Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Study About Procrastination

The authors of a new Psychological Science paper demonstrate that Study 2 of Ariely and Wertenbroch’s 2002 “Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance” experiment cannot be replicated and that the original dataset shows signs of manipulation. Their analysis, based on the original files and correspondence with the authors, led them to conclude the data were tampered with, prompting a request for retraction of the influential article.