He is passionate about large-scale research, and many papers have now been retracted

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A doctor, sometimes sneaking in a nightclub to touch a passing girl, sometimes hiding on the street to observe women with different busts who are more likely to hitchhike...... These things sound incredible, and this is exactly what Nicolas Guéguen is looking for.

He holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of South Brittany in France, and enjoys researching the psychology of gender behavior. "Male drivers are more willing to give hitchhikers to women with large busts", "Boys with guitar cases are more likely to be favored by girls", "Men are more willing to help women with high heels"...... He was the author of these controversial studies on "female sexuality and perceived attractiveness."

In fact, these studies of his have been questioned. Recently, Taylor and the journal Social Influence, a subsidiary of the Francis Publishing Group, again "expressed concern" about four papers he published between 2007 and 2015.

Nicolas Guégue。 图源：retraction watch

Controversial study 'seriously concerned' by journal editor-in-chief

Ilja van Beest, editor-in-chief of the journal Social Impact, wrote in an email that the editorial team had critically reviewed all of Nicholas Gagan's work published in the journal and raised "serious concerns" about four of the papers. Concerns include, but are not limited to, the reliability of the data, the informed consent of study subjects, ethics and the reproducibility of the findings, Beest noted.

So, what are the 4 papers that Gegan is "seriously concerned about" about?

In 2007, Gegan's paper, "A Study of Courtship Conformity: The Effect of Touch on Women's Behavior," appeared to be a carefully orchestrated social experiment: he gently touched women's arms in nightclubs and on the streets, trying to explore whether such mild physical contact could increase women's submissiveness to men's requests. However, the ethical boundaries of this behavior and the reliability of the research results have sparked heated discussions.

Two years later, Gegan published his paper, "Imitation and Seduction: Evaluation in Courtship Situations," which explored the role of mimicry in courtship. Gegan's experiment seems to show that imitating the behavior of the other person can increase their attractiveness to the other person. The ethical issues of the research involving informed consent and the universality of the results have become the focus of controversy.

In 2011, Gegan published a paper titled "Talking with Flowers: The Effect of Flowers on Mating Attraction and Behavior," which was like a romantic psychological test. Gegan sought to prove that the beautiful appearance and fragrance of flowers could elevate the attractiveness of women to men. Again, both the experimental design and the universal applicability of the results of this study have been challenged.

Later, in 2015, he published the paper "Kung Fu of Hands and Feet: The Effect of Holding Several Coins in One Hand to Begging for Money". Gegan improves compliance with money requests by displaying the coins in his hand. While the results of this study are interesting, their ethical anomie and practical application value have also been questioned.

Data sleuths, Nick Brown and James Heathers, have been calling for critical attention to Gagan's work for years, including four papers in the journal Social Impact. Brown said he was pleased to see four of his papers published in Social Impact labeled as "concerning" because it meant that "the investigation into these papers has not yet been concluded."

"I hope these papers will be retracted later. Brown said Social Impact should also look at the other 10 papers that Gaygan has published (and co-authored), and it is clear that these papers "mostly have the same problems as the four papers."

So far, Gagan has not responded to a request for comment.

"A number of retractions" was unsatisfactory

To date, at least four of Gagan's papers have been retracted or deleted, including a study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior that "wearing high heels can help women more attractive" and a study published in The Journal of Social Psychology, Retraction Watch reported Women dressed in red are thought to have stronger sexual intentions," and a study published in The Psychology of Music that "boys with guitar cases are more likely to be favored by girls."

The well-known "bust size and free-riding" study also received "concern and attention" in the British professional journal "Perception and Motor Skills" in March 2023.

It is understood that the journal "Perception and Motor Skills" published a total of eight studies by Gegan, including five papers on "bust size and free-riding" that were considered to have "seemingly unreasonable and possibly fabricated data", and several other studies covered women's eye-to-male eye contact tests, touch awareness, and compliance with requests.

But for Nick Brown and James Heathers, the results of only a few of Gagan's papers being retracted or deleted are "meager."

"We are not satisfied with all this. Dr. Gagan published about 340 papers between 1999 and 2017, and at least 60 of them, which he examined, were not different in credibility from the "guitar box papers," Brown said: "We were concerned about the rationality of the methods and results of a large number of them." ”

It is worth mentioning that all of Gegan's questioned studies are more than 10 years old, with the earliest study even published in 2002.

Why did it take so long to publish concerns about these papers?

J.D. Ball, editor-in-chief of Perceptual and Motor Skills, defended his article: "Perceptual and Motor Skills was only acquired by its current owner, Sage Publications, in 2016, and those papers were published under the previous editorial leadership. Still, they came to my attention through others within Sage Publications. We quickly issued a statement of concern and in the meantime began to take a closer look at its content. ”

Error correction process "slow and difficult"

It is worth mentioning that despite the controversy surrounding many of Gegan's research, the process of retracting or deleting his published papers has been extremely difficult, as exemplified by the retraction process of the "Guitar Case" study.

In July 2014, Gagan and his collaborators published a study titled "Men's music ability and attractiveness to women in a real-life courtship context" in the journal Music Psychology (first published online on May 1, 2013), claiming that " Men who carry guitar cases are more attractive to women." The paper and its content caught the attention of his peers and some data detectives, notably James Heathers and Nick Brown. They argue that the results of the study are imprecise and do not stand up to scrutiny.

"Unless his guitar case is full of cash, I don't think that will improve his chances much. A paper published in Retraction Watch commented that peer review appears to have failed in the publication process, and that "the review appears to be very lenient."

The paper also noted that the slow pace at which the journal Music Psychology processed the paper "disappointed" critics of the study.

It is understood that Gagan was investigated for misconduct at the University of South Brittany in France in 2019 and admitted that he had "serious methodological flaws and statistical errors" in studies such as "wearing high heels helps improve women's attractiveness" (published in November 2014). Following this (October 2019), The Archives of Sexual Acts announced that it was retracting the paper.

But the "guitar case" study is still in the journal Music Psychology and on the web. It wasn't until October 2020, more than 11 months later, that the paper was announced to be retracted by Music Psychology.

Samuel Mehr, a cognitive scientist at Harvard University in the United States, emailed the journal's editor-in-chief in August 2019 with his doubts and concerns about the "guitar box" research, but he had to wait for more than a year. In June 2020, when the manuscript had not been retracted, he said of the study: "The process of correcting errors and omissions in scientific research is slow and difficult. ”

Bibliography:

https://retractionwatch.com/2024/04/01/exclusive-bust-size-and-hitchhiking-author-to-earn-four-more-expressions-of-concern/#more-129032

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15534510701316177

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15534510.2011.561556

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15534510802628173

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15534510.2015.1045935

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1258/jrsm.99.4.178

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