Peer review and the economy

What is peer review? (2)

When someones work is reviewed by a person in the same field and specialty as the researcher

This is done before publishing

Peer review purposes: Allocation of research funding

Limited budgets so organisations need to spend their money responsibly on worthwhile research

Peer review purposes: Publication of research

Prevents incorrect or faulty data from being printed in academic journals or books

Peer review purpose: Assesing research ratings of uni departments

Research is quality assessed which can impact the funding they receive in the future

Problems: Appropriate expert (2)

It isn’t always possible to find an appropriate expert to review a research proposal or report.

Reviewer may not understand the research and therefore pass it anyway

Problems: Anonymity (4)

Anonymity is usually practised so that reviewers can be honest and objective

Some reviewers may use anonymity to their advantage

Research is a competitive world as researchers need funding

Social relationships may lead to good research being buried under a peer review

Problems: Publication bias (2)

Peer review tends to favour the publication of positive results

Can lead to misperception of the true facts, making them as bad as newspapers for publishing ‘eye-catching’ stories

Problems: Peer review preferences (2)

Peer review results in a preference for research that goes with existing theory rather than dissenting or unconventional work

Harder to validate and accept new findings

Problems: Public view (3)

Once a research study has been published, the results remain in public view

This is even if they are subsequently found to have been fraudulent or have used poor research

Not all data is valid, public need to be more critical in their acceptance of published information

Other problems

Slow process

Economic psychology (2)

Seeking a better understanding of people’s behaviour in their economic lives

The field is primarily concerned with the rationality of decisions relating to economics

Why might irrational thinking occur? (2)

Availability heuristics

The framing effect

What is availability heuristics?

The more available an option is, the more likely we are to select it

Availability heuristics: Example (3)

People often overestimate the likelihood of being in a plane crash

There is lots of information available about plane crashes

We make an irrational probability judgement that the likelihood of a crash occurring is high when it isn’t

What is the framing effect?

People’s decisions differ depending on whether a choice is presented as a gain or a loss

Framing effect: Example

Tversky and Kahneman (1986) asked participants to choose between two treatments

These were going to be used with 600 people suffering from a deadly disease

Two groups of participants were given the same facts about the success and failure rates of the treatment but the facts were framed differently

Framing effect: Example → results (2)

When one treatment was positively framed 72% of participants picked it compared

Only 22% of participants selecting the treatment when it was negatively framed