Investigating the analytical robustness of the social and behavioural sciences

Aczel, Balazs, Szaszi, Barnabas, Clelland, Harry T., Kovacs, Marton, Holzmeister, Felix, Van Ravenzwaalj, Don, Schulz-Kumpel, Hannah, Hoffman, Sabine, Nilsonne, Gustav, Kosa, Livia, Torma, Zoltan A., Abdelfatah, Yousuf, Aberson, Christopher L., Acar, Oguz A., Acem, Ensar, Adamkovic, Matus, Adamovich, Timofey, Adiasto, Krisna, Ahnström, Love and Phillips, Joseph 2026. Investigating the analytical robustness of the social and behavioural sciences. Nature 652 , pp. 135-142. 10.1038/s41586-025-09844-9

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (6MB) | Preview

Abstract

The same dataset can be analysed in different justifiable ways to answer the same research question, potentially challenging the robustness of empirical science1–3. In this crowd initiative, we investigated the degree to which research findings in the social and behavioural sciences are contingent on analysts’ choices. We examined a stratified random sample of 100 studies published between 2009 and 2018, where for one claim per study, at least five re-analysts independently re-analysed the original data. The statistical appropriateness of the re-analyses was assessed in peer evaluations, and the robustness indicators were inspected along a range of research characteristics and study designs. We found that 34% of the independent re-analyses yielded the same result (within a tolerance region of +/- 0.05 Cohen’s d) as the original report; with a four times broader tolerance region, this indicator rose to 57%. Regarding the conclusions drawn, 74% of analyses were reported to arrive at the same conclusion as in the original investigation; 24% to no effects/inconclusive result, and 2% to the opposite effect as in the original investigation. This exploratory study suggests that the common single-path analyses in social and behavioural research should not simply be assumed to be robust to alternative analyses4. Therefore, we recommend the development and use of practices to explore and communicate this neglected source of uncertainty.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics
Additional Information:	A full list of authors will be available from the published article at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09844-9 RRS applied 08/04/2026 AB
Publisher:	Nature Publishing Group
ISSN:	0028-0836
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 January 2026
Date of Acceptance:	31 October 2025
Last Modified:	08 Apr 2026 14:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/183901

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item