Crowdsourcing hypothesis tests: Making transparent how design choices shape research results

To what extent are research results influenced by subjective decisions that scientists make as they design studies? Fifteen research teams independently designed studies to answer fiveoriginal research questions related to moral judgments, negotiations, and implicit cognition. Participants from two separate large samples (total N > 15,000) were then randomly assigned to complete one version of each study. Effect sizes varied dramatically across different sets of materials designed to test the same hypothesis: materials from different teams renderedstatistically significant effects in opposite directions for four out of five hypotheses, with the narrowest range in estimates being d = -0.37 to +0.26. Meta-analysis and a Bayesian perspective on the results revealed overall support for two hypotheses, and a lack of support for three hypotheses. Overall, practically none of the variability in effect sizes was attributable to the skill of the research team in designing materials, while considerable variability was attributable to the hypothesis being tested. In a forecasting survey, predictions of other scientists were significantly correlated with study results, both across and within hypotheses. Crowdsourced testing of research hypotheses helps reveal the true consistency of empirical support for a scientific claim.</div

The effects of visuo-spatial perspective-taking on trust

Trust is a universally admired quality of interpersonal relations, be their nature private, professional, economic, or political. However, little is known about how trust can be fostered. One cognitive process that has been suggested as a precursor of trust is perspective-taking, but experimental evidence for a causal relation between the two constructs is missing. In the present article, we investigated whether perspective-taking increases trust in strangers and known interaction partners. Perspective-taking should lead to trust, because it has been shown to increase liking of other people, which itself is an important antecedent of trust. In three high-powered experiments (total N = 612), we investigated the effects of perspective-taking on trust using a novel visuo-spatial manipulation of perspective-taking. In Experiment 1, participants reported feeling more trust for a stranger after engaging in visuo-spatial perspective-taking compared to trials where they remained in their egocentric perspective. Experiment 2 supported the above-mentioned theoretical mechanism that trust in a stranger is increased due to liking and generalized the results from self-reported trust to behavioral trust within a trust game. Experiment 3 demonstrated an important boundary condition of this effect by showing that when the trustworthiness of another person is concurrently directly manipulated by giving participants information about how the other person has behaved in the past, the effects of perspective-taking on behavioral trust vanish, and while its effects on self-reported liking and trust remain intact, they are small in comparison to the effects of direct trustworthiness manipulations on self-reported liking and trust

The nondeclaration of nonmotor symptoms of Parkinson's disease to health care professionals : an international study using the nonmotor symptoms questionnaire

The nonmotor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) are less well recognised and can be more troublesome to patients and carers than classical motor features. NMS are frequently missed during routine consultations and such under-recognition may have implications on quality of care given that many NMS are treatable. To determine the proportion of patients not declaring NMS to healthcare professional (HCP) as assessed by self completion of the NMS questionnaire (NMSQuest), a validated, self-completing questionnaire with 30 items. Multicentre international study. The data was collected from PD patients across all age groups and stages attending outpatient clinics in specialist and care of the elderly settings. 242 patients recruited and undeclared NMS ranged from 31.8% (diplopia) to 65.2% (delusions). The most frequently nondeclared symptoms were delusions, daytime sleepiness, intense and vivid dreams, and dizziness. In many, appropriate treatments for undeclared NMS were started only after these were recognised following completion of NMSQuest. NMS of PD are frequently undeclared at routine hospital consultation and may be related to the fact that patients often do not link these symptoms with PD or may be too embarrassed to discuss these. Use of NMSQuest allows patients to flag symptoms which may be otherwise undeclared and remain untreated when potential treatments exist