Failed measurement instruments keep accumulating literature because researchers keep using them anyway

Evidence

Did researchers shy away from using the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Scales because (1) they plainly failed to measure what they were supposed to measure; (2) they plainly failed to show what they were supposed to show; and (3) they suffered from the same problem that had compromised all the F Scale studies since 1950? Well, did researchers shy away from using the F Scale? … Today the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Orientation Scales have a sizable literature that some investigators swear by, but that I feel one can safely ignore. I have seen this show before; the ending is fairly predictable (see Kirkpatrick and Hood, 1990). — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2033

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the survival of the F Scale despite half a century of psychometric failures — Altemeyer’s own core case from earlier in the book. — connects to: Technical analysis persists in practice without ever achieving academic legitimacy — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 337