Thread by @PsychRabble

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych Nah. Just a social psychologists who knows where the skeletons are hidden and who has the skillsets to check under the hood to see how the sausage, whoops, I mean "consensus" is made.

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych The Sordid History of "Consensus" in Social Psychology
A Thread
1/n ending in END
A Priori: When IS social science credible?
This is when:

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych Notice the absence of "Majority Vote." Scientific facts/truths are not established by "consensus."
Claims that "X should be believed because consensus" are social conformity moves, and should be a HUGE red flag that maybe "They do not have the evidence."

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych Social sciences had a consensus that, if you remove stereotype threat, it would eliminate, or at least reduce, demographic differences in achievement test scores. They were wrong. FAILED pre-registered replications.
WHOOPSIE!

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych There was a consensus that "implicit biases" captured "unconscious racism" -- a claim you can still easily find today.

WHOOPSIE!

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych There was a consensus for the "power of the situation"- the idea that situations were far more predictive of behavior than individual differences. It was wrong. From this paper:
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych There was a consensus that, in the democratic west, there just were no leftwing authoritarians. It was wrong.
WHOOPSIE!

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych There was a consensus that it was really only or mostly conservatives who held prejudices; liberals were open minded egalitarians. It was wrong.
WHOOPSIE!

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych Many of the errors are consistent with leftist/liberal worldviews. Which should not be surprising, given the makeup of the social sciences. Dem:Repub ratios at top colleges. There is a "consensus" about oppression&social justice independent of study results!

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych Why could that possibly be? I can't think of a single reason.

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych So, the next time a "consensus" emerges from social science on some politicized topic -- please forgive my skepticism. Ability to cite a sheer "volume" of reports will not convince me. Reach at least the 2nd level from top here.

@RhiannonDauster @MGalvanPsych END, with some delicious quotes from the great Psychological Methodologist and Philosopher of Science, Paul Meehl: