RETRACTED: Visual Darkness Reduces Perceived Risk of Contagious-Disease Transmission From Interpersonal Interaction

Abstract

Keywords

visual darkness disease risk perception construal level social distance open data open materials preregistered

The following article has been retracted by the Editor and publishers of Psychological Science:

Dong, P., & Zhong, C.-B. (2018). Visual darkness reduces perceived risk of contagious-disease transmission from interpersonal interaction. Psychological Science, 29, 1049–1061. doi:10.1177/0956797617749637

A reader alerted me that the time stamps on the posted data for Studies 1 and 3 indicated that testing of subjects was blocked by condition, creating a confound between condition and date. This confound is particularly problematic because (a) the blocks were widely separated in time and (b) the primary dependent variable of interest in those studies was self-reported risk of flu, which might well vary substantially with date. After reviewing the data with the authors, we came to the consensus that the confound undermined interpretation of the results and warranted retraction of the article. As Editor of Psychological Science, I have decided to retract this article.

—D. Stephen Lindsay

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