The Crud Factor: what’s the average correlation between totally random human traits?

January 24, 2025

We gathered >1 million human correlations spanning personality, demographics, behaviors, and beliefs, which enabled us to investigate an interesting question: is everything correlated with everything? In other words, is the so-called "crud factor" real? Here's our answer. On average, there is almost no correlation between human variables (see image). The average is only r=0.02, with the median even smaller at r=0.01. But this is misleading because it allows positive correlations to be cancel...

14 Signs A Study Is More Likely To Be Trustworthy

July 2, 2020

Science is incredible, but not all studies are reliable. In fact, they frequently aren't. So how can we tell when a study is trustworthy? Here are 14 signs to look for (for studies involving humans): 1) Large: a reasonably large number of study participants (20 per group is usually too small - the sample size should be large enough to give the study the power it needs to have a good chance of detecting an effect if the effect is indeed real) 2) Controlled: if the study is making claims to...