Due ricercatori hanno mostrato attraverso una simulazione come gli incentivi in essere in ambito accademico favoriscano nel tempo risultati più deboli e meno accurati.

We reviewed statistical power in the social and behavioral science literature. Statistical power is a quantitative measurement of a research design’s ability to identify a true association when present. The simplest way to increase statistical power is to increase one’s sample size – which also lengthens the time needed to collect data. Beginning in the 1960s, there have been repeated outcries that statistical power is far too low. Nevertheless, we found that statistical power, on average, has not increased.

The evidence is suggestive, but it is not conclusive. To more systematically demonstrate the logic of our argument, we built a computer model in which a population of research labs studied hypotheses, only some of which were true, and attempted to publish their results.

Uno degli autori riassume lo studio su The Conversation; ne scrivono anche The Atlantic e, più in breve (ma con commenti interessanti a corredo dell’articolo), il Guardian.