Editorial policy
The rules every page on this site follows, and how to hold us to them.
Sources and citations
Every explainer ends with a Sources section listing what the page relies on. For an effect from psychology or economics, that means the study that first described it, with the authors, the year and the journal, plus any later work that changed how the finding should be read. For history, it means the primary text where one exists, such as Diderot's own essay in French. Links in a Sources section open in a new tab.
A few rules we hold ourselves to:
- We do not invent statistics, and we do not round a finding up to make it sound bigger.
- We describe what a study actually tested. A result from forty students in a lab is reported as that, not as a law of human nature.
- When a well-known finding has failed to replicate, or the evidence is mixed, the page says so in plain words.
- Popular books, essays and videos are cited as popularizations, to show how an idea spread, never as the evidence for it.
- Quotations are short, attributed, and checked against the original.
Who writes the pages
Pages are written and checked by our editorial team and published under one byline, The Diderot Effect editorial team. We do not invent authors, credentials or expert reviewers. When we draw on a specialist's work, we name the work and link to it so you can judge it yourself.
Corrections
If you find a mistake, email contact@hello.dideroteffect.com with the page address and what you think is wrong. We check every report against the source. When a correction changes the meaning of a page, we fix it and date the change in the page history line at the bottom of that page. We do not quietly rewrite mistakes away.
What our dates mean
Each page shows the date it was first published. When we make a substantive change, such as new research, a corrected fact or a rewritten section, the page shows "Updated" with the new date, and the page history line keeps both dates. Fixing a typo or a broken link does not change the date.
Independence
We take no money from anyone whose products we might write about. The site has no advertising, no affiliate links, no sponsored content and no paid placements, and we do not accept free products or trips. When a page mentions a brand or a product, it is there as an example, chosen by us. The disclosure page has the details.
How the tools are built
Our calculators do their arithmetic on the page as you type. They ask for no name, no email address and no account. Each tool page explains its method: what it adds up, what it assumes, and where any figure it uses comes from.
When a tool offers to remember your entries between visits, such as a list of items you are waiting on, it keeps them in your browser's own storage on your device, and the tool's page tells you how to clear them. The privacy page lists everything the site does collect.
Illustrations
The site has no stock photography. The drawings at the top of pages are made for the site from its own icon set and the chain that runs through it, so no picture here shows a product you could buy.