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296 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Social Sciences · Negative / Null Result Report. Search the index →

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record compiled from open scholarly databases; the abstract is shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed, otherwise a short excerpt under fair use. Classifications are automated and approximate.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Teaching Clinical Pharmacology Using Team‐Based Learning: A Comparison Between Third‐ and Fourth‐Year Medical Students

Imad Bou Akl, Fatima Ghaddar, Ramzi Sabra et al. · 2011 · The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology

The purpose of this study was to formulate evidence-based recommendations on whether to deliver the team-based learning (TBL)-designed clinical pharmacology course at the American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine (AUBFM) during the…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

No association between numerical ability and politically motivated reasoning in a large US probability sample

Michael N. Stagnaro, Ben M Tappin, David G. Rand · 2023 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The highly influential theory of "Motivated System 2 Reasoning" argues that analytical, deliberative ("System 2") reasoning is hijacked by identity when considering ideologically charged issues-leading people who are more likely to engage in such reasoning to be more polarized, rather than more accurate. Here, we fail to replicate the key empirical support for this theory across five contentious issues, using a large gold-standard nationally representative probability sample of Americans. While participants were more accurate in evaluating a contingency table when the outcome aligned with thei

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Explaining significant differences in subjective and objective measures of cardiovascular health: evidence for the socioeconomic gradient in a population-based study

Irene Mosca, Bláithín Ní Bhuachalla, Rose Anne Kenny · 2013 · BMC Cardiovascular Disorders

BACKGROUND: To assess prevalence rates of subjective and objective reports of two cardiovascular disorders (hypertension and hypercholesterolemia) for the same subset of respondents in a large-scale study. To determine whether and the extent to which the socioeconomic health gradient differed in the subjective and objective reports of the two cardiovascular disorders. METHODS: Data from the first wave (2009/2011) of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing were used (n = 4,179). This is a nationally representative study of community-dwelling adults aged 50+ residing in Ireland. Subjective measur

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

I know that I know nothing: Can puncturing the illusion of explanatory depth overcome the relationship between attitudinal dissimilarity and prejudice?

Jan G. Voelkel, Mark J. Brandt, Matteo Colombo · 2018 · Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology

People are prejudiced toward groups they perceive as having a worldview dissimilar from their own. This link between perceived attitudinal dissimilarity and prejudice is so stable that it has been described as a psychological law. The current research tests whether reducing people’s (over-)confidence in their own understanding of policies by puncturing their illusion of explanatory depth in the political domain will reduce the link between perceived attitudinal dissimilarity and prejudice. In an initial pre-registered experiment (N = 296), we did not find support for our hypothesis, but explor

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Academic Performance of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education: Insights from a Study of One Catholic College

Laura M. Wasielewski · 2016 · Journal of Catholic Education

The purpose of this study was to determine if students with disabilities perform comparably to students without disabilities academically at a small liberal arts college. Quantitative results were gathered through the comparison of end of semester and cumulative grade point averages for students with disabilities and students without disabilities (n=56). The t test for independent means and a 2-way analysis of variance were used to test hypotheses. Students without disabilities had significantly higher academic performances than students with disabilities as measured by grade point averages. F

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Gamified Inoculation Against Misinformation in India: A Randomized Control Trial

Trisha Harjani, Melisa-Sinem Basol, Jon Roozenbeek et al. · 2023 · Journal of Trial and Error

Although the spread of misinformation is a pervasive and disruptive global problem, extant research is skewed towards “WEIRD” countries leaving questions about how to tackle misinformation in the developing world with different media and consumption patterns unanswered. We report the results of a game-based intervention against misinformation in India. The game is based on the mechanism of psychological inoculation; borrowed from the medical context, inoculation interventions aim to pre-emptively neutralize falsehoods and help audiences spot and resist misinformation strategies. Though the eff

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Does organizational culture influence employee productivity at the local level? A test of Denison's culture model in Ghana’s local government sector

Juliana Abagsonema Abane, Ronald Adamtey, Virceta Owusu Ayim · 2022 · Future Business Journal

Abstract There is mixed evidence that low levels of productivity at the local government level are not common with organizations with strong cultures as these are less prone to any externalities. The paper investigated the link between organizational culture and employee productivity from the perspectives of employees of the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) in Ghana. The study used the quantitative approach with descriptive and cross-sectional designs. The simple random and stratified sampling techniques were used to select 132 respondents from the STMA using a self-administered s

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Artificial social influence via human-embodied AI agent interaction in immersive virtual reality (VR): Effects of similarity-matching during health conversations

Sue Lim, Ralf Schmälzle, Gary Bente · 2025 · Computers in Human Behavior Artificial Humans

Interactions with artificial intelligence (AI) based agents can positively influence human behavior and judgment. However, studies to date focus on text-based conversational agents (CA) with limited embodiment, restricting our understanding of how social influence principles, such as physical similarity, apply to AI agents (i.e., artificial social influence). We address this gap by leveraging latest advances in AI (large language models) and combining them with immersive virtual reality (VR). Specifically, we built VR-ECAs, or embodied conversational agents that can engage in turn-taking conve

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

No effect of ‘watching eyes’: An attempted replication and extension investigating individual differences

Amanda Rotella, Adam Maxwell Sparks, Sandeep Mishra et al. · 2021 · PLoS ONE

Some evidence suggests that people behave more cooperatively and generously when observed or in the presence of images of eyes (termed the 'watching eyes' effect). Eye images are thought to trigger feelings of observation, which in turn motivate people to behave more cooperatively to earn a good reputation. However, several recent studies have failed to find evidence of the eyes effect. One possibility is that inconsistent evidence in support of the eyes effect is a product of individual differences in sensitivity or susceptibility to the cue. In fact, some evidence suggests that people who ar

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Investigator Characteristics and Respondent Behavior in Online Surveys

Ariel White, Anton Strezhnev, Christopher Lucas et al. · 2018 · Journal of Experimental Political Science

Abstract Prior research demonstrates that responses to surveys can vary depending on the race, gender, or ethnicity of the investigator asking the question. We build upon this research by empirically testing how information about…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Strategic Inclusion Without Transformation: How Populist Radical Right Parties Engage With Women’s Interests

Bonnie M. Meguid, Hilde Coffé, Ana Catalano Weeks et al. · 2025 · Comparative Political Studies

Despite their Männerparteien reputation, populist radical right (PRR) parties have recently expanded their agendas to include women’s interests. When do they embrace these interests, and what shapes their stance? We propose a theory of…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Well‐being in the time of COVID‐19: Do metaphors and mindsets matter?

Jeni L. Burnette, Crystal L. Hoyt, Nicholas R. Buttrick et al. · 2021 · International Journal of Psychology

Communications about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) often employ metaphors, which can help people understand complex issues. For example, public health messages may focus on "fighting" the disease, attempting to rouse people to…

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Negative / Null Result ReportSocial Sciences

Do minority-language and majority-language students benefit from pedagogical translanguaging in early foreign language development?

Holger Hopp, Teresa Kieseier, Jenny Jakisch et al. · 2021 · Multilingua

Abstract This paper reports findings of a project on pedagogical translanguaging (PTL) among 128 fourth-grade students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in German primary schools. Over a period of six months, 20% of lesson time…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

The Effects of Board Diversity on Korean Companies’ ESG Performance

Ahmet Jeyhunov, Jong Dae Kim, Seong Mi Bae · 2025 · Sustainability

This paper explores the effect of board diversity on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in Korean-listed firms using regression analysis. Our findings reveal that an increased board size significantly correlates with higher ESG scores when combined with other board diversity dimensions. The presence of female directors on boards was found to have a significant effect on environmental and social components of ESG performance. Age diversity exhibits a negative association with ESG scores, emphasizing potential disruptions from intergenerational differences. Foreign directors

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Negative / Null Result ReportSocial Sciences

The Impact of Teach for America on Non-Test Academic Outcomes

Ben Backes, Michael Hansén · 2017 · Education Finance and Policy

Recent evidence on teacher productivity suggests that teachers meaningfully influence non-test academic student outcomes that are commonly overlooked by narrowly focusing on test scores. Despite a large number of studies investigating the…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Migration, Remittances and Entrepreneurship: The Case of Rural Ecuador

Cristian Vasco · 2013 · Americanae (AECID Library)

Con datos de la “Encuesta de condiciones de vida (ecv) 2005-2006”, este artículo analiza el impacto de la migración internacional y las remesas en la iniciativa emprendedora en el Ecuador rural. Los resultados sugieren que ni la migración…

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Negative / Null Result ReportSocial Sciences

Benefits of power posing: effects on dominance and social sensitivity

Lukas Klaschinski, Konrad Schnabel, Michela Schröder–Abé · 2017 · Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology

The current study attempted to replicate results by Cuddy, Wilmuth, Yap, and Carney (2015) who showed that adopting high-power poses prior to a demanding job interview improved dominant behavior and overall hireability judgments. We…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Fighting the spread of COVID-19 misinformation in Kyrgyzstan, India, and the United States: How replicable are accuracy nudge interventions?

Lyndsay Gavin, Jenna McChesney, Anson Tong et al. · 2022 · Technology Mind and Behavior

The spread of misinformation has generated confusion and uncertainty about how to behave with respect to protective actions during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as social distancing and getting vaccinated. garnered significant press…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Could Alcohol Abuse Drive Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators’ Psychophysiological Response to Acute Stress?

Sara Vitoria-Estruch, Ángel Romero‐Martínez, Marisol Lila et al. · 2018 · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Proactively aggressive individuals have been shown to present a different pattern of autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation from that of individuals characterized by reactive violence. Although attempts have been made to classify intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrators based on ANS reactivity to acute stress, subsequent studies have failed to replicate this classification. Notably, the proposed classification neglected the role of chronic alcohol abuse in ANS dysregulation and the fact that this dysregulation entails an abnormal stress response. The aim of the present study was to a

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

No Significant Difference - Unless you are a Jumper

Richard Fendler, Craig Ruff, Milind Shrikhande · 2018 · Online Learning

Much of the e-education literature suggests that there is no significant difference in aggregate student learning outcomes between online and face-to-face instruction. In this study, we develop a model that forecasts the grade that individual students would have most likely earned in the alternate class setting. Students for whom the difference between the actual grade received in one class format (for example, online) and the forecasted grade in the other class setting (for example, face-to-face) is one full letter grade or higher are called “jumpers.” Our findings indicate that jumpers are n

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Negative / Null Result ReportSocial Sciences

DOES TRUST PROMOTE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY?

Kitae Sohn, Illoong Kwon · 2016 · The Singapore Economic Review

Trust was found to promote entrepreneurship in the US. We investigated whether this was true in a developing country, Indonesia. We failed to replicate this; this failure was true whether trust was estimated at the individual or community…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Labeling AI-generated media online

Chloe Wittenberg, Ziv Epstein, Gabrielle Péloquin-Skulski et al. · 2025 · PNAS Nexus

Abstract Recent advancements in generative AI have raised widespread concern about the use of this technology to spread audio and visual misinformation. In response, there has been a major push among policymakers and technology companies to label AI-generated media appearing online. It remains unclear, however, what types of labels are most effective for this purpose. Here, we evaluate two (potentially complementary) strategies for labeling AI-generated content online: (i) a process-based approach, aimed at clarifying how content was made and (ii) a harm-based approach, aimed at highlighting c

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Negative / Null Result ReportSocial Sciences

Revisiting a Criminological Classic: The Cycle of Violence

Wesley Myers, Kristin M. Lloyd, Jillian J. Turanovic et al. · 2018 · Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

There is a growing “replication crisis” in the social and behavioral sciences, where original research across a wide array of substantive areas has failed to replicate when conducted by others. This problem highlights the importance of…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Examining the replicability of backfire effects after standalone corrections

Toby Prike, Phoebe Blackley, Briony Swire‐Thompson et al. · 2023 · Cognitive Research Principles and Implications

Corrections are a frequently used and effective tool for countering misinformation. However, concerns have been raised that corrections may introduce false claims to new audiences when the misinformation is novel. This is because boosting the familiarity of a claim can increase belief in that claim, and thus exposing new audiences to novel misinformation-even as part of a correction-may inadvertently increase misinformation belief. Such an outcome could be conceptualized as a familiarity backfire effect, whereby a familiarity boost increases false-claim endorsement above a control-condition or

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

More social, less material, more influenced by family ties: Why young women join political parties

Sofia Ammassari, Duncan McDonnell, Annika Werner et al. · 2026 · European Journal of Political Research

Abstract Do young women and men join political parties for different reasons? To investigate, we theorize the following: first, women will be more attracted by social incentives and men by material ones, while purposive incentives will be…

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