Contextual Sensitivity Helps Explain the Reproducibility Gap between Social and Cognitive Psychology

Abstract

We previously reported that contextual sensitivity correlates with the reproducibility of 100 psychology studies from the Reproducibility Project. This relationship remains after adjusting for several methodological factors believed to account for reproducibility. The current paper examines why the reproducibility rate of social psychology (28%) was lower than cognitive psychology (53%). The authors of the Reproducibility Project argued that the lower reproducibility rate of social psychology is due to weaker statistical power and effect sizes. The current paper finds no evidence for this hypothesis. Rather, new analyses suggest that different rates of reproducibility between social and cognitive psychology appear to stem from differences in contextual sensitivity rather than methodological factors (e.g., sample size, effect size). This will come as little surprise to social psychologists: The notion that human psychology is shaped by the social context has been the central premise of the field for nearly a century. We expect that same principle applies across the social sciences.

Keywords: Reproducibility; Replication; Psychology; Social Psychology; Cognitive Psychology