The replication crisis: how much of the priming literature that shaped Thinking, Fast and Slow survived?

Daniel Kahneman, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

The position in brief

The priming results I described were weaker than I treated them as being. I placed too much confidence in underpowered studies, and I said so in public rather than waiting to be told.1234

Sources

  1. Do these experiments demonstrate that we are completely at the mercy of whatever primes the environment provides at any moment? Of course not. The effects of the primes are robust but not necessarily large.
    Thinking, Fast and Slow
  2. Some cultures provide frequent reminders of respect, others constantly remind their members of God, and some societies prime obedience by large images of the Dear Leader. Can there be any doubt that the ubiquitous portraits of the national leader in dictatorial societies not only convey the feeling that "Big Brother Is Watching" but also lead to an actual reduction in spontaneous thought and independent action?
    Thinking, Fast and Slow
  3. Now consider these questions: When did George Washington become president? What is the boiling temperature of water at the top of Mount Everest? The first thing that happens when you consider each of these questions is that an anchor comes to your mind, and you know both that it is wrong and the direction of the correct answer.
    Thinking, Fast and Slow
  4. If you have recently seen or heard the word EAT, you are temporarily more likely to complete the word fragment SO_P as SOUP than as SOAP. The opposite would happen, of course, if you had just seen WASH. We call this a priming effect and say that the idea of EAT primes the idea of SOUP, and that WASH primes SOAP. Priming effects take many forms.
    Thinking, Fast and Slow

Where the argument is made

  • The 2012 open letter to researchers on social priming
  • chapter 4 of Thinking, Fast and Slow and his subsequent public comments on it

How the argument was received

A genuine and documented correction, and the clearest case in the corpus where the evidence moved and he moved with it.