Academic journal retracts article about same-sex marriage study

This American Life The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post referenced the article, which claimed that same-sex marriage opponents could be swayed to support the issue if by talking to canvassers.

Retraction Watch was the first to report on the discrepancies in the study, which included questions about the incentives that were offered to the survey takers.

According to a statement issued by Science, the retraction was made not only because the survey incentives were misrepresented, but also because there were “false statements of sponsorship” and the researchers were not able to give the journal original data to verify or alleviate concerns.

After some researchers wanted to further the study and found irregularities, one of its authors, Donald Green, confronted his co-author, Michael LaCour, a UCLA grad student. According to Retraction Watch, LaCour “confessed to falsely describing at least some of the details of the data collection.”