Thanks to the publicity which moral psychology (and specifically Jon Haidt’s work) has begun to receive, along with the average person’s insatiable appetite for knowledge about themselves, facilitated by the internet, we have collected a truly unique dataset at yourmorals.org. It is a large community sample and includes some reaction time data. It is non-representative (skewed liberal and educated), but includes individuals from diverse trackable sources such that some robustness analysis is possible. However, even if we wanted to (an open question), it would be impossible for those of us who collected this data to formally publish all the results. Hence, we would like to potentially solicit your help.
Academic publishing is not easy. In psychology (though we’d be happy to publish outside of psychology), it’s not enough just to have a valid results, but the results often have to be novel as well. Therefore, many replication studies may not be publishable or may only be publishable in lesser known journals or just on this blog. That doesn’t necessarily make that endeavor unworthwhile, as replication, or the failure to replicate, is an essential part of the scientific method, but we want people to know what they are getting into. We’re open to anyone who is motivated to publish in peer reviewed journals, and there is no inherent reason that limits this to academics. However, it’s a labor intensive process with no monetary reward, so it’s quite possible that only those with an eye toward building an academic CV might be interested.
Here is a running list of potentially publishable results which are in our publication queue, but there are many more possibilities. We are open to proposals on a variety of topics. Some of you might be interested in a specific topic and might find this list of measures useful in determining if we have data on that topic. Data might potentially serve as the 1st study in a 3 study package where a community sample reinforces the results of a lab experiment, or as convergent evidence in something you already are working on. In rare cases, we may even be willing to collect new data using additional measures, even including experimental methods, if your ideas are compelling enough. However, there are only so many resources we have and the degree of effort required is definitely a consideration, balanced against the contribution which could be made. Also bear in mind that some number of papers are already in progress, and it may be possible that your idea is already being worked on.
If you are interested, please use this form to contact me as it has important questions to be answered. Beginning any publication process is a commitment and we would obviously like to work on projects that have successful conclusions. Thanks for your potential interest.
– Ravi Iyer