(1) Overview
Collection date(s)
2010
Background
We wanted an experiment arriving at a necessarily false finding. We settled for age based on self-reported birthday as that would seem impossible to move around even through measurement error.
(2) Methods
Sample
The Wharton school has a behavioral lab where people are paid for participating. They usually complete several studies in a single session and get paid a flat fee plus additional revenue some experiments within the session may include.
More specific demographics are included in the data themselves.
Given the light nature of the study we did not monitor incomplete submissions, so do not know if people started and did not complete, but this seldom if ever happens in this lab.
Materials
In both experiments people listened to one of three music files. The song “Kalimba” by Mr. Scrub which comes free with the Windows 7 operating system, the song “Hot Potato” by the Australian band The Wiggles, and “When I am 64” by the Beatles. Copyright restrictions do not make it possible to post those songs here.
The questions were posted on Qualtrics (an online survey provider), after participants listened to the song with headphones they proceeded to answer all questions.
Procedures
See above.
Quality control
None, given the setting.
Ethical issues
The study followed the ethical standards by the American Psychological Association. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Wharton School. There are no personal identifiers in the data beyond age and parents’ age, insufficient to identify people.
(3) Dataset description
Object name
Text-files
Study 1.txt
Study 2.txt
Codebook.txt
Excel
Post Data - False Positive Psychology.xlsx
Data type
Raw data file
Format names and versions
Both in .txt with a .txt codebook, and a self-contained Excel Workbook file (xlsx).
Data collectors
Paid staff at the lab.
Language
English
License
CCO
Repository location
Publication date
13 January 2014
(4) Reuse potential
Data from this highly-cited paper are especially useful for educational purposes (teaching of statistics) as well as for future research concerned with various statistical approaches.
Peer review comments
http://openpsychologydata.metajnl.com/downloads/peerreview/jopd-aa.pdf