This study explores how researchers’ analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers’ expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each team’s workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers’ results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings.

No abstract

Research on charitable giving mostly investigates the effects of various donor characteristics on willingness to donate. Analyzing intentions of charitable giving to natural disaster relief, the first aim of this article is to show how situational characteristics of the recipientsthat is, country contexts and disaster specificities-matter. Theoretical propositions for the effects of recipient contexts and donor attributes are derived from basic mechanisms of prosocial behavior that appear recurrently in the interdisciplinary literature. A factorial survey is used to investigate the impact of context variations. Introducing this method to the study of charitable giving is our second objective. Multilevel analyses based on a sample of 430 German students show that the effective allocation of donations and a devastating catastrophe in a needy country such as Bangladesh yield the highest contributions. In addition, the national in-group is treated favorably. Among donor characteristics, prosocial values and empathy are relevant. Keywordsprosocial behavior, transnational charitable giving, natural disaster, factorial survey Private donations to natural disaster relief campaigns are a well-known example of prosocial behavior in general and of charitable giving in particular. Donations to the Article at FLORIDA INTL UNIV on May 28, 2015 nvs.sagepub.com Downloaded from cAfter negatively keyed items are recoded, factor analysis is used to construct an index from eight of the ten items (items excluded due to low factor loadings:"I am not interested in other people's problems," "I feel spiritually connected to other people"). Index values are allocated if respondents answered at least half of the items.

Summary: Since the 1980 s lifestyles have been seen as a new dimension of social inequality in Germany. Despite many years of debate, however, no cumulative research program has been established in German lifestyle research. Typically, empirical lifestyle typologies face four problems: they are scarcely comparable and replicable; questionable in the substance of their reality; complicated to administer in surveys; and theoretically not well-founded. The main reason for these deficits is to be found in empiricist methods based on cluster and correspondence analysis. In order to solve these problems, the usual procedure is turned around by developing a conceptual typology of nine differential lifestyles first and operationalizing it accordingly. This is done by drawing on a meta-analysis of numerous empirical studies of lifestyle and values research. The analysis shows contemporary lifestyles in Germany to be structured primarily along three dimensions: material level, modernity/biographical perspective, and scope for action. The first two are used for the index-based and methodically efficient construction of an integrative lifestyle-typology. On the basis of three population surveys the typology is validated with respect to its temporal stability and its congruence with the results of conventional methods.

No abstract