Toward Transparent Reporting of Psychological Science

Etienne P. LeBel; Leslie K. John

Chapter | Psychological Science under Scrutiny: Recent Challenges and Proposed Solutions | 2017

Toward Transparent Reporting of Psychological Science

by Etienne P. LeBel and Leslie K. John

Abstract

In this chapter we make a case for increased transparency of the methods used to obtain research findings. Although comprehensive reporting facilitates accurate assessment of a paper’s claims, the current reporting norm is secrecy, not openness. We begin by putting this situation into historical context, comparing reporting norms from a bygone era to those of today. Next, we explain why transparency is desirable, even if full compliance is not achieved. We then outline the obstacles—both psychological and institutional—to comprehensive reporting. We go on to discuss possible remedies and end by drawing connections between the disclosure problem and other ongoing challenges within psychological science and allied fields.

Keywords: Research; Problems and Challenges;

Format: Print

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Citation:

LeBel, Etienne P., and Leslie K. John. "Toward Transparent Reporting of Psychological Science." In Psychological Science under Scrutiny: Recent Challenges and Proposed Solutions, edited by S.O. Lilienfeld and I.D. Waldman. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2017.

The case describes a program that CVS Health recently implemented to improve medication adherence, an important problem from a societal, public policy, and firm perspective. A test of the program, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement, increased the proportion of adherent customers by 1.4 percentage points. Students are asked to quantify the system-wide economic benefit of this improvement and draw upon insights from behavioral science to examine approaches for boosting medication adherence.

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

By the time Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, began hosting a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session in January 2018, he had only nine months remaining to convince the people of Toronto, their government representatives, and presumably his parent company Alphabet, Inc., that Sidewalk Labs’ plan to construct “the first truly 21st-century city” on the Canadian city’s waterfront was a sound one. Along with much excitement and optimism, strains of concern had emerged since Doctoroff and partners first announced their intentions for a city “built from the internet up” in Toronto’s Quayside district. As Doctoroff prepared for yet another milestone in a year of planning and community engagement, it was almost certain that of the many questions headed his way, digital privacy would be among them.

In their commentary, Wilson & Stolarz-Fantino argue that specific design features of our research mean that it cannot have policy implications and that researchers “need to consider profit maximization in menu design or studies are likely to suggest ill-informed implementations.” In this reply, we respond to the specific critiques of our work with empirical data and conceptual arguments. We agree with Wilson and Stolarz-Fantino that researchers seeking to understand a policy’s influence on consumers should test predictions about which strategies firms will likely use when implementing a policy. Research, however, that demonstrates the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of an intervention even without perfectly predicting a firm’s response still has enormous value for setting policy.

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Toward Transparent Reporting of Psychological Science

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