English

Multiverse analysis, abdication of responsibility and manufacturing of doubt

Methodology 2026-07-16 v1

Abstract

I argue that multiverse analysis is highly suited to two undesirable uses: abdication of researcher's responsibility for their conclusion and manufacturing of doubt. A review of multiverse analyses published in 2025 provides tentative empirical support that abdication of responsibility is present in the literature and I mention anecdotal evidence that multiverse has been used for manufacturing of doubt about Covid-19 precautions. To mitigate negative effects if multiverse analysis becomes widely used I suggest the community adopts two conventions for evaluating multiverse analyzes: evaluating multiverses by the single worst universe they contain and considering large size of a multiverse as a sign of weakness rather than a praiseworthy achievement.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.14623,
  title  = {Multiverse analysis, abdication of responsibility and manufacturing of doubt},
  author = {Martin Modrák},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.14623},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Submitted to special issue of Advances in Statistics on Multiverse analysis