Koehler, J. J. (1993). The influence of prior beliefs on scientific judgments of evidence quality. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 56(1), 28-55.
This paper is concerned with the influence of scientists′ prior beliefs on their judgments of evidence quality. A laboratory experiment using advanced graduate students in the sciences (study 1) and an experimental survey of practicing scientists on opposite sides of a controversial issue (study 2) revealed agreement effects. Research reports that agreed with scientists′ prior beliefs were judged to be of higher quality than those ...