Science is often perceived to be a self-correcting enterprise. In principle, the assessment of scientific claims is supposed to proceed in a cumulative fashion, with the reigning theories of the day progressively approximating truth more accurately over time. In practice, however, cumulative self-correction tends to proceed less efficiently than one might naively suppose. Far from evaluating new evidence dispassionately and infallibly, individual scientists often cling stubbornly to prior findings. Here we explore the dynamics of scientific self-correction at an individual rather than collective level. In 13 written statements, researchers from diverse branches of psychology share why and how they have lost confidence in one of their own published findings. We qualitatively characterize these disclosures and explore their implications. A cross-disciplinary survey suggests that such loss-of-confidence sentiments are surprisingly common among members of the broader scientific population yet rarely become part of the public record. We argue that removing barriers to self-correction at the individual level is imperative if the scientific community as a whole is to achieve the ideal of efficient self-correction.

科学通常被认为是一种自我纠正的事业。原则上，对科学主张的评估应该以累积的方式进行，随着时间的推移，当时的主流理论逐渐更准确地逼近真理。然而，在实践中，累积的自我纠正往往不如人们天真的假设的那么有效。个别科学家远非冷静和无误地评估新证据，而是经常固执地坚持先前的发现。在这里，我们在个人而不是集体层面探索科学自我纠正的动态。在 13 份书面声明中，来自不同心理学分支的研究人员分享了他们为何以及如何对自己发表的一项发现失去信心。我们定性地描述了这些披露并探讨了它们的影响。一项跨学科调查表明，这种失去信心的情绪在更广泛的科学人群中非常普遍，但很少成为公共记录的一部分。我们认为，如果整个科学界要实现有效的自我纠正的理想，则必须在个人层面消除自我纠正的障碍。