“Hot Paper” Spotlight – Effect Sizes and What to Make of Them

We all care about effect sizes. Yet, traditional ways of evaluating them (P < 0.05 and generic benchmarks) are failing us. In this paper, Dr. Friedrich Götz, Dr. Samuel D. Gosling, and Dr. Jason Rentfrow proposed two paths forward: setting better, contextualized benchmarks or — more radically — letting go of benchmarks altogether. Both paths point to adjusted expectations, more detailed reporting and slow science.

This paper can be accessed here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01858-z

Götz, F. M., Gosling, S. D., & Rentfrow, P. J. (2024). Effect sizes and what to make of them. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(5), 798-800. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01858-z