Effect sizes in social psychology are generally not large and are limited by error variance in manipulation and measurement. Effect sizes exceeding these limits are implausible and should be viewed with skepticism. Maximal positive controls, experimental conditions that should show an obvious and predictable effect, can provide estimates of the upper limits of plausible effect sizes on a measure. In this work, maximal positive controls are conducted for three measures of aggressive cognition, and the effect sizes obtained are compared to studies found through systematic review. Questions are raised regarding the plausibility of certain reports with effect sizes comparable to, or in excess of, the effect sizes found in maximal positive controls. Maximal positive controls may provide a means to identify implausible study results at lower cost than direct replication.

社会心理学中的效应量通常不大，并且受到操作和测量中误差方差的限制。超出这些限制的效果大小是难以置信的，应持怀疑态度。最大的阳性对照（应显示出明显且可预测的效果的实验条件）可以提供对某个量值的合理效果大小上限的估计。在这项工作中，针对侵略性认知的三种测量方法进行了最大程度的阳性对照，并将获得的效果大小与通过系统评价发现的研究进行了比较。对于某些报告的合理性提出了疑问，这些报告的效果大小与最大阳性对照中发现的效果大小相当或超过。