Retraction of major research on eating: a failure in scientific methodology, or a corrective in the process?

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Shock waves in the human sciences! Six more of Brian Wansink’s published papers are being retracted, Cornell University announced September 20 , bringing the total to 13, and the professor has resigned in disgrace.  It is not just scientific peers who are affected as Brian Wansink’s flawed methodology is exposed and his papers are withdrawn from journals. Millions of ordinary […]

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The scientific process up close

A tale has recently come to light of a bit of scientific backbiting. John Bargh et al. published a classic piece of research in 1996 showing that behaviour can be affected by trigger words. This is called a priming effect. In the case of Bargh’s research, participants were given a word task. When the word related […]

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