Should "soft science" be considered real science? (lemmychan.org)

submitted 6 days ago by torik@lemmychan.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Personally? No, absolutely not. There should be no differentiating between what can be measured, and what cannot.

I can't help but look at the reproducibility issue in "Psychology" and notice, what did they do about it? Nothing. It just exists. It's not real science.

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[-] UNY0N@feddit.org 32 points 6 days ago

Absolutely, yes.

The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge through careful observation, rigorous skepticism, hypothesis testing, and experimental validation.

Any observable phenomenon should be studied using the scientific method. The alternatives are superstition or ignorance.

Psychology is a good example. It has been limited by our technology and our morals. The human brain is extremely complicated, and we cannot just disrupt peoples lives to create ideal testing conditions. But that doesn't mean that psychology is not science. It just means that it has unique challenges.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago

Psychology could be a science, but not the way it is being done currently.

[-] UNY0N@feddit.org 2 points 5 days ago

By all psychologists?

I agree that there is some stupid stuff being done in the name of science, 100%. But the discipline isn't really the deciding factor imho.

If you are interested, here is sabine explaining how academic is fundamentally broken.

https://youtu.be/LKiBlGDfRU8

this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026

4 points (61.1% liked)

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