In defense of pluralism in the scientific method

Abstract

Rather poor reliability in reproducibility, i.e., less than 40 or 30% success in replication, has been revealed not only in psychology but also in the life and medical sciences. This has been driven by the strong pressure for privatization and commercialization among the academic fields. However, maintaining high standards in reproducibility is not the only approach to realize actual scientific method. Several examples have suggested the effectiveness of a pluralistic set of methods in ethology, cultural anthropology, cognitive psychology, primatology, etc. These include qualitative, rather than quantitative approaches, i.e., historical narrative, collecting anecdotes, and anthropomorphism. Methods should be subordinate to the goal of scientific researchers, and not the other way around.