Revisiting the psychology of waste: Replication and extensions Registered Report of Arkes (1996)
View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.This study replicated Arkes's (1996) wastefulness avoidance research. Findings show waste impacts decisions in some scenarios but not others, indicating a mixed replication of this behavioral economics phenomenon.
Area Of Science
- Behavioral Economics
- Decision Science
- Psychology
Background
- The wastefulness avoidance phenomenon suggests individuals make decisions to avoid appearing wasteful.
- Prior research by Arkes (1996) explored this effect across various scenarios.
Purpose Of The Study
- To replicate and extend Arkes's (1996) studies on wastefulness avoidance.
- To investigate the impact of waste on decision evaluation and the underlying reasons.
Main Methods
- A Registered Report study with 659 participants on the Prolific platform.
- Replication of three scenarios from Arkes (1996) with extensions including continuous willingness measures and manipulation checks.
Main Results
- Empirical support for wastefulness avoidance was found in the movie package (Study 1) and tent project (Study 3) scenarios.
- No support was found in the tax program scenario (Study 2).
- Manipulation checks indicated success in Studies 1 and 3, but not Study 2. Minimizing waste was a key reason in Study 3.
Conclusions
- The replication yielded mixed results, successfully replicating two out of three studies.
- Wastefulness avoidance is a demonstrable phenomenon but may be context-dependent.
- Open materials, data, and code are available for transparency and further research.