In a recent study, a collaboration between scholars at New York University and the University of California, Irvine, the sample size was greatly expanded by dividing the children into two groups: an "educated group" in which the mothers had college degrees, and a "non-educated group" in which the mothers did not have college degrees. ".
It turned out that when grouped by family background, the classic marshmallow experiment surprisingly failed to repeat! This sparked quite a bit of discussion: are those big-name experiments in psychology similarly flopping?
1、What are some famous experiments in psychology that later failed when they were repeated and verified?
2. Was this failure due to a change in modern mentality, or was the original experiment itself flawed?
3. What should we think about the current psychological research and various psychological effects?
🧚🏻 Hi friends, reading these words is like we are talking face to face 🧚🏻
Super happy to be talking with you about this interesting topic!
(a) Which of some famous experiments in psychology were later repeated and were failures?
👇 Let's start with the first question, and I'll pick two more representative experiments to share with you:
🧚♀️ The first is: a study on predicting longevity with smile strength.
👇 In 2010, Psychological Science, a top psychology journal, posted a short article titled "Smile Intensity in Photographs Predicts Lifespan". A team of researchers analyzed old photos of 230 baseball players from 1952, scored them based on smile intensity, then tracked their lifespan data, analyzed it with a Cox regression model, and came to a pretty amazing conclusion: the brighter the smile, the longer you live!
The logic goes like this: positive emotions enhance quality of life, and smiles are an outward expression of emotions, so they indirectly predict longevity. At the time this result looked pretty convincing.
(I can't put the pictures up. Please bear with me.)
👇 But last year, another rebuttal paper was published in the same journal, titled, "Does Photo Smile Intensity Really Predict Lifespan? . They repeated the experiment using the same methodology, and also expanded the sample, and what they found was this: there was no significant relationship between smiles and lifespan at all!
Below:
(Still can't get the picture to show up. Sorry.)
Why is that? There are several reasons:
1 The sample variance is larger;
2 The original study's measurements may have been inaccurate, leading to false-positive results;
3 To be honest, guessing life expectancy based on photos alone sounds a bit esoteric in itself;
🧚♀️ The second is the debate about whether "learning is all about imitation".
Behaviorist schools feel that learning is the mechanical connection of stimuli and responses, such as mice pressing levers to get food, a habit formed by repeated reinforcement. They even think that human language learning is the same model.
In Skinner's famous experiment - Skinner's Box - hungry mice accidentally stepped on a lever to drop food, and learned to keep pressing the lever after a few times. He called this "operant conditioning" and the food "positive reinforcement". The theory was later applied to education and even juvenile detention centers, where it was thought that behavior could be shaped by rewards and punishments.
👇 But the smack in the face comes fast.There was a BBC program that had Skinner demonstrate live, getting kids to repeat complex sentences. The older children were able to mimic it, but the younger ones couldn't be taught how to do it. On the live broadcast, Skinner's theory was directly disproved, and he himself froze in the face at that moment. But what is admirable is that he did not weasel out of it, but instead frankly admitted the shortcomings, and this spirit of truth-seeking is superb!
🧚♀️ (ii) Did it fail because of a change of heart in humans, or were the results of the original experiment more one-sided?I don't think there's any real "failure" in psychological research, it's more like polishing the truth as it progresses. Previous results are not necessarily wrong, it's just that times have changed, tools are new, and perspectives are more comprehensive.
👇 First of all, the instruments are much more high-end now. For example, in the past, we felt reliable with a few hundred samples, but now AI and supercomputers can handle massive amounts of data, and the results are naturally more accurate.
👇 Everyone is more open-minded. Different voices used to be easily buried, now the internet gives everyone a voice, and questioning and validating makes research more solid.
Furthermore, the conclusion is related to the trend of the times. For example, in the early years of the Marshmallow Experiment, it was emphasized that "patience is the key to success", but nowadays, society is more accepting of balance - when it's time to hold back, when it's time to play, and the factors of success have diversified.
👇 Variable control has become more scientific. Whereas in the past other factors might have been ignored, we now know that outcomes are often multifactorial and cannot be simply attributed.
🧚♀️ (c) What do you think about the current stage of research in psychology, psychological effects?
I'm not sure what you think, but I'd like to discuss it with you.
I often hear similar queries:
👇 Are you a professional? Just answering questions here?
👇 Not afraid to mislead people?
👇 Feel like your answer is too subjective with no professional advice?
👇Why do you bring up psychology when it comes to relationships?
In fact, I want to say, interest is the best teacher ah! I love psychology, although I am not professional enough now, but I am continuing to learn; not objective enough? Then I'll try to improve! Not enough knowledge? I will read more books and ask for advice.
👇 I think it's good to be a bit subjective instead, feel the other person's emotions with your heart first and then guide them rationally with knowledge. Why less advice? For one thing, it's still accumulating, and for another, I think sometimes people need to be understood more than they need to be directly lectured to. After all, everyone has the answer in their heart, they just need to be seen and comforted.
So, the feedback pushed me forward.
The world and I love you!