Citation

Marks DF. J. Health Psychol. 2019; 24(4): 409-420.

Affiliation

Editor, Journal of Health Psychology and Health Psychology Open.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1359105318820931

PMID

30791728

Abstract

The Journal of Health Psychology publishes here Dr Anthony Pelosi's analysis of questionable science by one of the world's best-known psychologists, the late Professor Hans J Eysenck. The provenance of a huge body of data produced by Eysenck and Ronald Grossarth-Maticek is highly controversial. In Open letters to King's College London and the British Psychological Society, this editor is requesting a thorough investigation of the facts together with retraction or correction of 61 publications. Academic institutions have a conflict of interest concerning allegations of misconduct, which is why I believe that the only way forward is to have a National Research Integrity Ombudsperson to investigate allegations.

[SafetyLit note: As of the publication of this criticism (February 2019) the SafetyLit database contains 20 of Eysenck's publications only one of which is co-authored with Grossarth-Maticek. This article is about stress and alcohol consumption. The focus of Marks' criticism here is Eysenck's body of literature on tobacco smoking, emotional stress and cancer. Eysenck produced literature suggesting that the main association is stress and cancer and that smoking was a confounder in that smokers used tobacco to reduce their stress.]

Language: en

Keywords

CHD; Hans J Eysenck; cancer; correction; personality; psychotherapy; questionable science; research integrity; retraction; smoking