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Latest recommendations
| Id | Title * | Authors * | Abstract * | Picture | Thematic fields * | Recommender | Reviewers | Submission date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Does learning more about others impact liking them?: Replication and extension Registered Report of Norton et al. (2007)’s Lure of AmbiguityRevisiting ‘less is more’: A failure to replicate the association between increased knowing and decreased likingRecommended by Yuki Yamada based on reviews by Philipp Schoenegger and Zoltan Kekecs
Does knowing more about others necessarily lead to greater liking, or might it breed contempt, as suggested by Norton et al. (2007)? In the current study, Horsham et al. (2025) tried to replicate and extend that original question. Collecting data from a large sample of U.S. undergraduates and employing carefully revised designs reviewed at Stage 1, they replicated Norton et al.’s initial studies (1a, 1b, and 2) while also adding new measures. Their primary aim was to see if the “less is more” effect, where increased familiarity decreases liking, would hold under rigorous modern standards, including pre-registration and several open science practices.
Results indicated that people indeed believe they will like someone more if they know more about that person, replicating Norton et al.’s initial finding from Studies 1a and 1b. However, the association between greater knowledge and reduced liking, the core of the “less is more” claim, was not consistently observed. Instead, the data showed little evidence that accumulating information inevitably decreases liking. Moreover, an added examination of curiosity as a potential mediator revealed that although curiosity and liking are positively related, curiosity itself was not strongly contingent on the amount of knowledge participants had. These findings help clarify why previous literature has sometimes presented mixed outcomes, and they underline the distinction between what people predict will happen and what actually does happen in forming impressions of others.
Peer review involved thorough evaluations by experts. Following multiple revisions through Stages 1 and 2, the manuscript has been deemed a carefully executed Registered Report, providing transparent methods, open data, and full reproducibility. It adds nuance to discussions around how knowledge, familiarity, and curiosity jointly shape our interpersonal attitudes. On this basis, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and awarded a positive recommendation.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/7mc4y
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA. List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Norton, M. I., Frost, J. H., & Ariely, D. (2007). Less is more: The lure of ambiguity, or why familiarity breeds contempt. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 97-105. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.97
2. Horsham, Z., Haydock-Symonds, A., Imada, H., Tai, H. C., Lau, W. L., Shum, T. L., Zeng, Y., Chow, K., & Feldman, G. (2025). Does learning more about others impact liking them?: Replication and extension Registered Report of Norton et al. (2007)’s Lure of Ambiguity [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 6 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/ygkft
| Does learning more about others impact liking them?: Replication and extension Registered Report of Norton et al. (2007)’s Lure of Ambiguity | Zöe Horsham, Ashleigh Haydock-Symonds, Hirotaka Imada, Hiu Ching Tai, Wing Lam Lau, Tsz Lui Shum, Yuqing Zeng, Hiu Tang Chow, Gilad Feldman | <p>Norton et al. (2007) demonstrated a counterintuitive phenomenon that knowing other people better and/or having more information about them is associated with decreased liking. They summarized it as - ambiguity leads to liking, whereas familiari... | Social sciences | Yuki Yamada | Philipp Schoenegger, Zoltan Kekecs | 2024-11-22 04:27:45 | ||
The effect of stimulus saliency on the modulation of ongoing neural oscillations related to thermonociception: a Registered ReportAre there oscillatory markers of pain intensity?Recommended by Zoltan Dienes based on reviews by Markus Ploner and Bjoern Horing
Rhythmic changes in pain can lead to corresponding modulations of EEG amplitudes in theta, alpha, and beta bands. But the question remains open as to whether these modulations are actually tracking pain, or maybe rather saliency or stimulus intensity. The question is of some importance because a marker of pain per se could be useful for tracking felt pain without a verbal response, and could be useful in investigating interventions for treating pain (such as suggestion). Here, Leu et al. (2025) addressed the question of whether modulations reflect saliency or else the intensity of pain, by using an oddball paradigm in which most trials are a pain stimulus of a certain intensity, and oddball trials will sometimes occur, at either a higher intensity or a lower intensity than the baseline ones. If the modulations reflected salience, the modulation at the frequency of the oddball would be similar for high and low intensity oddballs. However, if the modulations reflected pain intensity, the modulations for the low rather than high oddball condition would be lower.
In fact, the baseline and oddball stimulations were found to be perceived significantly differently only in the high oddball condition; and consistantly, the oddballl stimulus significantly modulated ongoing oscillations in only the high oddball condition. Thus, whether oscillations are modulated by pain intensity or salience could not be picked apart in this study. The study does however raise an important isssue, indicate how it could be addressed, and provide data relevant for clearly resolving the issue in the future.
The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth peer review. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria for acceptance.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/qbrf2
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA. List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Leu, C., Forest, S., Legrain, V., & Liberati, G. (2025). The effect of stimulus saliency on the modulation of pain-related ongoing neural oscillations: a Registered Report [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/98edq | The effect of stimulus saliency on the modulation of ongoing neural oscillations related to thermonociception: a Registered Report | Chiara Leu, Sébastien Forest, Valéry Legrain, Giulia Liberati | <p>Ongoing oscillations have been shown to be modulated in different frequency bands following phasic, tonic as well as periodic thermonociceptive stimulation. Yet, it remains unclear whether these modulations are related to pain perception, salie... | Life Sciences, Medical Sciences | Zoltan Dienes | 2024-11-11 14:11:31 | |||
Neophobia across social contexts in juvenile Herring gullsHerring gulls exhibit reduced neophobia when tested in groupsRecommended by Ljerka Ostojic based on reviews by Claudia Mettke-Hofmann and 1 anonymous reviewer
How well animals may be able to cope with changes of habitat, specifically with rapid changes and thus novelty they encounter in an environment densely populated by humans, may be influenced by how they respond to novelty in general (Batisteli et al., 2022; Biondi et al., 2024; Castano et al., 2024; Heales et al., 2024). In considering this, it may be important to account for any difference in behavioural responses that animals exhibit when encountering a novel situation alone versus when they are doing so as part of a group.
Here, Allaert et al. (2025) tested how neophobia – the fear of unfamiliar objects – is affected by the social context in gulls, birds that are increasingly forced to live in urban environments due to the loss of natural coastlines. In this study, in which they reared herring gulls from egg and tested them taking into account that nestmates are not tested within the same groups, the authors found that the birds were faster to eat and spent more time in the zone of interest when they were tested in a group than when they were tested individually, specifically when a novel object was placed next to the food compared to when that object was a familiar one. The birds were also faster to enter the testing area when tested in a group, but this was not specific to the novel object condition. In addition to these changes in the average responses, the authors also report reduced variance when tested in a group in two of their three measures, namely in the latency to enter the testing area and time spent in the zone of interest.
The authors interpret their findings as being mostly in line with the ‘risk-dilution’ hypothesis, which is often considered in terms of predation risk (Krause & Buxton, 2002). They discuss possible reasons why other studies, with different species and different methodological setups, found support for alternative explanations.
The Stage 2 report was evaluated by the same two reviewers who had also reviewed the Stage 1 manuscript. In the revision, the authors focused on adding sex as a factor in their statistical models, which was the planned procedure for the statistical analyses in the Stage 1 report, and adding information regarding the problems encountered during testing and how these were handled. This specifically refers to the planned sample size (which the authors planned in the Stage 1 report taking into account both mortality and the fact that some birds would be not herring gulls but lesser black-backed gulls, which can only be established after hatching). However, there was higher than expected mortality, leading to a larger-than-planned overall reduction in sample size. During the study, the authors had contacted the recommender and discussed this issue, and the recommender advised on continuing the study and approved of the planned changes in the Stage 2 report. During the revision process, the authors added more information and also conducted an exploratory analysis, which included all birds, i.e. herring gulls and lesser black-backed gulls. This was suggested by a reviewer and the authors present this exploratory analysis in full in the supplemental material, while the main inferences are presented in the main text. In addition, during the Stage 2 review it became apparent that some minor details regarding the procedure would be useful to be included in the Stage 2 report, which the authors included in the Stage 2 revision. This did not alter the procedure as described in the Stage 1 report, but merely added more clarity to the text.
Based on detailed engagement with these points and the reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and awarded a positive recommendation.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/u4b7q
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA. List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Allaert, R., Knoch, S., Braem, S., Debeer, D., Martel, A., Müller, W., Stienen, E., Lens, L., & Verbruggen, F. (2025). Neophobia across social contexts in juvenile Herring gulls [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/b58ha
2. Batisteli, A. F., Pizo, M. A., & Sarmento, H. (2022). Female neophobia predicts the use of buildings as nesting sites in a Neotropical songbird. Animal Behaviour, 183, 151-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.11.008
3. Biondi, L. M., Medina, A., Bonetti, E. A., Paterlini, C. A., & Bó, M. S. (2024). Cognitive flexibility in a generalist raptor: a comparative analysis along an urbanization gradient. Behavioral Ecology, 35, arae025. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arae025
4. Castano, M. V., Zumpano, F., Biondi, L. M., & García, G. O. (2024). Does urbanization affect behavioral responses to novel objects in marine birds? The Olrog’s Gull as a case of study. Urban Ecosystems, 27, 427-437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-023-01465-2
5. Heales, H. E., Flood, N. J., Oud, M. D., Otter, K. A., & Reudink, M. W. (2024). Exploring differences in neophobia and anti-predator behaviour between urban and rural mountain chickadees. Journal of Urban Ecology, 10, juae01. https://doi.org/10.1093/jue/juae014
6. Krause, J. & Ruxton, G. (2002). Living in Groups. Oxford University Press, USA.
| Neophobia across social contexts in juvenile Herring gulls | Reinoud Allaert, Sophia Knoch, Simon Braem, Dries Debeer, An Martel, Wendt Müller, Eric Stienen, Luc Lens, Frederick Verbruggen | <p>Neophobia, the fear or avoidance of the unfamiliar, can have significant fitness consequences. It is typically assessed by exposing individuals to unfamiliar objects when they are alone, but in social species the presence of conspecifics can in... | Life Sciences | Ljerka Ostojic | 2024-11-26 13:25:23 | |||
Do Ecological Valid Stop Signals Aid Detour Performance? A Comparison of Four Bird SpeciesWhat is the role of sensory perception in cognitive task performance? An improved replication of detour performance in four different bird speciesRecommended by Dieter Lukas based on reviews by Christian Nawroth and 1 anonymous reviewer
The detour task, where an individual has to go around a see-through barrier in order to reach a goal, is one of the oldest paradigms used in animal cognition research (Kabadayi et al. 2018). While these previous tests have documented variation in the ability of animals to inhibit going straight for the visible reward, the cognitive underpinnings of this behaviour are as yet not fully understood. In the current study, Dewulf et al. (2025) assessed one of the specific cognitive processes that might be involved in this behaviour, the ability to identify the transparent object as a barrier. Through experimental procedures relying on large samples of individuals from four bird species, they compared the role of signal detection in inhibitory response performance in a detour task. The authors found that, unlike suggested in previous work with these four species (Regolin et al. 1994, Zucca et al. 2005), changing the markings on the barriers to potentially better match those experienced by individuals in their natural environments did not improve their performance. Nevertheless, the detailed further explorations suggest that in order to understand variation in how quickly individuals and species solve the detour task, it is important to consider that different cognitive processes are involved. Their work therefore provides a basis to better understand and further investigate why species might differ in their performance in the detour task.
The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review, the first round consisting of detailed comments from two reviewers and the second round consisting of a close read by the recommender. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and awarded a positive recommendation.
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/qvxgh
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Dewulf, A., Garcia-Co, C., Müller, W., Madden, J.R., Martel, A., Lens, L. & Verbruggen, F. (2025). Do Ecological Valid Stop Signals Aid Detour Performance? A Comparison of Four Bird Species [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/j2k9h
2. Kabadayi, C., Bobrowicz, K., & Osvath, M. (2018). The detour paradigm in animal cognition. Animal Cognition, 21, 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-017-1152-0
3. Regolin, L., Vallortigara, G., & Zanforlin, M. (1995). Object and spatial representations in detour problems by chicks. Animal Behaviour, 49, 195-199. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-3472(95)80167-7
4. Zucca, P., Antonelli, F., & Vallortigara, G. (2005). Detour behaviour in three species of birds: quails (Coturnix sp.), herring gulls (Larus cachinnans) and canaries (Serinus canaria). Animal Cognition, 8, 122-128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-004-0243-x
| Do Ecological Valid Stop Signals Aid Detour Performance? A Comparison of Four Bird Species | Anneleen Dewulf, Clara Garcia-Co, Wendt Müller, Joah R. Madden, An Martel, Luc Lens, Frederick Verbruggen | <p>Response inhibition, or the stopping of actions, is considered a key component of flexible and adaptive behaviour. Across fields, response inhibition is often treated as a unitary cognitive mechanism. However, we propose that response inhibitio... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Dieter Lukas | 2024-10-22 14:00:30 | |||
Action interpretation determines the effects of go/no-go and approach/avoidance actions on food choiceDoes interpretation of actions as either avoid or inhibit influence choice behaviour for candy?Recommended by Andrew Jones based on reviews by Alexander MacLellan and Katrijn HoubenExperimental research demonstrates that executing or inhibiting motor responses (or approaching / avoiding) towards a stimulus can alter the valuation of the stimulus (Yang et al., 2022). There are competing theories as to the proposed mechanisms of value change, such as increased response conflict or prediction errors (Houben & Aulbach, 2023). However, research has mostly examined response execution/inhibition and approach/avoidance in isolation and the few studies that have examined these together have focused on stimulus evaluation as an outcome.
In the current study Chen et al. (2025) set out to examine how action interpretations (e.g. go vs approach) can impact individuals food-choices. This is important for cognitive bias modification approaches which aim to manipulate these actions to promote behaviour change (Iannazzo et al., 2024; Veling et al., 2021), but also theoretical accounts which suggest certain motor-responses acquire valence. Here there are two groups randomised to receive instructions to either go/no-go or approach/avoid images of candy in novel training task (Chen et al., 2019).
The results of the experiment suggested that despite both groups making the same responses (pressing a space bar vs not), the framing of the response as go vs approach and no-go vs avoidance influenced subsequent food-choice (i.e. responses framed as approach increased the probability of choosing approach items over avoidance items, but not go items over no-go items). As the authors state, these findings cast doubt on theoretical models which suggest there are ‘hardwired’ links between specific go/approach responses and appetitive systems or specific no-go/avoidance responses and aversive systems. They also suggest these responses aren’t valenced, but acquire valence through interpretation of the action. These findings can also inform future studies into cognitive bias modification. The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review by two reviewers with expertise in the relevant area, who also assessed the Stage 1 manuscript. Based on the authors’ careful responses and revisions, the revised manuscript was judged to meet the Stage 2 criteria and was awarded a positive recommendation. URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/bn5xa
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA. List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Chen, Z., Van Dessel, P., Serverius, J., Zhu, D. & Figner, B. (2025). Action interpretation determines the effects of go/no-go and approach/avoidance actions on food choice. Acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6xhw4_v2
2. Chen, Z., & Van Dessel, P. (2024). Action Interpretation Determines the Effects of Go/No-Go and Approach/Avoidance Actions on Stimulus Evaluation. Open Mind, 8, 898–923. https://doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00151
3. Houben, K. and Aulbach, M. (2023). Is there a difference between stopping and avoiding? A review of the mechanisms underlying Go/No-Go and Approach-Avoidance training for food choice. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 49, 101245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101245
4. Iannazzo, L. H., Hayden, M. J., Lawrence, N. S., Kakoschke, N., Hughes, L. K., Van Egmond, K., … Staiger, P. K. (2024). Inhibitory control training to reduce appetitive behaviour: a meta-analytic investigation of effectiveness, potential moderators, and underlying mechanisms of change. Health Psychology Review, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2024.2410018 5. Veling, H., Verpaalen, I. A. M., Liu, H., Mosannenzadeh, F., Becker, D., & Holland, R. W. (2021). How can food choice best be trained? Approach-avoidance versus go/no-go training. Appetite, 163, 105226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105226 6. Yang, Y., Qi, L., Morys, F., Wu, Q. & Chen, H. (2022). Food-Specific Inhibition Training for Food Devaluation: A Meta-Analysis. Nutrients, 14, 1363. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14071363
| Action interpretation determines the effects of go/no-go and approach/avoidance actions on food choice | Zhang Chen, Pieter Van Dessel, Jordi Serverius, Daxun Zhu, Bernd Figner | <p>Executing go/no-go and approach/avoidance responses toward objects can increase people's choices of go over no-go items, and of approach over avoidance items. Some theoretical accounts explain these effects as the results of merely executing th... | Social sciences | Andrew Jones | 2024-11-24 11:21:55 | |||
06 Feb 2025
STAGE 1
Disentangling the Influences of Curiosity and Active Exploration on Cognitive Map FormationInvestigating influences of curiosity and active exploration on spatial memoryRecommended by Douglas Markant based on reviews by Alexandr Ten and 2 anonymous reviewers
A growing body of research suggests that feelings of curiosity are associated with better memory for new information. However, while curiosity has been broadly defined as an instrinsic drive to obtain information, much of this existing work has focused on learning of trivia facts or factual information, settings where people have relatively little freedom to actively explore aspects of the environment that generate those feelings of curiosity. In this Stage 1 manuscript, O'Donoghue, Cen, and Gruber (2025) propose to conduct an experiment to examine whether feelings of curiosity promote the formation of cognitive maps when exploring novel spatial environments. Participants will encounter a series of virtual rooms for which they report their level of curiosity before exploring each room. The experiment will compare groups of participants who can actively explore for themselves vs. passive observers of the same exploration patterns. The proposed analyses will examine whether anticipatory curiosity leads to better memory for the spatial environments for both active or passive participants, or if benefits to memory are mediated by active participants' ability to act of their feelings of curiosity through their exploration of the environment. The findings of the study will provide new insight into the mechanisms through which anticipatory curiosity enhances memory.
The Stage 1 submission was evaluated by three expert reviewers. After three rounds of revision, the recommender determined that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/86r3x
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. O'Donoghue, E. M., Cen, D., & Gruber, M. (2025). Disentangling the Influences of Curiosity and Active Exploration on Cognitive Map Formation. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/86r3x
| Disentangling the Influences of Curiosity and Active Exploration on Cognitive Map Formation | Ellen M. O'Donoghue, Danlu Cen, Matthias J. Gruber | <p>Curiosity has long been assumed to promote exploration, and in turn, to support cognitive map formation. However, little research has directly investigated these claims. Recently, Cen et al. (2024) demonstrated that when participants feel more ... | Social sciences | Douglas Markant | 2024-06-28 10:30:38 | |||
04 Feb 2025
STAGE 1
Evaluating Loneliness Measurements across the European UnionMeasuring loneliness in the European UnionRecommended by Elizabeth Renner and Robert McIntosh based on reviews by Thuy-vy Nguyen, Joe Bathelt, Drew Altschul and Mary Louise Pomeroy
Loneliness is increasingly a focus of governments and health systems due to its potential adverse effects. Various ways to measure it have been developed but the psychometric properties of common instruments have not yet been evaluated across all countries in the European Union (EU).
In this study, Paris et al. (2025) will examine three measures of loneliness across 27 EU member countries. An online survey (n = 25,646) incorporated three instruments which were translated into national languages: the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (6 items), the three-item UCLA Loneliness Scale (3 items), and a single-item measure (“How much of the time, during the past 4 weeks, have you been feeling lonely”). The factor structure, internal consistency, and measurement invariance for the 6- and 3-item measures will be assessed, as well as the construct validity of all three measures using nomological networks. The authors have adopted an n-fold procedure to analyse the data, with a first exploratory fold using half of the data to establish hypotheses for each question and a second confirmatory fold using the remainder of the data to test the hypotheses. The results of the study will provide important information about the psychometric properties of commonly used loneliness instruments, and can indicate which measures are appropriate for loneliness monitoring across the EU.
The study plan was refined across four rounds of in-depth review with input from four reviewers, Thuy-vy Nguyen, Joe Bathelt, Mary Louise Pomeroy, and Drew Altschul, and the recommenders, after which it was judged to meet the Stage 1 criteria and received in-principle acceptance.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/2s38v Level of bias control achieved: Level 3. At least some data/evidence that will be used to the answer the research question has been previously accessed by the authors (e.g. downloaded or otherwise received), but the authors certify that they have not yet observed ANY part of the data/evidence List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
Paris, B., Ropovik, I., Silan, M., d'Hombres, B., Casabianca, E., & IJzerman, H. (2025). Evaluating Loneliness Measurements across the European Union. In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Reigstered Reports. https://osf.io/2s38v
| Evaluating Loneliness Measurements across the European Union | Bastien Paris, Ivan Ropovik, Miguel Silan, Béatrice d'Hombres, Elizabeth Casabianca, Hans IJzerman | <p>Loneliness has been associated with several detrimental effects for individuals and societies, making it a priority for monitoring across the European Union. While many loneliness measures currently exist, notable gaps exist regarding knowledge... | Social sciences | Elizabeth Renner | 2023-11-17 14:30:30 | |||
Michotte's research on perceptual impressions of causality: a registered replication studyMichotte’s classic studies on the perception of causality: Replications, extensions and a sound base for further researchRecommended by Moin Syed based on reviews by Maxine Sherman and 1 anonymous reviewer
Making causal judgements are part of everyday life, whether seeking to understand the action of complex humans or the relations between inanimate objects in our environments. Albert Michotte’s (1963) classic book, The perception of causality, contained an extensive report of experiments demonstrating not only that observers perceive causality of inanimate shapes, but do so in manifold ways, creating different “causal impressions.” This work has been highly influential across psychology and neuroscience.
In the current study, White (2025) conducted 14 experiments aimed at replicating and extending Michotte’s work. Despite the fact that this research is foundational to current work on perception and understanding of causal relations, it has never been subject to rigorous replication. Moreover, like many research studies from that era, Michotte was sparse on details about methodology and did not rely on statistical analysis. White carried out an ambitious set of 14 experiments and 18 hypotheses that directly replicated and, in some cases, extended Michotte’s experiments. The results of the experiments were mixed, with the hypotheses evenly divided among being supported, partially supported, and not supported. The current effort by White not only brings rigorous contemporary data to classic studies of perceptual impressions of causality, but the results point to important new directions for future study on the topic. In particular, the findings suggest a need to broaden our investigations of causal explanations of movement beyond launching (i.e., contact of one object leading to motion of another) to also consider entraining (i.e., joint movement following contact) and pulling. The collected studies provide fertile ground for further testing a variety of mechanisms that explain different perceptual impressions of causality.
The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over three rounds of in-depth review, the first two rounds consisting of detailed comments from two reviewers and the third round consisting of a close read by the recommender. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and awarded a positive recommendation.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/5jx8f
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA. List of eligible PCI-RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Michotte, A. (1963). The perception of causality (T. R. Miles & E. Miles, trans.). London: Methuen. (English translation of Michotte, 1954).
2. White, P. A. (2025). Michotte's research on perceptual impressions of causality: A registered replication study [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/jdac7
| Michotte's research on perceptual impressions of causality: a registered replication study | Peter A. White | <p> Michotte (1946/1954/1963) showed that visual impressions of causality can occur in perception of simple animations of moving geometrical objects. In the launching effect, one object is perceived a... | Social sciences | Moin Syed | 2024-10-07 10:53:33 | |||
29 Jan 2025
STAGE 1
Does synchronised singing enhance social bonding more than speaking does? A global experimental Stage 1 Registered ReportDo humans bond more when singing together or speaking together? A global investigationRecommended by Katherine Moore based on reviews by Melissa Brandon, Erin Hannon, Manuela Maria Marin and Anja Göritz
Music is a universal across human cultures, but there is debate as to why and how it evolved. For example, Pinker has famously argued that music is “auditory cheesecake,” with no biological value (Pinker, 1997). Most scholars on the evolution of music make comparisons with language, another human universal that is unique to our species (Friederici, 2017). A current leading hypothesis in the evolution of music is the social bonding hypothesis, which suggests that music plays a special role in social bonding beyond the role that language plays (Savage et al., 2021).
Previous studies have provided evidence that synchronized music-making can promote social bonding (e.g. Stupacher et al., 2021). However, it is unclear whether synchronous singing provides any advantage in social bonding as compared to merely speaking. Previous work on this topic has at times lacked sufficient controls and has potentially been subject to publication bias—it could be that only the studies with statistically significant findings are in the published literature, when in fact additional experiments may have been run with unpublished null results. Also critically, prior studies have been subject to sampling bias—the vast majority are limited to a small set of cultures and musical styles, focusing primarily on English-speaking cultures and western music (Henrich & Heine, 2010). If music has evolved as a mechanism for social bonding, then it is especially critical to demonstrate its effects on social bonding across a wide range of cultures.
In a remarkable global collaboration including 88 collaborators from six continents, Savage et al. (2025) plan to collect data on synchronized singing and speech from 1710 participants across 57 research sites. Participants will be assigned to participate in (1) a synchronized singing activity, (2) a synchronized speech activity, or (3) a natural, prompted conversation.
At each research site, participants will gather in groups of 5-10 and will be randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (for the research site to be valid, it must recruit one group of participants into each condition). The experiment will start with pre-test measures of social bonding and other variables. Next, the intervention will commence. In the singing condition, participants will synchronously sing a song that is highly familiar in that culture. In the lyrics recitation condition, participants will synchronously speak printed lyrics to the songs from the singing condition (twice through, to account for speed differences in song and speech). In the conversation condition, participants will have a natural conversation in response to an ice-breaker question. Finally, each group will engage in post-test measures of social bonding as well as debriefing.
The social bonding hypothesis predicts that participants in the synchronized singing task will experience more social bonding (as measured by a pre- and post-test differences) than will participants who engage in sequential conversation or synchronous lyrics recitation in the absence of musical pitch or rhythm. The unprecedented scale of this global, cross-cultural investigation will make a great impact on the field and on our understanding of the relationship among speech, song, and social connection, regardless of the outcome.
Four expert reviewers provided valuable feedback through two rounds of review. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers’ and the recommender’s comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and therefore awarded in-principle acceptance.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/7t4ck
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists, and no part will be generated until after IPA.
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Friederici, A. (2017). Language in Our Brain: The Origins of a Uniquely Human Capacity. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262036924.001.0001
2. Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61-83. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x0999152x
3. Pinker, S. (1997). How the mind works. WW Norton & Company.
4. Savage, P. E., Loui, P., Tarr, B., Schachner, A., Glowacki, L., Mithen, S., & Fitch, W. T. (2021). Music as a coevolved system for social bonding. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, e59. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X20000333
5. Savage, P. E. et al. (2025). Does synchronised singing enhance social bonding more than speaking does? A global experimental Stage 1 Registered Report. In principle acceptance of Version 7 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/7t4ck
6. Stupacher, J., Mikkelsen, J., & Vuust, P. (2022). Higher empathy is associated with stronger social bonding when moving together with music. Psychology of Music, 50, 1511-1526. https://doi.org/10.1177/03057356211050681
| Does synchronised singing enhance social bonding more than speaking does? A global experimental Stage 1 Registered Report | Patrick E. Savage, Adwoa Ampiah-Bonney, Aleksandar Arabadjiev, Adwoa Arhine, Juan F. Ariza, Joshua Silberstein Bamford, Brenda Suyanne Barbosa, Ann-Kathrin Beck, Michel Belyk, Emmanouil Benetos, Damián Ezequiel Blasi, Joseph Bulbulia, Anne Cabildo... | <p>The evolution of music, speech, and sociality have been debated since before Darwin. The social bonding hypothesis proposes that these phenomena may be interlinked: musicality may have facilitated the evolution of social bonding beyond the poss... | | Social sciences | Katherine Moore | Manuela Maria Marin, Erin Hannon, Melissa Brandon, Anja Göritz | 2024-09-02 06:01:32 | |
Unveiling the Positivity Bias on Social Media: A Registered Experimental Study On Facebook, Instagram, And XSocial media positivity bias, or just positivity bias?Recommended by Veli-Matti Karhulahti based on reviews by Marcel Martončik, Julius Klingelhoefer and 1 anonymous reviewer
Both research and public debates around social media use tend to involve a premise of positivity bias, which refers to presenting one’s life in an overly positive light by various different means. This premise contributes to multiple potentially important follow-up hypotheses, such as the fear of missing out and low self-image effects, due to repeated consumption of positive social media content (e.g., Bayer et al. 2020, for a review). The positivity bias of social media use, itself, has received limited research attention.
In the present study, Masciantonio and colleagues (2025) tested positivity bias in the context of three social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and X. The experiment involved recruiting participants (n=312) into platform-specific user groups and crafting posts to be shared with friends as well as respective social media audiences. For social media positivity bias to differ from everyday positivity bias, posts in the former should introduce more positive valence in comparison to offline sharing—and if the platforms differ in their encouragement of positivity bias, they should introduce significant between-platform differences in valence. Based on how the participants reported events, the study found no significant differences between everyday and social media positivity bias, but messages posted on Twitter/X had a more negative valence than posts in other social media platforms. The results would be consistent with the implication that people's positive actions in social media simply follow the natural human tendency to present oneself positively to others—a hypothesis that should be investigated in follow-up work. More research attention should also be given to specific design features, which may contribute to platform-specific differences in user habits, as suggested by the distinct valence rate found in relation to Twitter/X. The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated by three experts (areas: experimental methods, social media, statistics) via in-depth peer review across two rounds, with one reviewer returning to validate analysis code and methdological accuracy on a final round. Based on the authors’ careful responses and revisions, the revised manuscript was judged to meet the Stage 2 criteria and was awarded a positive recommendation.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/9z6hm Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA. List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Bayer, J. B., Triệu, P., & Ellison, N. B. (2020). Social media elements, ecologies, and effects. Annual review of psychology, 71, 471-497. https:// doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-050944 2. Masciantonio, A., Heiser, N., & Cherbonnier, A. (2025). Unveiling the Positivity Bias on Social Media: A Registered Experimental Study On Facebook, Instagram, And X [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/s93yu
| Unveiling the Positivity Bias on Social Media: A Registered Experimental Study On Facebook, Instagram, And X | Alexandra Masciantonio, Neele Heiser, Anthony Cherbonnier | <p>Social media has transformed how people engage with the world around them. The positivity bias on social media, in particular, warrants in-depth investigation. This is particularly true as previous research has concentrated on one specific plat... | Social sciences | Veli-Matti Karhulahti | Marcel Martončik | 2024-09-23 11:20:07 |
