A review of the literature shows that our knowledge concerning effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure on children is still limited and does not allow well-founded predictions for children living in specific noise-exposed areas. In this study, we investigated effects of aircraft noise on cognition and quality of life in 1,243 second graders from 29 schools around Frankfurt/Main Airport in Germany. Although exposure levels at schools were below 60 dB and thus considerably lower than in previous studies, multilevel analyses revealed that increasing exposure was linearly associated with less positive ratings of quality of life, increasing noise annoyance, and decreasing reading performance. A 20 dB increase in aircraft noise exposure was associated with a decrease in reading scores of one fifth of a standard deviation, corresponding to a reading delay of about 2 months. No effects were found for verbal precursors of reading acquisition. Teachers’ reports (N = 84) indicate that severe disruptions of classroom instruction due to aircraft noise may contribute to the effect on reading.

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This study explores how researchers’ analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers’ expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each team’s workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers’ results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings.

Objectives. Empirical studies on environmental behavior have been using a multitude of different operationalizations of environmental concern, which complicates cumulative research. In this article, we empirically explore the dimensionality of four environmental scales of different specificity, their interrelatedness, and their partial contribution to the explanation of recycling behavior. To facilitate the comparison of different studies, we integrate the scales into a hierarchical model. Methods. In a German mail survey (n = 1,330), we queried participation in household waste recycling, Inglehart's postmaterialism scale, the new environmental paradigm scale, and a general and specific attitude scale. Using traditional path analysis and latent structural equation modeling, we test the hierarchical structure of environmental values, beliefs, and attitudes and their contribution to explaining recycling behavior. Results. We find direct effects of specific attitudes on behavior, but no direct effects of higher-level cognitions. Rather, values and primitive beliefs influence general attitudes, which in turn determine specific attitudes. The empirical analyses confirm the proposed hierarchical structure. Conclusions. Our research reaffirms Ajzen and Fishbein's postulate of correspondence. Comparison of different studies is only meaningful when the hierarchical position of the respective scales is taken into account properly. To facilitate cumulative research, we propose to use standardized general scales such as the NEP in addition to more specific operationalizations.

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This article looks at paradata in the form of response latencies to identify socially desirable response behaviour. Response latencies are used as proxies to infer information processing modes. So far, evidence is conflicted as to whether socially desirable responding is indicated by shorter or longer response latencies. Our results show that faster responses are associated with the reporting of desirable attitudes and behaviour while slower responses are linked with those that are undesirable. Trait desirability measures that do not take this difference in direction into account may be responsible for the often contradictory results of various researchers who have employed the method in the past.

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