Blind Analysis

Guest: Robert MacCoun, PhD, Professor of Law at Stanford University You know how you can read over something you’ve written many times and never notice a typo until someone else points it out? Either you’re not looking for it or you just don’t see it because you don’t want to or don’t expect to. There’s a phenomenon in scientific research called “confirmation bias” where scientists get the result they expect to get. In myriad subtle – even unconscious ways – they tweak their analysis and hone in on the findings that match their hypotheses. In the journal Nature two renowned scientists – including a Nobel Prize laureate in Physics – called on researchers to adopt techniques to avoid the unconscious biases that make studies less reliable. “Blind analysis” should be the standard for all types of research, they say.