Carter and Gilovich (2012) : replication and extension

Abstract

Carter and Gilovich (2012) investigated the differential centrality of experiential and material purchases to the self. In a pre-registered experiment with an Amazon Mechanical Turk sample, (Post-exclusion N = 743, Pre-exclusion N = 759), we replicated Studies 3A, 3B, 3C and 5 from Carter and Gilovich (2012) and included an extension in Study 5. We found support across all the replication studies: Study 3A’s insight into one’s true self (original: d = 0.37, 95% CI [0.19, 0.55]; replication: d = 0.65, 95% CI [0.57, 0.73]), Study 3B’s insight into a stranger’s true self (original: d = 0.38, 95% CI [0.18, 0.58]; replication: d = 0.88, 95% CI [0.80, 0.96]), Study 3C’s insight into a new person (original: d = 0.74, 95% CI [0.52, 0.96); replication: d = 1.13, 95% CI [1.04, 1.22], d = 1.14, 95% CI [1.05, 1.23], d = 1.96, 95% CI [1.83, 2.08]), and Study 5’s impact of exchange of memories (original: d = 0.74, 95% CI [0.22, 1.26]; replication: d = 0.39, 95% CI [0.25, 0.54]) and its positive association to experiential purchase satisfaction (original: ß = -.35, 95% CI [-.61, -.10], replication: r = -.34, 95% CI [-.43, -.24]). Thus, we found strong empirical support for the differential centrality of experiential and material purchases to the self effect. In addition, we did an additional within-subject design analysis for Study 5 and found support that people’s self-concept is more impacted by memory exchange of experiential purchase than material purchase (d = 0.55, 95% CI [0.47, 0.62]) and is positively associated with experiential purchase satisfaction, that is, willingness to exchange memories is negatively correlated with satisfaction, (r = -.43, 95% CI [-.49, -.37]). Extending the replication, we found no support of a greater focus on the remembering self than the experiencing self in the experiential condition, yet we found support for a greater focus on the experiencing self than the remembering self in both the experiential condition, d = 0.22, 95% CI [0.14, 0.29], and the material condition, d = 0.29, 95% CI [0.22, 0.36].