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Romance, Risk, and Replication: Can Consumer Choices and Risk-Taking Be Primed by Mating Motives?

Shanks, DR; Vadillo, MA; Riedel, B; Clymo, A; Govind, S; Hickin, N; Tamman, AJ; (2015) Romance, Risk, and Replication: Can Consumer Choices and Risk-Taking Be Primed by Mating Motives? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , 144 (6) e142-e158. 10.1037/xge0000116. Green open access

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Abstract

Interventions aimed at influencing spending behavior and risk-taking have considerable practical importance. A number of studies motivated by the costly signaling theory within evolutionary psychology have reported that priming inductions (such as looking at pictures of attractive opposite sex members) designed to trigger mating motives increase males' stated willingness to purchase conspicuous consumption items and to engage in risk-taking behaviors, and reduce loss aversion. However, a meta-analysis of this literature reveals strong evidence of either publication bias or p-hacking (or both). We then report 8 studies with a total sample of over 1,600 participants which sought to reproduce these effects. None of the studies, including one that was fully preregistered, was successful. The results question the claim that romantic primes can influence risk-taking and other potentially harmful behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record

Type: Article
Title: Romance, Risk, and Replication: Can Consumer Choices and Risk-Taking Be Primed by Mating Motives?
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1037/xge0000116
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000116
Language: English
Additional information: ©2015 American Psychological Association This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1472788
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