What have we learned from the replication crisis? Integrating open research into social psychology teaching

Abstract

Social psychology is in the midst of a ‘replication crisis’, triggered by attempts to replicate many of this discipline’s seminal findings unsuccessfully. In order to increase the credibility of social psychology, there has been a growing emphasis on more ‘open’ ways of approaching research. Open research reflects the notion that knowledge should be accessible, transparent, rigorous, reproducible, replicable, and inclusive. However, whilst this reform has swept the research landscape, the teaching of the replication crisis and open research has not yet been routinely embedded within the higher education curriculum. Social psychology textbooks continue to focus on non-replicable phenomena, and discussions around replication and open research are mainly absent from the classroom. In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of the replication crisis and open research, considering what this means for educators who teach social psychology. We then provide four case studies to ease integration of this within curriculum (re)design.