What can be learned from these examples? First, there is no reason to believe that the situation with candidate gene association studies in genetic psychophysiology is any different from other fields using the same approach. Therefore, a sizable portion of the reported positive findings based on small samples studies are likely to be false positives and it can be expected that the replication rate will be very modest. Next, we need to adjust strategies and standards in this area of research and, perhaps, editorial policies towards a more conservative approach. In particular, studies reporting negative findings should be given at least the same weight as studies reporting positive findings.
