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Browse the failure-mode index

21,239 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures. 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 ReportPsychology

Simulating semantics: Are individual differences in motor imagery related to sensorimotor effects in language processing?

Emiko J. Muraki, Penny M. Pexman · 2021 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition

In embodied theories of semantic representation, the processes and mechanisms of modal simulations that are engaged during semantic processing have tended to be underspecified. We investigated the possibility that motor imagery may be a…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessDecision Sciences

Magical thinking in predictions of negative events: Evidence for tempting fate but not for a protection effect

J. van Wolferen, Yoel Inbar, Marcel Zeelenberg · 2013 · Judgment and Decision Making

Abstract In this paper we test two hypotheses regarding magical thinking about the perceived likelihood of future events. The first is that people believe that those who “tempt fate” by failing to take necessary precautions are more likely to suffer negative outcomes. The second is the “protection effect”, where reminding people of precautions they have taken leads them to see related risks as less likely. To this end, we describe the results from three attempted direct replications of a protection effect experiment reported in Tykocinski (2008) and two replications of a tempting fate experime

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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 ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

Null results in bilingualism research

Ellen Bialystok · 2020 · Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices

The controversy over whether bilingualism has consequences for mind and brain shows no sign of abating. A steady stream of research reporting both positive results supporting the claim for beneficial effects of bilingualism and null…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEngineering

Channel Characteristics of Dynamic Off-Body Communications at 60 GHz Under Line-of-Sight (LOS) and Non-LOS Conditions

Seong Ki Yoo, Simon L. Cotton, Young Jin Chun et al. · 2017 · IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

This letter investigates the first-order characteristics of dynamic off-body communications channels at 60 GHz. In particular, we have studied signal propagation from a chest-worn millimeter-wave transmitter as an adult male walked toward and then away from a hypothetical base station. The mobile line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) channel measurements have been conducted in a diverse range of environments, including a hallway, an open office, an anechoic chamber, and an outdoor car park. In this study, we have decomposed the received signal into its path loss, large-scale, and small-scale

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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 accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Genome-Wide Association Study of Serum Fructosamine and Glycated Albumin in Adults Without Diagnosed Diabetes: Results From the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

Stephanie Loomis, Man Li, Nisa M. Maruthur et al. · 2018 · Diabetes

Fructosamine and glycated albumin are potentially useful alternatives to hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) as diabetes biomarkers. The genetic determinants of fructosamine and glycated albumin, however, are unknown. We performed genome-wide…

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Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

Small-Group, Emergent Literacy Intervention Under Two Implementation Models: Intent-to-Treat and Dosage Effects for Preschoolers at Risk for Reading Difficulties

Shayne B. Piasta, Jessica A. R. Logan, Cynthia M. Zettler‐Greeley et al. · 2022 · Journal of Learning Disabilities

Preschool-age children identified as at risk for later reading difficulties can benefit from supplemental, small-group emergent literacy intervention. As such interventions become commercially available and marketed to preschool programs,…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

Anodal tDCS and High-Frequency tRNS Targeting the Occipitotemporal Cortex Do Not Always Enhance Face Perception

Megan Willis, Andrea I. Costantino, Michael A. Nitsche et al. · 2019 · Frontiers in Neuroscience

There has been increasing interest in the utility of transcranial electrical stimulation as a tool to enhance cognitive abilities. In the domain of face perception, enhancements have been reported for both transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and high-frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) targeting the occipitotemporal cortex. In a series of two experiments, we attempted to replicate these findings for face identity perception, and extend on previous studies, to determine if similar enhancements are also observed for object and facial expression perception. In Experi

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Replication and Heritability of Prostate Cancer Risk Variants: Impact of Population-Specific Factors

Victor Virlogeux, Rebecca E. Graff, Thomas J. Hoffmann et al. · 2015 · Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates vary across populations, with African American men exhibiting the highest rates. To date, genome-wide association studies have identified 104 SNPs independently associated with…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Combination of Olanzapine and Samidorphan Has No Clinically Significant Effect on the Pharmacokinetics of Lithium or Valproate

Lei Sun, Sergey Yagoda, Baiyun Yao et al. · 2019 · Clinical Drug Investigation

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia and, either as monotherapy or as an adjunct to lithium or valproate, for bipolar I disorder. Multiple daily doses of olanzapine…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Variants Associated with the Ankle Brachial Index Differ by Hispanic/Latino Ethnic Group: a genome-wide association study in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

Tamar Sofer, Leslie S. Emery, Deepti Jain et al. · 2019 · Scientific Reports

Abstract Lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) burden differs by race/ethnicity. Although familial aggregation and heritability studies suggest a genetic basis, little is known about the genetic susceptibility to PAD, especially in non-European descent populations. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of the ankle brachial index (ABI) and PAD (defined as an ABI < 0.90) have not been conducted in Hispanics/Latinos. We performed a GWAS of PAD and the ABI in 7,589 participants aged >45 years from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). We also performed

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Little evidence for an effect of the rubber hand illusion on basic movement

Arran T. Reader, Victoria S. Trifonova, H. Henrik Ehrsson · 2021 · European Journal of Neuroscience

Body ownership refers to the distinct sensation that our observed body belongs to us, which is believed to stem from multisensory integration. This is commonly shown through the rubber hand illusion (RHI), which induces a sense of ownership over a false limb. Whilst the RHI may interfere with object-directed action and alter motor cortical activity, it is not yet clear whether a sense of ownership over an artificial hand has functional consequences for movement production per se. As such, we performed two motion-tracking experiments (n = 117) to examine the effects of the RHI on the reaction t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Replication of the Association of a MET Variant with Autism in a Chinese Han Population

Xue Zhou, Yang Xu, Jia Wang et al. · 2011 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND: Autism is a common, severe and highly heritable neurodevelopmental disorder in children, affecting up to 100 children per 10,000. The MET gene has been regarded as a promising candidate gene for this disorder because it is located within a replicated linkage interval, is involved in pathways affecting the development of the cerebral cortex and cerebellum in ways relevant to autism patients, and has shown significant association signals in previous studies. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we present new ASD patient and control samples from Heilongjiang, China and use them in a case-contro

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

Developmental psychologists should adopt citizen science to improve generalization and reproducibility

Wei Li, Laura Germine, Samuel A. Mehr et al. · 2022 · Infant and Child Development

Widespread failures of replication and generalization are, ironically, a scientific triumph, in that they confirm the fundamental metascientific theory that underlies our field. Generalizable and replicable findings require testing large…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAgricultural and Biological Sciences

Modified cyclodextrin type and dehydration methods exert a significant effect on the antimicrobial activity of encapsulated carvacrol and thymol

Santiago López‐Miranda, Daniel Berdejo, Elisa Pagán et al. · 2020 · Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

Abstract BACKGROUND The antimicrobial activity of essential oils and their constituents has led to increasing interest in using them as natural preservative agents. However, their high sensitivity to light and oxygen, their volatility and…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Radioactive Iodine Therapy Did Not Significantly Increase the Incidence and Recurrence of Subsequent Breast Cancer

Hwa Young Ahn, Hye Sook Min, Yohwan Yeo et al. · 2015 · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

CONTEXT: Previous studies on the extent to which radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy for thyroid cancer increases the risk of subsequently developing breast cancer have given conflicting results. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the…

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Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Intensive Care Unit Educators: A Multicenter Evaluation of Behaviors Residents Value in Attending Physicians

Lekshmi Santhosh, Snigdha Jain, Anna K. Brady et al. · 2017 · Annals of the American Thoracic Society

RATIONALE: It is important for attending physicians to know which behaviors influence learner perceptions. To date, two studies focusing on general medicine attending physicians have been published addressing internal medicine residents'…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Representation of numerical magnitude in math-anxious individuals

Àngels Colomé · 2018 · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Larger distance effects in high math-anxious individuals (HMA) performing comparison tasks have previously been interpreted as indicating less precise magnitude representation in this population. A recent study by Dietrich, Huber, Moeller, and Klein limited the effects of math anxiety to symbolic comparison, in which they found larger distance effects for HMA, despite equivalent size effects. However, the question of whether distance effects in symbolic comparison reflect the properties of the magnitude representation or decisional processes is currently under debate. This study was designed t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

An unbiased comparison of 14 epigenetic clocks in relation to 174 incident disease outcomes

Christos Mavrommatis, Daniel W. Belsky, Kejun Ying et al. · 2025 · Nature Communications

Epigenetic Clocks have been trained to predict chronological age, healthspan and lifespan. Such clocks are often analysed in relation to disease outcomes - typically using small datasets and a limited number of clocks. Here, we present a large-scale (n = 18,859), unbiased comparison of 14 widely used clocks as predictors of 174 incident disease outcomes and all-cause mortality over 10-years of follow up. Second- and third-generation clocks significantly outperform first-generation clocks, which have limited applications in disease settings. Of the 176 Bonferroni significant (P 1%. However, the

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Bi-specific T-cell engagers (BiTEs) in prostate cancer and strategies to enhance development: hope for a BiTE-r future

Harriet Lampe, Laura Tam, Aaron R. Hansen · 2024 · Frontiers in Pharmacology

Metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) continues to have poor survival rates due to limited treatment options. Bi-specific T cell engagers (BiTEs) are a promising class of novel immunotherapies with demonstrated success in haematological malignancies and melanoma. BiTEs developed for tumour associated antigens in prostate cancer have entered clinical testing. These trials have been hampered by high rates of treatment related adverse events, minimal or transient anti-tumour efficacy and generation of high titres of anti-drug antibodies. This paper aims to analyse the challenges f

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBusiness, Management and Accounting

Corporate Environmental Performance Leading Financial Performance: Impacts of Social Media Sentiment and Corporate Reputation

Tiasha Islam, Murugesh Arunachalum, Nirosha Hewa Wellalage et al. · 2025 · Business Strategy and the Environment

ABSTRACT This study examines the interplay between social media sentiment (SMS) and corporate reputation (CR) in shaping the relationship between corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Using a…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Journal N-Pact Factors From 2011 to 2019: Evaluating the Quality of Social/Personality Journals With Respect to Sample Size and Statistical Power

R. Chris Fraley, Jia Y. Chong, Kyle A. Baacke et al. · 2022 · Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science

Scholars and institutions commonly use impact factors to evaluate the quality of empirical research. However, a number of findings published in journals with high impact factors have failed to replicate, suggesting that impact alone may…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Nutritional and Microbial Strategies for Treating Acne, Alopecia, and Atopic Dermatitis

Alejandro Borrego-Ruiz, Juan J. Borrego · 2024 · Nutrients

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Diet is one of the major determinants of the composition and function of the gut microbiome, and diverse studies have established directional connections between gut microbiome dysbiosis and skin dyshomeostasis. Furthermore, a significant link between the gut and certain skin-related disorders has been reported. This work reviews the mechanisms underlying the relationship between nutritional factors, gut microbiome, and certain skin diseases such as acne vulgaris, alopecia, and atopic dermatitis. In addition, it explores how the modulation of the gut microbiome and human

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