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Matt Williams

@matthewmatix.bsky.social

1.7K followers 150 following 110 posts

Associate prof at Massey University. Interested in statistics, open science, meta-psychology, and conspiracy theories. https://mattwilliams.netlify.app/

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Psychology 36%

Sociology 17%

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 8h

In which the authors of a 2023 Psych Science paper claim that the correlation between two constants is 1

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 7d

This is a fun study, and I agree the CLPM totally sucks. Still... the question of how severe a test it is relates to how it behaves when testing a *false* hypothesis. So the fact we don't know how many of those 98*2 causal effects exist in reality seems a little troublesome...

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 7d

So please send us your work!

(And yes, I know it's a bit weird that I'm located about as far from Europe as one can get without a spaceship)

Reposted by Mark Rubin

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 7d

I'm joining the brilliant @jkarl.bsky.social as co-EIC at Europe's Journal of Psychology. ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop

EJOP is a generalist psych journal, and applies a diamond open access model (no APC). I'd love to see more submissions with rigorous methods & well-calibrated conclusions!

Europe’s Journal of Psychology

Quarterly peer-reviewed open access journal of scientific psychology featuring original studies, research, critical contributions written by and intended for psychologists worldwide.

ejop.psychopen.eu

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 8d

PhD holder who didn't collect any original data for my thesis checking in 🙋 The world isn't short of data to analyse!

(I did collect data for my Masters... pen-and-paper surveys from primary school kids... back in the olden days!)

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 9d

A lot of psych is already conducted with online convenience samples & ppl are probably excited about silicon samples bc it would allow them to crank out more studies for even less 💸

How about we reconsider the idea that sciencey science involves collecting own data.
www.science.org/content/arti...

AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds

Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings

www.science.org

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Meredith Broussard, Ingo Rohlfing , and 9 more Joanna Bryson, Meredith Broussard, Ingo Rohlfing, Ian Hussey, Martin Kreidl, Brian Keegan, Matt N Williams, Jens Rommel, Dana R. Fisher, Johannes Breuer, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dana Howard

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 9d

AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds

Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings

www.science.org

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 10d

Have you considered getting them to use SPSS via a remote desktop connected to a university machine? Because I find that's always fun too

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 15d

No. Post-publication peer review is an essential and under-appreciated service to the scientific community, and not remotely criminal. I'm sure it's upsetting to have problems in your work identified, but the solution is to do better science.

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Reposted by Matt N Williams

Ian Hussey @ianhussey.mmmdata.io · 16d

Some researchers don't discuss their future research plans for fear of being scooped.

Not me. I drop bad ideas for unscrupulous people to 'steal'.

- What are the neural correlates of Open Science practices?
- What is the role of habits in learning a new skill through repetitive practice?

a man in a leather jacket is looking up and saying `` big brain '' while standing in front of a building .

ALT: a man in a leather jacket is looking up and saying `` big brain '' while standing in front of a building .

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Sebastian Karcher, Matt N Williams, Joanna Tai , and 1 more Sebastian Karcher, Matt N Williams, Joanna Tai, Timothy D. McBride

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 17d

BEWARE: Surveys that allow anyone to "opt in" are vulnerable to those who create many accounts (using VPN to bypass IP limits) & use automated tools to generate bogus responses (such as saying "yes" to question about being licensed to operate nuclear submarines).
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 19d

In my experience PCI RR reviews are also pretty darn comprehensive and thorough! I guess YMMV though

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 19d

Reviews from PCI would come from a specific thematic PCI. peercommunityin.org/current-pcis/ For those 3 journals the closest possible match is PCI RR (were they registered reports?), but that feels unlikely - only 1 of the 3 (Collabra) is a PCI RR friendly journal.

Current PCIs - Peer Community In

Here is the list of the different Peer Communities In already created, hosting recommendations and peer-reviews of preprints and ready to receive your submissions

peercommunityin.org

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 27d

I once watched their gig grind to a halt for 45 minutes because Anton was mad that Joel was taking some time off from their tour

To get married.

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 27d

It doesn't sound like a problem. Unless a plan to stop if the estimated effect at peek 1 was under the SESOI was part of the initial plan and incorporated in the alpha spending calculation somehow?

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Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Cameron Brick, Matt N Williams

Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · 28d

PsyArXiv's amazing team of 100+ moderators has now approved all preprints that meet the requirements outlined in the updated PsyArXiv policies (is.gd/paxpolicy). Thank you to everyone who volunteered, this was a true community effort! #PsychSciSky

About PsyArXiv – PsyArXiv Blog

What is PsyArXiv? PsyArXiv (psychology archive) is an open preprint archive designed to facilitate rapid dissemination of psychological research. PsyArXiv is a creation of the Society for the…

is.gd

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 29d

The mods will be gradually chasing authors up to get these updated and accepted, but if you know this is you, updating the preprint to list all the authors will speed things along 🙂

Reposted by Brian A. Nosek

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 29d

If you have submitted a preprint to PsyArXiv in the last year or so and it *isn't* currently accessible, there's a good chance it's due to the document listing authors whom you haven't entered in the metadata.

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · 29d

You can contact [email protected] to discuss?

Current policies are here in case this helps: blog.psyarxiv.com/about-psyarx...

About PsyArXiv – PsyArXiv Blog

What is PsyArXiv? PsyArXiv (psychology archive) is an open preprint archive designed to facilitate rapid dissemination of psychological research. PsyArXiv is a creation of the Society for the Improvem...

blog.psyarxiv.com

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Sep 9

Very cool. Deborah was an excellent student in one of my tutorial streams when I was a PhD student. Stoked to see the great things she's gone on to!

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Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Matt N Williams

Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · Sep 7

When reporting on these kinds of claims, the media should ask:

1. Is this a one-off study or a replicated finding?
2. Is it cherry-picked or consistent?
3. Was the study big enough to be reliable?
4. Did it employ robust statistical methods?
5. How big is the effect size? (If there’s a statistical association, does it amount to a big risk or a small one?)
6. Is there any evidence for a causal link or is it just a correlation?
7. Could the correlation reflect some confounding factor?
8. How does this supposed factor sit in the context of other factors (especially genetic risk for autism, which is very highly heritable)?

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Mark E. Schaffer, Serge Egelman , and 4 more Jonathan Portes, Mark E. Schaffer, Serge Egelman, Matt N Williams, Ben Rosamond, Gavin Kelly, Tom Louwerse

Sophie E. Hill @sophieehill.bsky.social · Sep 5

"Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds"

Or does it? Let's take a look at this "study"...

www.theguardian.com/food/2025/se...

Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds

Researchers say low- and no-calorie sweeteners appear to affect thinking and memory in middle age

www.theguardian.com

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Sep 3

No. And given that we know data is not avalailble upon request, it certainly won't be available upon reasonable request... osf.io/jbu9r_v1

OSF

osf.io

Reposted by Martin Lang, Michael W. Kraus, Matt N Williams

Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · Aug 30

PsyArXiv is now down to only ~40% of the backlog we started with, thanks to our amazing moderators 🎉 To all mods: thank you so much for your hard work!

Did one of your preprints get approved recently? Help us show our thanks by liking and sharing this post :)

#PsyArXiv #PsychSciSky

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Aug 23

Many other countries in the world have parties. Most of us are managing to avoid a slide into dictatorship

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Aug 21

What an odd paper!

This bit sounds faintly reasonable at first glance, but do we have any reason to expect that cross-sectional mediation would be much use for identifying candidate mediators to test experimentally? And how can something "account for an association" without having causal effects?

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Aug 20

Authors, reviewers, editors... none of them noticed that the title is inconsistent with what the authors themselves acknowledged about the methods?

Jesus take the wheel

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Aug 20

I think you are referring to the idea of a "backfire effect" when debunking myths. The problem is that the backfire effect is itself essentially a myth.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Elusive Backfire Effect: Mass Attitudes’ Steadfast Factual Adherence - Political Behavior

Can citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their partisan and ideological attachments? The “backfire effect,” described by Nyhan and Reifler (Polit Behav 32(2):303–33...

link.springer.com

Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Aug 20

🫢

Reposted by Adrian Barnett, Matt N Williams

AIMOS @aimosinc.bsky.social · Aug 19

Submissions for #AIMOS2025 in Sydney close in just under two weeks!
aimos-inc.github.io/aimos.confer...

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Matt Williams @matthewmatix.bsky.social · Aug 18

Plus zero conditional mean of errors, way up in the top left!