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One aspect that is special to social sciences and not discussed enough, (and what was partially mentioned in this thread) is that in this case science is built
by thejackgoode 5y ago
One aspect that is special to social sciences and not discussed enough, (and what was partially mentioned in this thread) is that in this case science is built on moving grounds. Viral papers influence society, society itself changes due to other factors. Metrics become goals. And that's why they have a time constraint for the period when falsification is possible. This continuous validity constraint is unknown, but it exists for every social phenomenon.
- scoofy 5y agoI never thought about that. Like soros’ market reflexivity, but for science. Makes a lot of sense.
- thejackgoode 5y agoYes, economic behavior is a good example of this. There are also countless social strategies that are in constant competition. When you provide "objective" proof of some behavior being beneficial, it becomes a competitive advantage for others to have, a "life hack" that you should adopt. And this influx of alien adopters often corrupts it, rendering less useful, skewing the study results finally. Meditation and mindfulness practice in general is a good recent example of such thing happening.