Maureen Craig

@mocraig.bsky.social

Social psychologist investigating how people navigate diverse and inequitable contexts.

Selecting an effect size for power analysis is hard. Many researchers fall back on Cohen's thresholds, but they have no empirical basis and vary wildly by field. Our new paper offers a better option: field-specific effect size distributions built from meta-analytic data doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Abstract
Effect sizes are useful for understanding the magnitude of study results and for planning new studies via power analysis.
However, despite their wide usage, effect sizes are often misinterpreted. This is mostly due to an over-reliance on general
effect size benchmarks that were not intended for broad application across diverse research fields. Inaccurate effect size
interpretations can lead to incorrect conclusions about the magnitude of study results and incorrect sample size estimates,
thereby increasing the likelihood of false-positive results. This article introduces the ESDist R package, which is designed
to calculate empirically derived effect-size benchmarks or a range of reliably detectable empirical effect sizes for a specific
research question or field of interest by computing effect size distributions (ESDs). This package can be used on data that
can be easily extracted from pre-existing meta-analyses to help researchers more accurately plan new studies or to better
understand how an individual study might relate to other studies in their field. ESDist includes a set of features that make it
easy to use in a priori power analysis. Moreover, the package includes a feature for estimating effect size benchmarks that
account for publication bias and are weighted by effect sizes' variances, which addresses existing limitations of using ESDs
for study planning or interpretation.

Thrilled to announce my paper with @dianamejordan.bsky.social & sky-less Trent Ollerenshaw is now published open-access at @apsrjournal.bsky.social. In a (very) large replication & extension, we show that design effects of repeated measure experiments are nonzero but typically small. Thread:

Abstract for "New Evidence and Design Considerations for Repeated Measure Experiments in Survey Research" by Diana Jordan, Trent Ollerenshaw, and Andrew Trexler, published in the American Political Science Review. The abstract text reads: "We re-examine recent influential claims that repeated measure experimental designs offer large precision gains without biasing treatment effect estimates in survey research. We test these claims by experimentally varying the design of six classic political science experiments across three distinct large samples of U.S. adults (total N = 13,163). In contrast to prior evidence, we observe consistent attenuation of treatment effects in repeated measure designs. However, we show in simulations that this average design effect is small enough, and the precision gains large enough, that we recommend repeated measure designs for broad application—though (large-N) post-only designs may be preferable when research priorities include estimating the precise magnitude of a treatment effect. We additionally explore how several design considerations affect the bias-precision trade-off, such as within-subject versus between-groups designs, the relative separation of repeated measures within single surveys, and differences in respondent characteristics across sample types."
Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR@cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 3mo ago

#OpenAccess from @apsrjournal.bsky.social - New Evidence and Design Considerations for Repeated Measure Experiments in Survey Research - https://cup.org/4sVtFLj - @dianamejordan.bsky.social, TRENT OLLERENSHAW & @atrexler.com #FirstView

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NEW: NSF has been funding research at a fraction of its historic rate. Last week, the agency finally began distributing money to its directorates and is now likely to pick up the grantmaking pace. But these allocations also amount to substantial cuts across the sciences. My reporting:

Delays have kept new NSF grants to a trickle — that could be about to change

The agency is finally ready to distribute a spate of new grants, but it is also preparing substantial cuts to areas such as biological and social sciences.

nature.com

Concerned about the possible dismantling of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Directorate of NSF?? www.nature.com/articles/d41... Find out what's happening and what we can do to protect behavioral science with @fabbs.org Friday April 10th at 1:30 ET. Register at us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration

Budget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing.

nature.com

Want to learn about computational social science *for free* and identify new research partners across academic fields? Apply to one of the 2026 Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (described in yellow in the attached map) here: sicss.io/locations

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dplyr 1.2.0 is out now and we are SO excited! - `filter_out()` for dropping rows - `recode_values()`, `replace_values()`, and `replace_when()` that join `case_when()` as a complete family of recoding/replacing tools These are huge quality of life wins for #rstats! tidyverse.org/blog/2026/02...

dplyr 1.2.0

dplyr 1.2.0 fills in some important gaps in dplyr's API: we've added a new complement to `filter()` focused on dropping rows, and we've expanded the `case_when()` family with three new recoding and re...

tidyverse.org

I am looking to recruit a postdoc to join my lab next fall, & work on projects focused on online mobilization with social media datasets - see more details here: bit.ly/4r49x9b . If anyone knows of someone with relevant skills who is looking for a postdoc- please pass this on!

Research Associate in Psychology

Dr. Eric Shuman at the University of Virginia invites applications for a post-doctoral research associate with expertise in the social psychology of social protest, social change, and/or in big data, ...

bit.ly

Pew Research Center just posted a brand new opening for a Data Archivist! This is a 2-year, grant-funded position housed within the methods team (the best team obv). Check out the link below for a full description and to apply! #openscience

Data Archivist

Position Summary Pew Research Center is seeking a Data Archivist to support our commitment to open science and data transparency. This newly created role will play a key part in enhancing the accessib...

pewtrusts.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com

I'm excited to share that I’ll be reviewing PhD applications this cycle for students interested in working with me starting Summer/Fall 2026. I’m especially looking for applicants excited about research on trust/persuasion, responses to historical harm, addressing inequality, and/or mindsets.

new paper by Sean Westwood: With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

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Realized I should update that this is now ungated. Everyone can now read, without subscription, the article that one reader described as having "about as close to a plot twist as one will ever see in a review essay." (I loved that comment, which has been making me smile since I read it.)

Three Ways of Looking at Black–White Mortality Differences in the United States

Everyone agrees that US Black deaths happen earlier than white deaths on average, but it is surprisingly challenging to find the best ways to summarize, quantify, and compare this gap. This review arg...

doi.org

ISPP Small Grants are back for 2026! 💡 $50k total available; request up to $5k for research or network/workshop projects. Open to current ISPP members. Proposals due Dec 1, 2025. Selection uses a lottery among proposals that meet all criteria. Apply: ispp.org/funding/smal...

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