Replication: Unsuccessful replications and extensions of Temporal Value Asymmetry in monetary valuation and moral judgment

Abstract

The phenomenon that contemplating future events elicits stronger emotions than contemplating past events has been coined “temporal value asymmetry” (TVA) (Caruso et al., 2008). We conducted very close replications of three experiments derived from two influential TVA papers: Studies 1 and 4 in Caruso et al. (2008), demonstrating TVA in monetary valuation, and Study 1 in Caruso (2010), demonstrating TVA in moral judgment. We also attempted to conceptually replicate whether TVA in monetary valuation would extend to moral judgments. We failed to find support for TVA in monetary valuation (Caruso et al., 2008). We also failed to find support for TVA in moral judgments (Caruso, 2010) and in our conceptual extension. Exploratory analyses excluding potential outliers and z-transforming the dependent variable were consistent with our preregistered analyses. We discuss potential explanations for our results and future directions for research about the effects of time on judgments of value and morality.