Investigating Variation in Replicability

Abstract

Although replication is a central tenet of science, direct replications are rare in psychology. This research tested variation in the replicability of 13 classic and contemporary effects across 36 independent samples totaling 6,344 participants. In the aggregate, 10 effects replicated consistently. One effect – imagined contact reducing prejudice – showed weak support for replicability. And two effects – flag priming influencing conservatism and currency priming influencing system justification – did not replicate. We compared whether the conditions such as lab versus online or US versus international sample predicted effect magnitudes. By and large they did not. The results of this small sample of effects suggest that replicability is more dependent on the effect itself than on the sample and setting used to investigate the effect.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• University of Würzburg DE
• HELP University MY
• Texas A&M University US
• University of Wisconsin–Madison US
• Sopot University of Applied Science PL
• City University of New York US
• University of Virginia US
• University of Padua IT
• Uniwersytet SWPS PL
• Koç University TR
• Virginia Commonwealth University US
• Occidental College US
• San Diego State University US
• Wilfrid Laurier University CA
• McDaniel College US
• Mount Saint Vincent University CA
• Universidade de Brasília BR
• Western Kentucky University US
• Connecticut College US
• California State University, Northridge US
• Pennsylvania State University US
• Charles University CZ
• Ithaca College US
• University of Florida US
• University of Michigan US
• The Ohio State University US
• James Madison University US
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute US
• Center for Open Science US
• Tilburg University NL
• East Texas A&M University US
• Washington and Lee University US
• Radboud University Nijmegen NL
• Loyola University Chicago US
• London School of Economics and Political Science GB

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