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Jeffrey Starns (FRS '17-'18) tests Inference Crisis

Jeffrey Starns, a 2017-2018 Family Research Scholar at CRF has been featured in the news regarding an important finding in his research. Starns, working with professor Caren Rotello and doctoral student Andrea Cataldo, says that attention is not being paid to theoretical conclusions made in research studies. While many scientists and researchers work to unpack the 'replication crisis', time is not spent focusing on the harm that inferences can have on research conclusions. Starns says that testing whether scientists can make valid theoretical inferences by analyzing data is important to the validity of research. “Some incorrect conclusions are unavoidable with noisy data, but [those in the study] made those incorrect inferences with way too much confidence," Starns says.

To read more about their findings, click here.