[ASpring]

Thanks for this comment, it's well thought out and elucidates what the original poster is probably critiquing.

I want to make sure I'm understanding, are you saying that there is no sample size with which you would be comfortable making a conclusion about this? That's what I'm taking away from this comment "the assumption that you can use any formula to establish a reasonable population size Y is absurd."

[camelNotation]

What I mean is that social science research will only ever be able to speak to the samples they are studying. That's usually okay, though, because typically in an experiment with difficult variability, you can gain certainty through replication. With social science, the variability in human beings is so significant that I don't think replication works the same way. I think you would need to replicate studies about a dozen times across different cultures, timeframes, languages, regions, religions, etc just to even begin approaching something like reliable results.

And given the fact that social science has a replication problem (an understatement if I'm right), the entire area of study is suspect.