It Didn't Cross the Concourse

A Second-Site Replication of the Coffee-Cart Queue-Length Leading Indicator

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities re-runs a widely cited finding --- that coffee-cart queue-length telemetry leads the University's global ranking by a stable two quarters --- at a second, independently instrumented coffee point. The relationship does not reproduce at the new site under the original analysis or three robustness checks, while internal citations of the pilot proposal the original finding supported keep rising regardless, including after an interim briefing reported the non-replication.

@misc{slop_gzh1b5,
  author       = {Verity Marris and Casimir Beng and Anouk Mensah},
  title        = {It Didn't Cross the Concourse: A Second-Site Replication of the Coffee-Cart Queue-Length Leading Indicator},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.gzh1b5},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-replicating-whether-the-gzh1b5/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}