Although we’ve seen poor replicability in some weightier areas, such as economic theory, how much difference can it make to our lives if a bunch of academics end up disagreeing over whether power posing works, or whether alpha-male sparrows have more black patches of feathers? There are two responses to make. The first is that there’s a wider principle at stake here: science is crucial to our society, and we mustn’t let any of it be compromised by low-quality, unreplicable studies. If we let standards slip in any part of science, we risk tarnishing the reputation of the scientific enterprise
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