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According to a recent meta-analysis, religious priming has a positive effect on prosocial behavior (Shariff et al., 2015). We first argue that this meta-analysis suffers from a number of methodological shortcomings that limit the conclusions that can be drawn about the potential benefits of religious priming. Next we present a re-analysis of the religious priming data using two different meta-analytic techniques. A Precision-Effect Testing–Precision-Effect-Estimate with Standard Error (PET-PEESE) meta-analysis suggests that the effect of religious priming is driven solely by publication bias. In contrast, an analysis using Bayesian bias correction suggests the presence of a religious priming effect, even after controlling for publication bias. These contradictory statistical results demonstrate that meta-analytic techniques alone may not be sufficiently robust to firmly establish the presence or absence of an effect. We argue that a conclusive resolution of the debate about the effect of religious priming on prosocial behavior – and about theoretically disputed effects more generally – requires a large-scale, preregistered replication project, which we consider to be the sole remedy for the adverse effects of experimenter bias and publication bias.

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Infants make predictions about actions they observe already during the first year of life. To investigate the role of the motor system in predicting the end state of observed actions, 12-month-old infants were shown movies of ordinary and extraordinary object-directed actions. The stimuli displayed a female actor who picked up an everyday object (a cup or a phone) and brought it to either her mouth or her ear. In this way, a similar movement could be ordinary (e.g., cup to mouth) or extraordinary (e.g., phone to mouth) depending on the object used. Infants' EEG and eye movements were recorded. We found a significantly stronger motor activation, indicated by a stronger desynchronization in the mu-frequency band over fronto-central areas, during observation of extraordinary compared to ordinary actions. This is explained within the computational framework of Kilner, Friston, and Frith (2007), who suggest that the motor system is used to generate predictions about actions we observe. If the observed action deviates from the initially expected path, additional predictions have to be generated, resulting in a stronger motor activation during perception of extraordinary actions. In sum, it appears that from early in life, the motor system is involved in making predictions about how an observed action will end.

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Bidirectional action-effect associations play a fundamental role in intentional action control and the development of the mirror neuron system. However, it has been questioned if infants are able to acquire bidirectional action-effect associations (i.e., are able to intentionally control their actions). To investigate this, we trained 8-month-old infants for one week to use a novel rattle that produced a specific sound when shaken. Infants were also presented with another sound, which was not related to an action. Thereafter, infants' EEG responses to these two sounds and to an additional, unfamiliar sound were recorded. Infants displayed a stronger mu-desynchronization above cortical motor sites (i.e., motor resonance) when listening to the action-related sound than when hearing other sounds. Our results provide therefore electrophysiological evidence that infants as young as 8 months are able to acquire bidirectional action-effect associations and parallel findings of audiovisual mirror neurons in the monkey brain.