Report #7: Replication of a study from “The Surprise of Reaching Out: Appreciated More Than We Think” (JPSP | Liu et al. 2023)

We ran a replication of study 4a from this paper, which found that people underestimate how much their acquaintances would appreciate it if they reached out to them. This finding was replicated in our study. The study asked participants to think of an acquaintance with whom they have pleasant interactions, and then randomized the participants into two conditions – Initiator and Responder. In the Initiator condition, participants answered questions about how much they believe that their acquaintance would appreciate being reached out to by the participant. In the responder condition, participants answered questions about how much they would appreciate it if their acquaintance reached out to them. Participants in the Responder condition reported that they would feel a higher level of appreciation if they were reached out to than participants in the Initiator condition reported they expected their acquaintance would feel if the participant reached out to them. Appreciation here was measured by an average of four questions which asked how much the reach-out would be appreciated by the recipient, and how thankful, grateful, and pleased it would make the recipient feel.The original study received a high transparency rating because it followed a pre-registered plan, and the methods, data, and analysis code were publicly available. The original study reported one main finding, and that finding replicated in our study. The study’s clarity could have been improved if the paper had not stated that the reaching out in the study was through a “brief message,” because in the actual study, the nature of the outreach was not specified. Apart from that relatively minor issue, the study’s methods, results, and discussion were presented clearly and the claims made were well-supported by the evidence provided.