The theatre of psychology is currently in the midst of akind of civic war , with one side claim awidespread reproducibility crisis , and the other just as clamorously extol that concerns aregreatly enlarged .
There ’s sure evidence for the former . Last year , a University of Virginia initiative call in the Reproducibility Project repeated 100 experiments andfailed to replicatefullyone - third of them . tot up yet another one to that list : a classic 30 - class - honest-to-god study concluding that people who smiled while holding a pen between their teeth thought sketch were funnier .
It ’s known as the “ facial feedback supposition , ” and it harkens back to 19th century American psychologistWilliam James , who thought thing like sweaty palms or a quickly outfox center were n’t the result of emotion of anxiousness or panic and fear , but actually stimulate them . In other words , smiling ca-ca us happier , and frowning makes us sadder . Subsequent research seemed to support this hypothesis , includingthe aforementioned 1988 German study .
Then Dutch investigator at the University of Amsterdam decided to replicate that experiment — notably at the suggestion of Fritz Strack , the original lead author — cooperate with several other research laboratory around the earthly concern . Ina novel paperin linear perspective on Psychological Science , they reported a nonstarter to replicate the 30 - yr - old finding “ in a statistically compelling fashion , ” concluding , “ Overall , the event were inconsistent with the original consequence . ”
While nine of the labs postulate in the replication effort reported finding similar to the original 1988 study , the effects were n’t as statistically strong , and disappeared solely when those results were combine with the finding of eight other science lab that institute no evidence for the speculation .
However , asChristian Jarrett observedin the British Psychological Society ’s Research Digest , “ [ T]his does not intend the entire facial feedback hypothesis is dead in the body of water . Many diverse report have keep going the theory , including inquiry involve participants who have undergonebotox treatment , which impact their facial muscle . ”
The research worker did their bestto recreatethe original conditions for their pool of 1894 student theme , right down to the use of cartoonist Gary Larson ’s iconic Far Side sketch . But there were some differences . Most notably , participants watched the instructions on video , and were videotaped as they performed the labor to ensure they were doing so correctly .
Strack himself raised questions about the methodological analysis and statistical analysis inan company commentaryto the new paper , arguing that the findings should not be deem conclusive just yet . For illustration , the pool of participants were pull out from psychology students , who were very likely to have read about the original 1988 cogitation in their textbooks and guess the reliable purpose of the recreated experiment , which could have skew the results .
moreover , Strack thought that tape the subjects might have made them more self - witting , also skewing the results . He also questioned whether today ’s students would relate to The Far Side ’s unambiguously eighties brand of humor . “ It is indicative that one of the four exclusion criterion was participants ’ loser to understand the cartoons , ” he indite .
[ Perspectives in Psychological ScienceviaImprobable Research ]
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