e-ISSN: Pending
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology· cited by 167

Two Failures to Replicate High-Performance-Goal Priming Effects

Christine R. Harris; Noriko Coburn; Doug Rohrer; Harold Pashler · 2013 · PLoS ONE

WASTE classifies this as Negative / Null Result Report · AI classification, approximate

The study found no significant effect — useful as a negative control or null benchmark for your own design.

Abstract

Bargh et al. (2001) reported two experiments in which people were exposed to words related to achievement (e.g., strive, attain) or to neutral words, and then performed a demanding cognitive task. Performance on the task was enhanced after exposure to the achievement related words. Bargh and colleagues concluded that better performance was due to the achievement words having activated a "high-performance goal". Because the paper has been cited well over 1100 times, an attempt to replicate its findings would seem warranted. Two direct replication attempts were performed. Results from the first

Abstract by Christine R. Harris; Noriko Coburn; Doug Rohrer; Harold Pashler, PLoS ONE (2013) — licensed CC BY 4.0.

About to run something similar?

Run an AI Precheck on your own design to catch failure modes like this one before you spend the time. Your first desk check is free.

WASTE indexes this work — it does not host or republish it. Failure-type classification is automated and approximate.

Metadata source: OpenAlex · DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0072467