Cultural Sociology in the Wake of Psychology’s Replication Crisis

• In Event: Culture in/of Unsettled Times

Abstract

Over the past three decades, psychological research has fundamentally transformed how sociologists approach the study of culture. In this article we ask: what are the consequences of psychology’s “replication crisis” for cultural sociology? We answer this question through a critical review and bibliometric analysis of cultural sociology’s psychological foundations. First, analyzing the bibliographies of a large corpus of Culture and Cognition articles, we find that the majority of their psychological references come from social psychology, the least reliable psychological subfield. We then identify three unreliable areas of psychological research that have heavily influenced cultural sociology: social priming, mind-body coupling, and unconscious influences. We argue that replication failures in these areas have major implications for how sociologists conceptualize cultural activation, culture in action, and for debates regarding dual-process models and research methods. We conclude by developing a set of evidence-based heuristics to enhance the incorporation of psychological research into cultural analysis.

Authors

• Gordon Brett, The University of Hong Kong

• Xinyue Wang

• He Wang