A tragedy of the (academic) commons: interpreting the replication crisis in psychology as a social dilemma for early-career researchers

Frontiers in Psychology

Jim A. C. Everett¹ 

关键词: reproducibility of results;    social dilemmas;    methodology;    best practices;    psychological science;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01152

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Social dilemmas—situations in which collective interests are at odds with private interests—are an enduring feature of the modern world (Hardin, 1968). Social dilemmas have two fundamental characteristics: first, that each individual receives a higher payoff for defecting from what is in the collective interest (e.g., using all of the available resources for one's own advantage) than for cooperating, regardless of what other individuals do; and second, that all individuals are better off if they all cooperate than if they all defect (Dawes, 1980). A number of high-profile contemporary issues can be seen as social dilemmas, including the global energy crisis, preservation of the rainforests, and climate change. But social dilemmas can play out on a smaller scale as well, for example within an academic discipline. In our own discipline of social psychology, for instance, the ongoing “replication crisis”—see Earp and Trafimow (2015) for an overview and analysis—could be seen as stemming in part from just such a dilemma: that is, a conflict between self- and collective-interest.

【 授权许可】

CC BY