Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2021

Publication Title

Journal of Politics

Volume

83

Issue

4

Pages

1837-1843

Publisher Name

The University of Chicago Press

Publisher Location

USA

Abstract

Social scientists are facing a crisis of confidence in quantitative results. Multiverse analysis provides concerned scholars a tool for verifying the robustness of findings. This article introduces political scientists to multiverse analysis through an application. It identifies how differing approaches to data processing led to divergent conclusions about the representation of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) Americans in Congress in a 2015 Journal of Politics article. The analysis casts doubt on the original conclusion that the size of the LGB population in a district is significantly associated with the bill sponsorship activity of its representative. More broadly, it demonstrates how researchers can keep a running tally of data-processing decisions and parsimoniously present the consequences of those decisions for the findings. Multiverse analysis can help scholars publish replicable results in original work as well as replicate and extend previously published work.

Comments

Author Posting. © Southern Political Science Association, 2021. This work is posted here with permission of the publisher The University of Chicago Press for personal use, and for redistribution. The officially published version appears in Journal of Politics, VOL.83, ISS.4, (October, 2021) https://doi.org/10.1086/712139

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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