Theme 1 – Scientific integrity and the replication crisis
Many commenters focused on fraud, retraction requests, and the broader replication problem in psychology.
“Per the post, the original authors have requested that the original paper be retracted. That’s well above the bar of ‘not doing much’.” – fn‑mote
Theme 2 – Deadlines, procrastination, and the laziness label
A lively debate arose over whether deadlines are indispensable or merely a way to pathologize normal delay, with contrasting views on laziness versus workload management.
“There is no alternative to deadlines because time is money, and those downstream of you can ill afford to wait on your deliverables.” – bitwize
“I’m left wondering what the constructive alternative is to deadlines and/or how deadlines should be maintained or determined.” – hnacct2001
Theme 3 – Ethical concerns in human‑subject research
Discussants questioned the adequacy of training and oversight for experiments involving discomfort (e.g., electric shocks) and raised broader moral issues about researchers’ associations.
“The ‘electric shock’ normally used in psych studies is tiny, it's like the equivalent of one of those little toy prank buzzers.” – paytonjjones
“It’s not about bad actors. It’s about putting untrained people in a position where subjects might be vulnerable…” – Waterluvian