Abstract
Abstract In recent years, an increasing number of studies adopting the experimental method have appeared in Public Administration journals. It has been argued that the advantage of experiments in behavioral sciences is that researchers can control contextual factors while investigating the effect of manipulations on a variable of interest. Another point is that experiments can be replicated and, thus, increase confidence in research results. However, replications are rarely undertaken, especially in the behavioral sciences. This article examines the results of the “Open Science Reproducibility Project: Psychology,” which replicated 100 experiments previously published in leading Psychology journals. Based on the findings of this project, we present seven recommendations to Public Administration scholars that can improve the quality of their experiments.
Highlights
Grimmelikhuijsen, Jilke, Olsen and Tummers (2017) noted that eminent Public Administration scholars such as Herbert Simon and Dwight Waldo have stressed the importance Psychology in Public Administration research, but only recently this has been acknowledged more frequently
It should be noted that Social Psychology is split between two competing epistemologies: “social constructionism” and “experimental social psychology” (Jost & Kruglansk, 2002)
Experiments have long been regarded to be advantageous for allowing the researcher to control the variables of interest.1 This is an important point but one has to acknowledge that the experimental method in the behavioral sciences presents some challenges
Summary
Grimmelikhuijsen, Jilke, Olsen and Tummers (2017) noted that eminent Public Administration scholars such as Herbert Simon and Dwight Waldo have stressed the importance Psychology in Public Administration research, but only recently this has been acknowledged more frequently. It should be noted that Social Psychology is split between two competing epistemologies: “social constructionism” and “experimental social psychology” (Jost & Kruglansk, 2002) The latter has been the dominant methodological approach and the one that have influenced Public Administration research; some scholars even speak of an “experimental turn” in the field (Jilke, Van de Walle & Kim, 2016). Experiments have long been regarded to be advantageous for allowing the researcher to control the variables of interest.1 This is an important point but one has to acknowledge that the experimental method in the behavioral sciences presents some challenges. As we will discuss in detail below, recent attempts to replicate experiments in the field of Psychology have raised a number of questions about the external validity of research outcomes, i.e., whether results can hold when measurements are made in similar but not identical situations, and whether variables have been sufficiently kept under control.
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