Thread by @MattGrossmann

My new book thread 1/n

"How Social Science Got Better: Overcoming Bias with More Evidence, Diversity, & Self-Reflection" is now published & available in stores!

You can order with a 30% discount at Oxford with this code: ASFLYQ6
global.oup.com/academic/produ…

https://twitter.com/MattGrossmann/status/1430212468136202252

It was a privilege to delve into great progress being made across economics, psychology, sociology, political science, & anthropology & return to fundamental questions in the history & philosophy of science. Thanks @OUPAcademic & all those who helped.

2/n

https://twitter.com/OUPPolitics/status/1434952062521909254?s=20

It is more difficult (but not impossible) to reach consensus cumulative knowledge in social sciences, but that is due to the diversity of human experience & the complex, cross-level processes we study, rather than our methods. Social scientists recognize their uphill battle

3/n

Social scientists face a long list of biases, from unrepresentative researchers to imperfect scientific practices to endemic difficulties of studying ourselves. But they are longstanding & now better known, not worse; we are increasingly rigorous, relevant, & self-reflective

4/n

The reproducibility movement has highlighted both fundamental & procedural problems in social science & successfully reformed practice. But we are unlikely to agree on procedural standardization. Instead, we are learning that much research is exploratory & we need all kinds.

5/n

The empirical, causal inference, & big data revolutions are important for social science progress, but so is team science, interdisciplinary, & theoretical & methodological pluralism. Stark theory & methods dichotomies are in decline as new generations learn from all sides

6/n

The social sciences are slowly internationalizing & diversifying. That has brought new questions, evidence, & interpretations & drawn attention to how what we study is a product of who we are. But more diverse critics have systematized our studies, not simply critiqued them

7/n

Most social science occurs in universities, with all their faults, but there is not a crisis when it comes to producing more social science knowledge. Instead, the social sciences are stable, growing in applied fields, & never the main sources of university funding growth

8/n

Each discipline comes with its own biases & odd internal organization. But that does not necessitate starting over. Interdisciplinarity by decree doesn't work. But integration in applied fields, exporting established ideas from one field to another, & team science all do.

9/n

We are often interested in difficult-to-answer questions with individual & social determinants over different time scales. Some progress comes from humility; we no longer see findings as temporally or geographically universal & we are no longer sticklers for individualism

10/n

All social science draws from history (our available data) & potential applications (our aspirations for change). We need to recognize the political unrepresentativeness that guides goals & our history of overpromising & social engineering. But practice also helps us learn

11/n

Popularization is a common source of misunderstanding, but it is an opportunity to clarify disagreements, pare down overbroad claims, & bring practitioners & synthesizers into the assessment of evidence. Popular conversations advance research, but take time to congeal.

12/n

Most social scientists share my many reasons for optimism, but also cite (somewhat contradictory) reasons for pessimism. Many of the problems have been with us from the beginning.

We have a long way to go, but should be excited about the direction of our fields.

13/n

How Social Science Got Better

You can read it instantly:

https://twitter.com/MattGrossmann/status/1431279371638042630?s=20

Or order your copy today:
global.oup.com/academic/produ…

I welcome your thoughts.

14/14

You can also hear a hopefully enlightening discussion on the book & the state of social science on a recent podcast:

https://twitter.com/MattGrossmann/status/1433585848583397378