Stuart Vyse is a psychologist and author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, which won the William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
Imagine the following scenario: Two social scientists write an article proposing a provocative new theory about women’s values, preferences, and very essence of what it means to be a woman. The authors make some logical arguments, cite publicly available data, and, in support of each point, include several quotes—let’s say forty quotes altogether—from published works by a variety of women. The article is submitted to a prestigious journal, goes through the peer review process, and is accepted for publication. However, after the article is published online—but before it appears in print—another scholar points out that at least ten of the forty quotes are not from reliable sources and are very likely written by men, not women. What should happen to the article?