Awareness Shields Block Replication

Editors and reviewers can reject replications of famous studies by claiming participants’ prior exposure will bias responses, rendering replication 'impossible.' This sets a perverse incentive: the more public a fragile finding becomes, the harder it is to test. Replication design can mitigate awareness, but the blanket objection functions as a gatekeeping tool. — If popularity can immunize weak results from scrutiny, science policy must curb this gatekeeping or risk policy built on untested claims.