Don't hate the replicator, hate the game

The world of science has been stuck in an existential crisis over whether we actually know the things we thought we knew. Re-running an old study today doesn't always yield the same result. Same with re-enacting old experiments. Collectively, this is known as the “replication crisis.”

Economist Abel Brodeur has come up with one way to help fix this crisis: he’s invented an internationally crowdsourced surveillance system, designed to keep social scientists honest. He calls it the “Replication Games.”

Further Listening:

• Fabricated data in research about honesty. You can't make this stuff up. Or, can you? (npr.org/2023/07/27/1190568472/dan-ariely-franc…)
• The Experiment Experiment (npr.org/sections/money/2016/01/15/463237871/ep…)
• How Much Should We Trust Economics? (npr.org/sections/money/2013/04/19/177999020/ep…)

This episode was hosted by Mary Childs and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by James Sneed and Emma Peaslee, with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, and engineered by Ko Takasugi-Czernowin. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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