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The persistent sampling bias in developmental psychology: A call to action
Mark Nielsen1, Daniel Haun2, Joscha Kärtner3
1School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|June 3, 2017
Summary
Psychology research is heavily biased towards Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) populations. This overreliance on narrow samples risks misattributing culturally specific findings as universal, hindering scientific progress.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
Background:
- Psychology literature exhibits a significant bias towards studying participants from unrepresentative environments.
- There is an overreliance on a narrow participant pool, particularly WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the implications of this bias and the necessity of research with diverse populations.
- To examine the extent to which high-impact developmental journals publish data from WEIRD populations.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of publication trends in high-impact developmental journals.
- Review of existing literature on participant sampling in psychological research.
Main Results:
- High-impact developmental journals are heavily skewed towards publishing articles with data from WEIRD populations.
- Despite awareness, there is a habitual dependence on convenience sampling with little evidence of meaningful movement towards diverse samples.
Conclusions:
- Failure to use diverse samples leads to culturally specific findings being misattributed as universal.
- This has broad implications for theory construction and the reliable dissemination of psychological research findings.
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