EVEN MORE IRONIC UPDATE, 3/2/18:
Despite what Aner Tal told me below, other researchers have tried to replicate this study—and failed. Thanks to those of you who pointed it out to me on Twitter. The 2014 post will be updated to reflect this.
Earlier this week, BuzzFeed published a detailed investigation of a prominent food psychologist who massaged and manipulated data to produce media-friendly results. You've probably heard of some of Cornell University professor Brian Wansink's studies. There was the one with the "bottomless" soup bowl that refilled itself while subjects ate, to study portion control; the one about characters on cereal boxes making eye contact with kids from grocery-store shelves; and so on. Several of Wansink's papers have been retracted for issues like duplicated material or unreliable data. More of them have been corrected after publication. Reading about Wansink, I felt a sinking familiarity at the title of one ...
