A creative destruction approach to replication: Implicit work and sex morality across cultures

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104060Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • This “creative destruction” replication initiative added new measures and populations to four original study designs.

  • The theory of Implicit Puritanism was competed against seven alternative accounts of work morality.

  • A number of original findings replicated across multiple cultures, whereas two were identified as likely false positives.

  • The best-fitting model suggests work is intuitively moralized across cultures.

Abstract

How can we maximize what is learned from a replication study? In the creative destruction approach to replication, the original hypothesis is compared not only to the null hypothesis, but also to predictions derived from multiple alternative theoretical accounts of the phenomenon. To this end, new populations and measures are included in the design in addition to the original ones, to help determine which theory best accounts for the results across multiple key outcomes and contexts. The present pre-registered empirical project compared the Implicit Puritanism account of intuitive work and sex morality to theories positing regional, religious, and social class differences; explicit rather than implicit cultural differences in values; self-expression vs. survival values as a key cultural fault line; the general moralization of work; and false positive effects. Contradicting Implicit Puritanism's core theoretical claim of a distinct American work morality, a number of targeted findings replicated across multiple comparison cultures, whereas several failed to replicate in all samples and were identified as likely false positives. No support emerged for theories predicting regional variability and specific individual-differences moderators (religious affiliation, religiosity, and education level). Overall, the results provide evidence that work is intuitively moralized across cultures.

Keywords

Replication
Theory testing
Falsification
Implicit social cognition
Priming
Work values
Culture

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This paper has been recommended for acceptance by Joris Lammers.