Multiverse analysis, abdication of responsibility and manufacturing of doubt
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