The role of scientific judgment in generating knowledge: A qualitative study about interpersonal, collective, and collaborative belief formation in scientific practice.

• Applicant: Dr. Nora Hangel
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 500479165

Scientific results are of increasing academic and societal interest with regard to their reproducibility and with respect to different (internal and external) biases. Researchers are faced with the tasks of producing reliable results, supporting societal development with innovations while ensuring their own academic survival. However, researchers' perspectives on their daily challenges and the tension between contribution, accountability, and recognition when generating reliable results and communicating them adequately to peers has so far been little investigated. The present proposal is devoted to a central section of this challenge. It analyses the role and development of judgements within the research process up to the communication of results. The research participants from fields of experimental cognitive science, especially JDM (Judgment & Decision Making) are recruited in German research institutions and at international conferences in and outside Europe. The processes of experimental research with regard to decisions, judgments, evaluations and reasoning structures are analyzed using different qualitative methods (semi-structured narrative interviews, participant observation, document analysis and graphical models). Questions of reliability, stability and robustness of research results during the process of experimentation are investigated. In individual interviews at international conferences, working scientists will reflect on and describe their research processes as well as the challenges of communicating research results. The expected findings will provide information on a possible mismatch between practices of validation and their reconstruction in publications. The project is motivated by social epistemology within empirical philosophy of science. The findings will contribute to the role of the epistemological classification of scientific practice. The project also focuses on the role of individual, collaborative and collective judgement formation in different phases of the research process. This will result in an important contribution to the discussion of the relationship between individual and collective judgment aggregation. With the help of qualitative social research, the project contributes to enriching philosophical questions in an empirically informed way and thus contributes to an empirical understanding of knowledge generation. The results can also be useful for scientific research in various disciplines and for the training of future researchers.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants