Inconvenience is inevitable in building a better psychology: commentary on Sherman (2024)

Kroupin, Ivan ORCID: 0000-0003-3673-9918, Henrich, Joseph and Muthukrishna, Michael ORCID: 0000-0002-7079-5166 (2025) Inconvenience is inevitable in building a better psychology: commentary on Sherman (2024). American Psychologist. ISSN 0003-066X (In Press)

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Abstract

Psychological science advances on two complementary fronts: discovery and generalization. Sherman rightly defends the value of convenience samples for the former. However, his article omits how generalization is necessary for psychological science as a whole, and how considerations of generalization must shape our interpretation of empirical results — even those conducted without an aim to produce generalizable conclusions. In this commentary, we 1) affirm the importance of convenience samples as a tool, 2) discuss how generalization is key to psychological science as a whole, and plays a role even in interpreting studies not intended to generalize across groups, and 3) illustrate the feasibility of broad generalization, including through the use of theoretical frameworks and ‘inconvenient’ cross-cultural data sets.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Psychological and Behavioural Science
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Date Deposited:	04 Jun 2025 11:12
Last Modified:	05 Jun 2025 07:57
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128304

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