Columbia University political science professor Donald Green has retracted the December 2014 Science article “When contact changes minds: An experiment on transmission of support of gay marriage,” after allegations that his co-author, UCLA graduate student Michael LaCour, faked some of the data.
The study, by Green and LaCour, purported to show that short conversations with a gay person could convince someone to support same-sex marriage. Researchers at Stanford and UC Berkeley, attempting to build on the study, discovered irregularities in the data. In POLITICO, Green said that LaCour: “maintained that he did not fabricate the data but told me that he could not locate the Qualtrics source files for the surveys on the Qualtrics interface or on any of his drives.”
LaCour tells Retraction Watch: “I’m gathering evidence and relevant information so I can provide a single comprehensive response. I will do so at my earliest opportunity.”
Read more:
UC Berkeley: Irregularities in LaCour (2014)
Retraction Watch: Author retracts study of changing minds on same-sex marriage after colleague admits data were faked
POLITICO: Study on gay marriage views retracted after allegations of fake data
Science: When contact changes minds: An experiment on transmission of support for gay equality (abstract only available)