ArticlePsychological science2011
False-positive psychology: undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant.
Article in Psychological science, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03779477 (Effect of "Coping With Stress Program" to Depression and Anxiety Symptoms and Brain Functions in Adolescent at High-Risk for Depression), which is not on this map. Cited by 1,433 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of "Coping With Stress Program" to Depression and Anxiety Symptoms and Brain Functions in Adolescent at High-Risk for Depression
Who cites it
1,433 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Variability in Preprocessing and Analysis of the Error-Related Negativity in Adult Response-Conflict Studies: A Systematic Review.Psychophysiology · 2026Pooled it
- Identification of suicide brain transcriptomic signatures using meta-analysis of multiple cohorts.Translational psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Heterogeneity in gender differences in self-reported political preferences, trust, and well-being across 39 European countries.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Co-activation of phonological and orthographic codes in various modalities of language processing: A systematic and meta-analytic review.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Pooled it
- Revictimisation Across Types of Interpersonal Violence: A Meta-Regression Analysis of PTSD and Associated Factors.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2025Pooled it
- Taking stock of psychosocial rehabilitation in children and adolescents: a systematic review with meta-analysis.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Group discussions improve reliability and validity of rated categories based on qualitative data from systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Preprocessing choices for P3 analyses with mobile EEG: A systematic literature review and interactive exploration.Psychophysiology · 2025Pooled it
- Risk and protective factors for interpersonal revictimization in people with post-traumatic stress symptoms: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Investigating the effects of single-dose intranasal testosterone on economic preferences in a large randomized trial of men.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Trial
- Examining bidirectional associations between overprotective parenting and adolescent problem behaviors: a multiverse analysis.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Reproducibility in biomedical research.Nature medicine · 2026Review
- Enhancing the utility of exploratory 'factors associated with' studies in global mental health: the importance of context in Sub-Saharan Africa.International journal of mental health systems · 2026Article
- Designing reproducible large-language-model-assisted scientific analyses.Patterns (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Review
- Raising the bar: updated study design and statistics guidelines for the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.Journal of veterinary internal medicine · 2026Article
- The Uptake of Preregistration, and Its Impact on the Proportion of Supported Hypotheses, in Sports Science.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Article
- Commentary: Making Patient Data Count-Opportunities and Challenges for Open Science in Clinical Psychology.Journal of clinical psychology · 2026Article
- Perceptual Style-Shifting Across Singing and Speech: Music Activates Pop Song English for NZ Listeners.Language and speech · 2026Article
- Apparent Talker Variability and Speaking Style Similarity Can Enhance Comprehension of Novel L2-Accented Talkers.Language and speech · 2026Article
- Critical-Network Lesion-Symptom Mapping.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
1,373 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this article, we accomplish two things. First, we show that despite empirical psychologists' nominal endorsement of a low rate of false-positive findings (≤ .05), flexibility in data collection, analysis, and reporting dramatically increases actual false-positive rates. In many cases, a researcher is more likely to falsely find evidence that an effect exists than to correctly find evidence that it does not. We present computer simulations and a pair of actual experiments that demonstrate how unacceptably easy it is to accumulate (and report) statistically significant evidence for a false hypothesis. Second, we suggest a simple, low-cost, and straightforwardly effective disclosure-based solution to this problem. The solution involves six concrete requirements for authors and four guidelines for reviewers, all of which impose a minimal burden on the publication process.
Indexed as
Identifiers
22006061What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.