The Music of Power: a direct replication study

In the last years psychology, alongside many other sciences, has faced a phenomenon known as the replicability crisis. Publications, which formed the theoretical bases for entire generations of psychologists, have undergone replication efforts, in most of the cases with no success in confirming the original results. Within this conceptual framework, the following thesis examines the aforementioned crisis, starting from a general overlook and continuing with a deeper analysis of it, in relation to the psychology of power and of music. Next, a replication attempt of the study “The Music of Power: Perceptual and Behavioral Consequences of Powerful Music” by Hsu, Huang, Nordgren, Rucker and Galinsky (2015) is examined. In particular the direct replication of experiment 3, which talks about the consequences of power-inducing music on illusory control, is described and critically analyzed. In the end, the opening topic is discussed with a focus on what emerged from the replication attempt and its practical implications.