To be fair, not all psychological statistics are bunk. It’s just that it’s incredibly slow the way it’s done, and all you can get from any one experiment is a vague idea like, “thinking concretely about a task makes it more likely you’ll do it.” Direct marketers knew that ages ago.
For certain values of “knew”. Science has different epistemic standards.
The marketers knew it well enough that the scientists should have studied it. That they didn’t was a serious epistemic failing; it’s not clear that these different standards are better. Denying something on the grounds that you haven’t studied it enough and refusing to study it is almost a fully general counterargument.
Of course. Unfortunately for people needing personal and practical applications, science isn’t caught up and may never be, precisely because they’re not looking for the same kinds of things. (They’re looking for “true” rather than “useful”.)
To be fair, not all psychological statistics are bunk. It’s just that it’s incredibly slow the way it’s done, and all you can get from any one experiment is a vague idea like, “thinking concretely about a task makes it more likely you’ll do it.” Direct marketers knew that ages ago.
For certain values of “knew”.
Science has different epistemic standards.
ETA: though you’re correct to point out that the papers mentioned above don’t seem to follow them very well.
The marketers knew it well enough that the scientists should have studied it. That they didn’t was a serious epistemic failing; it’s not clear that these different standards are better. Denying something on the grounds that you haven’t studied it enough and refusing to study it is almost a fully general counterargument.
Of course. Unfortunately for people needing personal and practical applications, science isn’t caught up and may never be, precisely because they’re not looking for the same kinds of things. (They’re looking for “true” rather than “useful”.)