A Contractarian Solution to the Experimenter’s Regress

Abstract

Debiasing procedures are experimental methods aimed at correcting errors arising from the cognitive biases of the experimenter. We will discuss two of these methods, the predesignation rule and randomization, showing to what extent they are open to the experimenter's regress: there is no metarule to prove that, after implementing the procedure, the experimental data are actually free from biases. We claim that, from a contractarian perspective these procedures are nonetheless defensible, since they provide a warrant of the impartiality of the experiment: we only need a proof that the result has not been intentionally manipulated for a prima facie acceptance.

The replication crisis: How might philosophy and theory of psychology be of use?

“…The social sciences, Collins added, encounter ontological entanglements when language is central to research; uncertainty arises here because "Language forms the world that humans inhabit ever as it describes it" (p. 80). 2 Elucidating the experimenters' regress pinpoints thorny problems that are faced in any kind of replication (Feest, 2016;Teira, 2013). Feest took up one of the problems by reframing Collin's notions of tacit knowledge and uncertainty.…”

“…Elucidating the experimenters’ regress pinpoints thorny problems that are faced in any kind of replication (Feest, 2016; Teira, 2013). Feest took up one of the problems by reframing Collin’s notions of tacit knowledge and uncertainty.…”

Debiasing Methods and the Acceptability of Experimental Outcomes

“…More precisely, I want to discuss whether the impartiality of an experimental method plays any role in the acceptance of the setup. I will characterize experimental impartiality as follows: an experiment will be impartial if it incorporates methodological devices preventing the experimenter from manipulating the results according to her interests, in the specific way each device addresses (Teira 2013a(Teira , 2013c. Conscious or unconscious, such manipulations generate experimental biases: the preferences of the participants in the experiment interfere in the measurement process, altering the result that we would obtain if we replicated the experiment controlling for these preferences.…”

“…The epistemic relevance of controlling for these preferences can be defended from a contractarian perspective (Zamora Bonilla 2002), as I have tried to argue elsewhere (Teira 2013a). The core intuitition of this approach is as follows: Let us imagine a community of self-interested scientists, partly motivated by finding truths, and partly by more mundane interests such as, for instance, the success of their careers.…”

Choosing Expert Statistical Advice: Practical Costs and Epistemic Justification

“…a statistical estimate) is independent from his own personal preferences or biases. Teira (2013a, 2013b) discusses how this independence can be actually warranted.…”