Creative ideas, but elementary mistakes: A reply to Brandner and colleagues to promote best practices in error management theory research

Abstract

In their commentary on our paper, Brandner et al. commit an elementary statistical mistake that leads to entirely erroneous conclusions. When this statistical error is corrected, the effects described in our original paper appear exactly as reported. In principle, we could end our reply there. However, ending our reply there would be a lost opportunity for promoting best practices in Error Management Theory (EMT) research. The commentators make several other missteps that present the opportunity to draw attention to important principles in EMT research and offer clarifications that we hope assist in the operationalization, design, and interpretation of EMT-inspired studies in the future. We discuss these points and provide several EMT research scenarios to help to illustrate a key principle. We hope this reply highlights some of the key elements of best practices in EMT research and sheds light on pitfalls that researchers must make sure to avoid.