Will the project "The Adversarial Collaboration Project" receive any funding from the Clearer Thinking Regranting program run by ClearerThinking.org?

Below, you can find some selected quotes from the public copy of the application. The text beneath each heading was written by the applicant. Alternatively, you can click here to see the entire public portion of their application.

In brief, why does the applicant think we should we fund this project?

The Adversarial Collaboration Project supports scholars with clashing theoretical-ideological views to engage in best practices for resolving scientific disputes. There are many ongoing debates in the social and behavioral sciences that influence policy and organizational decision-making in which both sides have become entrenched, research findings have become politicized, and scientific progress has come to a halt. We seek to stimulate a culture shift among social and behavioral scientists whose work touches on polarizing topics with policy significance by encouraging disagreeing scholars to work together to make scientific progress.

As originally conceived by Economics Nobel Prize Laureate, Daniel Kahneman, adversarial collaborations call on scholars to: (1) make good faith efforts to articulate each other’s positions (so that each side feels fairly characterized, not caricatured); (2) work together to design methods that both sides agree constitute a fair test and that they agree, ex ante, have the potential to change their minds; (3) jointly publish the results, regardless of “who wins, loses or draws” on which topics. Each collaborator serves as a check on their adversary to confirm that the hypotheses are falsifiable, the scientific tests are fair, and the interpretations accurately characterize the findings. Because adversarial collaborations restrict scholars’ abilities to rig methods in favor of their own hypothesis and to dismiss unexpected results, adversarial collaborations are likely to advance debates faster and generate more reliable knowledge than traditional approaches.

This initiative aims to discover best practices for participating in adversarial collaborations and to normalize such practices in order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the social sciences and its reputation among policy makers and the public.

Here's the mechanism by which the applicant expects their project will achieve positive outcomes.

We will persuade our peers that ACs are a more rigorous and scientifically sound approach to resolving empirical disagreements than current norms. We will elevate the prestige of ACs by engaging prominent scholars in ACs, publishing ACs in top journals, and getting endorsements from prestigious journals and scholars (e.g., Daniel Kahneman recently gave a lecture on the benefits of ACs: https://www.edge.org/adversarial-collaboration-daniel-kahneman). Scholars who participate in ACs will gain reputational benefits for their open-mindedness, willingness to engage adversaries, and commitment to rigorous research. Once scientists see that participation in ACs is a route to top tier publications and prestige, they will opt in to participate.

How much funding are they requesting?

$486,535

What would they do with the amount just specified?

$160,000 would go toward all research expenses, including all data collections, statistical software, paying research assistants, and if needed, hiring expert coders, programmers, or analysts. $101,100 would go toward salary and benefits for the Postdoctoral Scholar through 06/24 (note the majority of his salary from now through 06/23 is covered by a postdoctoral award received by Paul Connor), so this $101,100 would cover the remaining 13.5 months. $225,435 would go toward salary and benefits for the Executive Director through 12/24 (note her salary is covered by a grant through 06/23, so this $225,435 would cover the remaining 18 months).

Here you can review the entire public portion of the application (which contains a lot more information about the applicant and their project):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17e3rjjcK8ywipBVu7rz7iG2o7xwUoaiceg6WWiwu_Gw/edit#