SOC221H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Reddit, Get This
Case Study: Day 9
- About Michael Lacour and David Brookman who were both grad students at the time.
- The screencap from the powerpoint: ‘science’ journal was the most prestigious, most
visible, and high quality place to publish research
So Michael was a PhD candidate at UCLA, in the Political Science Department. He was
interested in people’s attitudes and how to change them.
In 2013, at an APSA conference, Michael is seen wandering around the place showing
random people a graph on an iPad. He claims that he designed a survey asking people
how they felt about gay marriage. This was a pre-test “as a gay man, I am asking about it
before a canvasser went to people’s homes”.
The post-test: how people felt after the canvasser talked to them.
Michael’s findings showed that the average person turned into a liberal voter to an extent.
This had very moving hearts and minds change.
- So Michael is showing a lot of people at the conference these results, including David
Brookman.
- Brookman’s advisor was Don Green, and eventually Michael gets Don Green to co-
author with him on this. He needs a big name, and Don was one. Brookman has had a
seed planted in his mind from Michael’s study. He wanted to replicate and tweak it.
So Brookman does a backup calculation on Michael’s work.
Michael had stated that he talked to 10000 people and paid $100 to each participant.
10,000X$100 = $1 million. HOW DID HE GET THIS MONEY??
Financially speaking, this study seemed very expensive and raised red flags for
Brookman.
In the footnotes of his work, Michael claimed that he used a survey research firm to help
pay for his study. So Brookman follows up on this and calls them. The firm explains that
they gave Michael a quote through email for the study but he didn’t follow up on it from
their behalf.
In the meantime, Michael has Green do the math and publish his work. He gets hired as
an Assistant Professor at Princeton.
Then a 27 page memo, single spaced, from Brookman and his pal, is uploaded to PSMR
which is a reddit type database. It details why this study as made up:
- Michael took pretests that mimic other polls and all he did was use and iPad to make a
graph using different softwares. An artificial natural curve to make it look as if 10,000
people were surveyed. Brookman used math to prove it was fake.
- Michael disappears from the internet for 6 months. Brookman went on to actually do
this study and found cheaper ways to do it. He focused on transgender issues not gay
marriage/ and found that interpersonal contact - don’t have to be gay/trans to change
opinions.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
About michael lacour and david brookman who were both grad students at the time. The screencap from the powerpoint: science" journal was the most prestigious, most visible, and high quality place to publish research. So michael was a phd candidate at ucla, in the political science department. He was interested in people"s attitudes and how to change them. In 2013, at an apsa conference, michael is seen wandering around the place showing random people a graph on an ipad. He claims that he designed a survey asking people how they felt about gay marriage. This was a pre-test as a gay man, i am asking about it before a canvasser went to people"s homes . The post-test: how people felt after the canvasser talked to them. Michael"s findings showed that the average person turned into a liberal voter to an extent. This had very moving hearts and minds change.
