to replicate a study shed published. At the time, she was an assistant professor without tenure, and the original study had presented her most exciting finding to date. But when she and her co-authors tried to replicate it, they got the opposite results. Then one night, Julia discovered why. In her original code, shed made a tiny but critical error, and now, with her reputation and job on the line, she was going to have to tell the world about it. Science is often said to be self-correctingthrough peer review, replication, and community dialogue, scientists collectively find mistakes in their work, and continually revise their understanding of the world. Julia eventually submitted her story to the Loss of Confidence Project, which invited psychologists to publicly admit mistakes in their published research. Our guest, Julia Roher, a lecturer in psychology, organized the project, along with two others. In an anonymous survey of 316 researchers, almost half said they had lost confidence in one of their findings, but ultimately, only 13 researchers submitted public testimonials to the project. Brian Resnick, who co-created Voxs Unexplainable podcast and has written about intellectual humility, explains why we often think were right when were wrong, how others perceive us when we fess up to mistakes, and what all this means for our trust in science. Listen to Julia Strand talk about discoveringand owning up toa major mistake in her own work. Further Reading