The Effect of Variety on Perceived Quantity: Failures to Replicate Redden and Hoch (2009)

Lukas Röseler; Georg Felser; Jana Asberger; Astrid Schütz

doi:10.15626/MP.2020.2639

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Authors

Lukas Röseler Harz University of Applied Sciences, University of Bamberg
Georg Felser Harz University of Applied Sciences
Jana Asberger University of Erfurt
Astrid Schütz University of Bamberg

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15626/MP.2020.2639

Keywords:

file-drawer report, quantity estimation, variety, Gestalt, replication

Abstract

Redden and Hoch (2009) found that variety in a set of items robustly decreased the perceived quantity of the sum of these items across multiple studies. For example, a set of multicolored M&M’s was estimated to contain fewer M&M’s than an equally large set of single-colored M&M’s (e.g., Redden & Hoch, 2009, Study 3). We conducted six close replication studies of the studies reported by Redden and Hoch and did not find this effect in any of them. A meta-analysis of the four original studies and 6 replication studies (N = 1,383) revealed no evidence for the phenomenon that variety reduces perceived quantity.

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