Factor analysis results hinge on researchers’ many discretionary decisions.

Evidence

As I indicated in Chapter 2, however, factor analysis is much less the deus ex machina than some researchers suppose. Investigators have so many decisions to make at various stages of the process that the results can often be swished one way or the other, as this study illustrates. One of the biggest ambiguities involves the “number of factors retained problem.” Why did Kerlinger and Rokeach retain ten of however many factors they initially extracted? — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2597

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Findings may depend on the particular groups researchers select. — Susan T. Fiske et al., A Model of (Often Mixed) Stereotype…, 158