Arbitrary stimuli are not devalued by stopping action: A registered replication of Wessel et al. (2014)

There is a sizable literature on inhibition-induced devaluation (IID), in which withholding a behavioral response in the context of a specific stimulus reduces the value of that stimulus and reduces the likelihood of choosing or using that stimulus in the future. IID holds great promise for behavior change and improving public health, because a variety of public health problems, including unhealthy eating and substance abuse, involve the inability to control the use of something of inherent, perceived, or associated value. Wessel et al. (2014) showed that when arbitrary stimuli were associated with response inhibition, subjects valued those stimuli less, suggesting that IID may be possible across a variety of stimuli. In three preregistered direct replications across three universities, including a U.S. private university, a U.S. public university, and a public university in Israel, we show no evidence for IID. This brings into question the robustness of IID as implemented by Wessel et al. using arbitrary stimuli and the stop-signal paradigm. This work encourages future efforts to directly replicate previous findings of IID in related designs, including those using stimuli with inherent value like food. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).