Social psychology — Cosmetics placebo effect on donations

Plotting two points far apart on graph paper would make people feel less close to their family and change their calorie estimates, as Williams and Bargh (2008) reported.

Direct replications of both experiments, with experimenters who did not know each participant's condition, showed no sign of either priming effect.

Why it matched: same research area

Priming resource scarcity would make East Asian participants more likely to judge ambiguous East/South Asian faces as out-group members, as scarcity priming did for White participants judging White/Black faces.

In a preregistered conceptual replication in Japan (N = 769, power 0.79 for d = 0.2), the pattern matched the original but the priming effect was not significant (d = 0.1).

Why it matched: same research area

Reminding people of death would increase national patriotism, as the traditional mortality-salience effect predicts, and would also shift democratic values, ingroup identification and pro-sociality.

Neither a lab experiment (N = 101, Norway) nor a larger online experiment (N = 784, US) replicated the mortality-salience effect on national patriotism. Conceptual replications on democratic values, processing speed, psychophysiological responses, ingroup identification and pro-sociality were not supported either.

Why it matched: same research area

A game-based inoculation intervention, repeatedly effective in Western samples, would help people in north India spot and resist misinformation.

In a randomised controlled trial in north India (n = 757), the intervention had no significant impact on the perceived reliability of misinformation, confidence judgments, or willingness to share information.

Why it matched: same research area