In Defense of Practical Theory

Chamorro-Premuzic, Winsborough, Sherman, and Hogan ( 2016 ) end their focal article with a quote worth remembering from Immanuel Kant: “Theory without data is groundless, but data without theory is just uninterpretable.” We begin with a quote even better known to industrial–organizational (I-O) psychologists in part because it has served for over 65 years as a foundational principle of our field: “There is nothing as practical as a good theory” (Lewin, 1951 , p. 169).