Pre-registered hypotheses failed, then the paper relabeled the study 'exploratory'

RexDouglass · x · 2026-09-29

A researcher flags a questionable but increasingly common practice: a paper pre-registered its hypotheses, the results failed to support them, and the authors disclosed this — then simply reframed the study as "exploratory." The poster questions whether relabeling after the fact undermines the whole point of preregistration.

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