Ask HN: What are some popular books affected by replication crisis?

4 points by butterNaN 3y ago ↗ HN

I was planning on reading "Thinking: Fast and Slow" after seeing it recommended here. I soon saw that some of the studies the book relies upon might be flawed. This made me wonder, what are some other popular titles that at least need a disclaimer?

5 comments

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outdig 3y ago ↗

wait, which study is flawed?

jakabia 3y ago ↗

I'm also interested, I bought it too but haven't started to read it, I'd like to know those claimed flaws before diving into it.

shubhamjain 3y ago ↗

One of a the famous study quoted in the book is how hungry judges (working before the lunch) delivery harsher sentences. The study failed to account for vastly more plausible explanations like scheduling of cases [1].

[1]: https://inews.co.uk/news/do-judges-give-out-tougher-sentence...

version_five 3y ago ↗

All of those pop self help books need to be taken with a grain of salt and not assumed to add up. Every diet books falls in that category, books like that "wheat belly", Aitkens, whatever, it's all the same idea of cherry picking stuff to support a thesis.

Born to run about barefoot running and the tara-humara Indians...

Studies in context as a practitioner in the field may mean something, in a self help book and the like, they just are there to lend some legitimacy.

Belive it or not, Michael Crichton's very well referenced "State of Fear" has even been called into question.

bjourne 3y ago ↗

Freakonomics