Dario Krpan (LSE): ‘How to Increase the Amount of Knowledge That Psychological and Behavioural Science as a Discipline Produces?’

Abstract: The fundamental goal of science is to increase scientific knowledge—that is, to continuously generate more accurate explanations of various natural phenomena, from black holes to human behaviour. In an ideal world, finding the best possible explanations would require testing and comparing “all possible theories”, because this would allow objectively identifying the most accurate ones. In practice, however, this is not achievable, and maximizing scientific knowledge would therefore require continuously developing theories and methodologies that are as diverse as possible, to increase the chance of identifying the most plausible ones from the infinite space of possibilities. In contemporary science, the diversity of methods, approaches, and ideas is limited by various conventions, trends, and systemic biases resulting from the organization and politics of research. These limitations greatly reduce the diversity of theories that are conceived and evaluated, thereby hampering the growth of scientific knowledge. In this talk, I will present three potential solutions to this knowledge problem. One is “disconnectedness”, according to which researchers develop their ideas by following the main principles of scientific method, but they are disconnected from a “field” consisting of other scientists and therefore do not follow the field’s norms and conventions. The second one involves making science more open to speculation. Finally, the third solution involves making science more open to contributions from “amateurs”.

Dario Krpan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE.

Please note that this is an in-person event. If you can’t attend but would like to follow the talk remotely, please contact Somayeh Tohidi.