A Multi-Site Collaborative Study of the Hostile Priming Effect

In a now-classic study by Srull and Wyer (1979), people who were exposed to phrases with hostile content subsequently judged man as being more hostile. And this “hostile priming effect” has had significant influence on the field of social cognition over subsequent decades. However, recent multi-lab collaborative (McCarthy et al., 2018) that closely followed methods described (1979) found effect was nearly zero, which casts doubt whether these reliably produce an effect. To address some limitations McCarthy al. (2018), current multi-site included data collected from 29 labs. Each lab conducted close replication (total N = 2,123) conceptual 2,579) Wyer’s methods. The for both (d 0.09, 95% CI [-0.04, 0.22], z 1.34, p .16) 0.05, 0.15], 1.15, .58) not significantly different zero and, if true effects are non-zero, smaller than what most labs could feasibly routinely detect. Despite our best efforts favorable conditions emerge, we did detect We suggest researchers should invest resources into trying using like those in (1979).