Comment by dilap
2 days ago
Well, don't forgot I also said this!
> With whatever sort of due process is needed to make this reasonable
Is it not reasonable to not continue to fund scientists whose results consistently do not reproduce? And should we not spend the funds to verify that they do (or don't) reproduce (rather than e.g. going down an incredibly expensive goose-chase like recently happened w/ Alzheimer's research)?
Currently there is more or less no reason not to fudge results; your chances of getting caught are slim, and consequences are minimal. And if you don't fudge your results, you'll be at a huge disadvantage when competing against everyone that does!
Hence the replication crises.
So clearly something must be done. If not penalyzing failures to reproduce and funding reproduction efforst, then what?
Your way of thinking sounds alien to me. You seem to assume that people mostly just follow the incentives, rather than acting according to their internal values.
Science is a field with low wages, uncertain careers, and relatively little status. If you respond strongly to incentives, why would you choose science in the first place? People tend to choose science for other reasons. And, as a result, incentives are not a particularly effective tool for managing scientists.
Of course people will follow their own internal values in some cases, but we really want to arrange things so that the common and incentived path is the happy path!
And without the proper systemic arrangements, people with strong internal values will just tend to get pushed out. E.g., an example from today's NY times: https://archive.is/wV4Sn
I don't mean to seem too cynical about human nature; it's not so much that I don't think people with good motivations won't exist, it's that you need to create a broader ecosystems where those motivations are adaptive. Otherwise they'll just get pushed out.
By analogy, consider a competitive sport, like bicycling. Imagine if it was just an honor system to not use performance enhancing drugs; even if 99% of cyclists were completely honest, the sport would still be dominated by cheaters, because you simply wouldn't be able compete without cheating.
The dynamics are similar in science if you allow for bad research to go unchallenged.
(PS: Being a scientist is very high-status! I can imagine very few things with as much cachet at a dinner-party as saying "I'm a scientist".)
Internal motivation and acting according to your values is not necessarily a good thing. For example, repeat offenders are often internally motivated. They keep committing crime, because they don't fit in. And because their motivations are internal, incentives such as strict punishments have limited effect on their behavior.
Science selects actively against people who react strongly to incentives. The common and incentivized path is not doing science. Competitive sports are the opposite, as they appeal more to externally motivated people. From a scientist's point of view, the honest 99% of cyclists would absolutely dominate the race, as they ride 99% of the miles. Maybe they won't win, but winning is overrated anyway. Just like prestigious awards, vanity journals, and top universities are nice but ultimately not that important.
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