Registered Replication Report: Study 1 From Finkel, Rusbult, Kumashiro, & Hannon (2002)

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Relationship Science

Background:

• Subjective commitment influences relationship maintenance behaviors.
• Previous research linked commitment to responses to relationship betrayal, but lacked experimental evidence for causality.
• Finkel et al. (2002) experimentally linked commitment priming to reduced exit/neglect responses to betrayal.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally test the causal effect of subjective commitment on forgiveness responses to relationship betrayal.
• To replicate Finkel et al.'s (2002) findings on commitment priming and betrayal responses.
• To meta-analytically combine results from 16 direct replications using a preregistered protocol.

Main Methods:

• A Registered Replication Report (RRR) methodology was employed.
• 16 direct replications of Finkel et al. (2002, Study 1) were conducted.
• Participants were primed to think about relationship commitment or independence, then responded to hypothetical betrayals.

Main Results:

• The commitment priming manipulation did not significantly affect forgiveness outcome measures across replications.
• The priming manipulation failed to influence subjective commitment levels, indicating the manipulation was ineffective.
• A meta-analysis of the 16 studies showed minimal effects of the priming manipulation.

Conclusions:

• The original study's findings on commitment priming causally affecting forgiveness were not replicated.
• The ineffectiveness of the commitment priming manipulation in the RRR is a key difference from the original study.
• Further research is needed to understand discrepancies and refine methods for studying commitment and forgiveness in relationships.