Home
Scholarly Works
Actually, It Does: Fatal Errors in
Journal article

Actually, It Does: Fatal Errors in

Abstract

Recently, Judd et al. (2022) reported that, contrary to Arnocky et al. (2017), there is no link between altruism and indices of mating success. However, a reanalysis of the open-source data revealed coding and analytical errors which, when corrected, provided consistent support for the initial findings of Arnocky et al. that altruism positively predicts self-reported mating success and in-pair copulation controlling for sex, age, and personality dimensions. Furthermore, in contrast to the initial report by Judd et al., altruism is positively correlated with, and predicts, lifetime number of sex partners and the number of casual sex partners; however, entry of covariates (particularly age and extraversion) attenuates these relations. Judd et al.’s mischaracterization of their research as a direct replication of Arnocky et al., coupled with the statistical errors, data transformation issues, and faulty interpretation of their results, calls into serious question their claim of a failed “replication.”

Authors

Arnocky S; Davis AC; Barclay P; Brittain HL; Vaillancourt T

Journal

Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 472–481

Publisher

American Psychological Association (APA)

Publication Date

October 1, 2023

DOI

10.1037/ebs0000314

ISSN

2330-2925

Contact the Experts team