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Should social science be more solution-oriented?

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  • Duncan J. Watts

    (Microsoft Research)

Abstract

Over the past 100 years, social science has generated a tremendous number of theories on the topics of individual and collective human behaviour. However, it has been much less successful at reconciling the innumerable inconsistencies and contradictions among these competing explanations, a situation that has not been resolved by recent advances in ‘computational social science’. In this Perspective, I argue that this ‘incoherency problem’ has been perpetuated by an historical emphasis in social science on the advancement of theories over the solution of practical problems. I argue that one way for social science to make progress is to adopt a more solution-oriented approach, starting first with a practical problem and then asking what theories (and methods) must be brought to bear to solve it. Finally, I conclude with a few suggestions regarding the sort of problems on which progress might be made and how we might organize ourselves to solve them.

Suggested Citation

  • Duncan J. Watts, 2017. "Should social science be more solution-oriented?," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 1-5, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:1:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41562-016-0015
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-016-0015
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    Cited by:

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    4. Ashley V Whillans & Elizabeth W Dunn, 2018. "Agentic appeals increase charitable giving in an affluent sample of donors," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Chad S. Boda & Turaj Faran, 2018. "Paradigm Found? Immanent Critique to Tackle Interdisciplinarity and Normativity in Science for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-28, October.
    6. Benjamin W. Domingue & Klint Kanopka & Radhika Kapoor & Steffi Pohl & R. Philip Chalmers & Charles Rahal & Mijke Rhemtulla, 2024. "The InterModel Vigorish as a Lens for Understanding (and Quantifying) the Value of Item Response Models for Dichotomously Coded Items," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 89(3), pages 1034-1054, September.
    7. Cinelli, Matteo & Ferraro, Giovanna & Iovanella, Antonio, 2018. "Rich-club ordering and the dyadic effect: Two interrelated phenomena," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 490(C), pages 808-818.
    8. Ari Hyytinen & Petri Rouvinen & Mika Pajarinen & Joosua Virtanen, 2023. "Ex Ante Predictability of Rapid Growth: A Design Science Approach," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2465-2493, November.
    9. Nicolay Worren & Tore Christiansen & Kim Verner Soldal, 2020. "Using an algorithmic approach for grouping roles and sub-units," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, December.
    10. Suwen Chen & Garima Sharma & Pablo Muñoz, 2023. "In Pursuit of Impact: From Research Questions to Problem Formulation in Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 232-264, March.
    11. Asmeret Naugle & Adam Russell & Kiran Lakkaraju & Laura Swiler & Stephen Verzi & Vicente Romero, 2023. "The Ground Truth program: simulations as test beds for social science research methods," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 1-19, March.
    12. Muñoz, Pablo & Dimov, Dimo, 2023. "A translational framework for entrepreneurship research," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    13. Anne van Bruggen & Igor Nikolic & Jan Kwakkel, 2019. "Modeling with Stakeholders for Transformative Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-21, February.
    14. Jolly, Eshin & Chang, Luke J., 2017. "The Flatland Fallacy: Moving Beyond Low Dimensional Thinking," OSF Preprints h7pwt, Center for Open Science.
    15. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen & Stephan Lewandowsky & Cass R. Sunstein & Ralph Hertwig, 2020. "How behavioural sciences can promote truth, autonomy and democratic discourse online," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1102-1109, November.
    16. Vivek Anand Asokan & Masaru Yarime & Miguel Esteban, 2017. "Introducing Flexibility to Complex, Resilient Socio-Ecological Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Economics, Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Evolutionary Biology, and Supply Chain Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Chan Timothy Hor, Shoon, 2023. "Why we need design science in entrepreneurship research an idiosyncratic perspective based on the experiences and learnings of an ex-practitioner in training to be an entrepreneurship scholar," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    18. Akbaritabar, Aliakbar & Stephen, Dimity & Squazzoni, Flaminio, 2022. "A study of referencing changes in preprint-publication pairs across multiple fields," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    19. Hyytinen, Ari, 2021. "Shared problem solving and design thinking in entrepreneurship research," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).

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