ReviewFrontiers in psychology2018
Are Manipulation Checks Necessary?
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 53 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Primes and Consequences: A Systematic Review of Meritocracy in Intergroup Relations.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Pooled it
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- Assessing perceived empathy based on genetic counselor gender using a randomized, hypothetical prenatal genetic counseling scenario design.Journal of genetic counseling · 2025Trial
- Mindful minds: How group identity shapes brain and behavior in social decision-making.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- "Do Health Messages Come from Mars or Venus?" The Effectiveness of Health Communication Depends on Gender Stereotypes in Messages.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Ten Recommendations for Improving Research on Stroke Motor Rehabilitation: A Unified Perspective.Restorative neurology and neuroscience · 2026Review
- The Consequences of Failing to Act: Examining the Importance of Perceived Employee-Directed Managerial Inaction.Journal of leadership & organizational studies · 2026Article
- Visual Sensory Cues and Customer Experience Management in Coffee Shops: An Experimental Study of Gender as a Moderator.F1000Research · 2026Article
- Privacy assurances and professional-boundary warnings in generative AI mental health chatbots: a randomized vignette experiment on calibrated trust, overreliance risk, and professional help-seeking intentions.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- (Mis)representing the Opposition and Rhetorical Success: Experimental Evidence on Faithful and Inaccurate Reformulations.Argumentation · 2026Article
- Validation and adaptation of the self-perceived food literacy scale (SPFL) among Hebrew and Arabic speaking women in Israel.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Trust issues: Adolescents' epistemic vigilance towards online sources.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Our ways will not change: Future collective continuity increases present prosocial considerations.The British journal of social psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- How do manipulation checks interfere with the inference of causal relationships?Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- What do we manipulate when reminding people of (not) having control? In search of construct validity.Behavior research methods · 2024Article
- Power and Gambling: Dispositional Power Predicts Persistence on a Computerized Scratchcard Task.Journal of gambling studies · 2024Article
- Victim impact statements limit the effects of perspective taking on juror decisions.Frontiers in cognition · 2024Article
- The Effects of Emotion, Spokesperson Type, and Benefit Appeals on Persuasion in Health Advertisements: Evidence from Macao.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effects of Prosocial and Hope-Promoting Communication Strategies on COVID-19 Worry and Intentions for Risk-Reducing Behaviors and Vaccination: Experimental Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Researchers are concerned about whether manipulations have the intended effects. Many journals and reviewers view manipulation checks favorably, and they are widely reported in prestigious journals. However, the prototypical manipulation check is a verbal (rather than behavioral) measure that always appears at the same point in the procedure (rather than its order being varied to assess order effects). Embedding such manipulation checks within an experiment comes with problems. While we conceptualize manipulation checks as measures, they can also act as interventions which initiate new processes that would otherwise not occur. The default assumption that manipulation checks do not affect experimental conclusions is unwarranted. They may amplify, undo, or interact with the effects of a manipulation. Further, the use of manipulation checks in mediational analyses does not rule out confounding variables, as any unmeasured variables that correlate with the manipulation check may still drive the relationship. Alternatives such as non-verbal and behavioral measures as manipulation checks and pilot testing are less problematic. Reviewers should view manipulation checks more critically, and authors should explore alternative methods to ensure the effectiveness of manipulations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.