Jennifer DeCicco, Ph.D., from the School of Arts and Sciences, and colleagues at Lafayette College contributed to a replication project which examined the well-known facial feedback hypothesis. The replication project (and others) is supported by the Association for Psychological science in an effort to replicate seminal work in psychology. Nearly 17 different laboratories across the world contributed data to this project. This concept typically appears in many introductory to psychology textbooks, but the experiment was never replicated.
The replication study (a meta-analysis examining the work of all 17 laboratories) failed to replicate the effects of this phenomenon. Though the results of the replication study call into question the reliability of the hypothesis, it does not invalidate the original research paper. Additional replication projects from the Association for Psychological Science are ongoing and new replication projects are proposed and reviewed throughout the year. Dr. DeCicco hopes to bring one of these replication projects to Holy Family University in the future.
Holy Family University Faculty Scholarship 