A study found a short conversation with a gay person could make people more open to marriage equality, and the media reported it as a hopeful sign. But the findings were faked. Ivan Oransky of Retraction Watch tells Brooke how the bad data got past the peer review process, journalists, […] Read more »
How a Gay-Marriage Study Went Wrong
Last December, Science published a provocative paper about political persuasion. Persuasion is famously difficult: study after study—not to mention much of world history—has shown that, when it comes to controversial subjects, people rarely change their minds, especially if those subjects are important to them. … The Science study, “When contact […] Read more »
Author of Study on Changing Views of Gay Marriage Seeks Its Retraction
The senior author of a widely publicized study suggesting that gay political canvassers could change conservative voters’ views on gay marriage has asked that the report be retracted due to the failure of his fellow author to produce the raw data. … Marcia McNutt, editor in chief of Science, said […] Read more »
American Dream? Or Mirage?
… Recently, studies by two independent research teams (each led by an author of this article) found that Americans across the economic spectrum did indeed severely misjudge the amount of upward mobility in society. The data also confirmed the psychological utility of this mistake: Overestimating upward mobility was self-serving for […] Read more »
When a Gun Is Not a Gun
… In everyday life, your brain seems to be a reactive organ. You stroll past a round red object in the produce section of a supermarket and react by reaching for an apple. A police officer sees a weapon and reacts by raising his gun. Stimulus is followed by response. […] Read more »
Voting, ads and amnesia
… Nearly a decade ago, my column here argued that recall of political advertising is not a measure of effectiveness. Despite my now ancient warning, some consultants and pundits still wrongly equate memorable ads with effective ones. Indeed, when people hear me make this point they often look at me […] Read more »