The scientific community has been shaken to its core after one of the biggest science journals on the planet, Science, had to retract a study that found that gay canvassers were very persuasive with people who had voted against same-sex marriage.
Michael LaCour, a political science researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles wanted to examine whether canvassers with a personal stake in the issue of gay marriage sway voters opinions on the issue, and reached out to Donald P. Green, a professor at Columbia University who was highly respected when it comes to field experiments, according to a New York Times report.
Green signed on to help LaCour with his study in 2013, although he had reservations that it might be too ambitious of an idea of a graduate student. Now, two years later and just a few months after being published in Science, the study is under fire due to accusations the LaCour had misrepresented his methods and lacked evidence for his findings.
