Improving the replicability of empirical research
Askarov, Z., Doucouliagos, A., Doucouliagos, H., & Stanley, T. D. (2024). Selective and (mis)leading economics journals: Meta-research evidence. Journal of Economic Surveys, 38(5), 1567–1592. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12598 Abstract Askarov, Doucouliagos, Doucouliagos, and Stanley (2024) analyzed statistical power and excess statistical significance in a large collection of economics…
“Priming exercise” and psychological priming share a label, not necessarily a mechanism. Deliberate preparation for a known future competition provides no obvious need for unconscious goal activation, and the article presents no evidence that such activation actually occurs. The shared terminology leaves the proposed explanation primed for equivocation. Holmberg and Kelly (2026) provide a useful ……
Mir, I. A. (2026). Influencer’s physical attractiveness and content aesthetics: Conscious and preconscious determinants of fashion-branded content engagement on Instagram. Journal of Creative Communications, 21(2), 201–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/09732586241288672 “The authors invoke an unproven perception–behavior mechanism to explain causation that was never observed. A direct path in a…
Costa, T. (2026). The Bayesian audit: Evaluating the proportionality of scientific claims to evidence—a case study on social priming and walking speed. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, 1799078. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1799078 This article applies Bayes’ theorem to one conveniently selected t value and calls the result a ‘Bayesian audit.’ Most readers may simply ignore it because it … Continue reading…
Przybylinski, E. (2026). Whatever you say: Changing transference-based problem behavior with if–then plans. Self and Identity. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2026.2613846 Przybylinski (2026) reports two experiments examining whether implementation intentions can prevent problematic behaviors triggered by transference. The theoretical logic is straightforward: subtle…
Klein, J. W., & Swann, W. B., Jr. (2026). Social psychology’s empty-self metaphor and the replication crisis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 21(2), 138–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916251401849. Klein and Swann (2026) offer an interesting diagnosis of the replication crisis, but the evidence does not support the strength of their theoretical interpretation. Their central empirical…
“Theories are a dime a dozen” (Ed Diener, personal communication) Bingley, W. J., Worthy, P., Wiles, J., & Haslam, S. A. (2026). A social identity theory of digital identity. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 21(4), 346–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916261419813. Bingley and colleagues (2026) propose a new “social digital identity theory” (SDIT) to explain how social identities operate…
Aytürk, E., & Saribay, S. A. (2026). Neglect of the individual as a neglected problem: The relevance of combined idiographic-nomothetic approaches for social psychology today. Self and Identity. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2026.2697941 Aytürk and Saribay (2026) make a useful methodological argument in “Neglect of the individual as a neglected problem.” Social psychology typically averages…
Smolinski, J., Smolinski, R., Kesting, P., & Kröcher, F. (2026). Ethical guidelines for designing, developing, and deploying AI negotiation agents. Group Decision and Negotiation, 35, 56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-026-10011-2 One of the article’s central psychological concerns is that AI negotiation agents could exploit human vulnerabilities through sublimiminal or unconscious influence. This…
Shimada, S., Tanaka, S., Morioka, S., Rode, G., Roy, J.-M., & Rossetti, Y. (2026). Narrative embodiment: A conceptual framework linking the narrative self and the embodied self. New Ideas in Psychology, 83, 101285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2026.101285 Shimada and colleagues (2026) propose “narrative embodiment” as a conceptual framework linking two aspects of the self: the narrative…