Research Wonder: A Case for Respondent Pre-Survey Rituals?

Research Wonder: A Case for Respondent Pre-Survey Rituals?

A couple months ago, I listened to a podcast episode called “Sports Superstitions” on a wonderful podcast called Fearless Conversations with Abby Wambach (which, by the way, is a wonderful podcast on a variety of social issues from the perspective of a professional athlete). It brought back memories of long ago (high school) days when I used to pole vault. For a long time I blamed my youth for the rituals that I would perform before and during competition.  How I removed the pole from its cardboard tube, the number of times I rocked back and forth before I started down the runway (three), and even the side of the pit that I used to jump off after I completed a vault (always the left)… 

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My Favorite Social Science Podcasts

Has anyone else driven the long way to work just to catch a few minutes more of a really good podcast?  I know, I could just sit in my car in the parking lot and finish it there, but that just feels weird.  

Just a few years ago, I had not heard of podcasts…

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Peer Review as a Necessary but Unscientific Process – Can we just do some iterative science already?

Peer review is wonderful in theory.  Scientists reviewing other scientists’ work to evaluate whether the science was applied thoroughly, implemented well, and interpreted effectively can be a wonderful way to allow the best science through.  But the Reproducibility Project clearly demonstrated that something is broken – when over a quarter of the published studies reviewed could not be replicated. 

It is not a surprise to most.  Humans are involved.  We make mistakes…

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