Spending and Personality · 2017
In a World of Big Data, Small Effects Can Still Matter: A Reply to Boyce, Daly, Hounkpatin, and Wood (2017)
Sandra C. Matz, Joe J. Gladstone & David Stillwell
Psychological Science, 2017
In brief
A reply to a commentary on our 2016 paper. We clarify that the original question was about spending patterns rather than spending volume, report a simulation showing the results were not a statistical artefact, and make the broader case that in large behavioural datasets small but reliable effects are worth taking seriously.
Abstract
We make three points in response to Boyce, Daly, Hounkpatin, and Wood (2017). First, we clarify a misunderstanding of the goal of our analyses, which was to investigate the links between life satisfaction and spending patterns, rather than spending volume. Second, we report a simulation study we ran to demonstrate that our results were not driven by the proposed statistical artifact. Finally, we discuss the broader issue of why, in a world of big data, small but reliable effect sizes can be valuable.
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