A journal has retracted five papers about the appearance, sexual behavior and attractiveness of women. Nicolas Guéguen, a professor of marketing at the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France, was an author on each of the papers, published in the Sage journal Perceptual and Motor Skills (PMS) at least 15 years ago. All of the articles garnered expressions of concern in 2023, but Guéguen’s history of misconduct long precedes the PMS papers.

Sleuths have been flagging Guéguen’s work for years for seemingly impossible results. In 2019, he was cleared of wrongdoing by his university, but since then has racked up at least four retractions. In 2020, his study claiming men who carried guitar cases were more attractive was retracted. He also lost a paper in 2022 regarding the "sexual intent" of women wearing red. In April 2024, he received four more expressions of concern.

The retraction notice cites work by critics such as researchers Nick Brown and James Heathers, who published a report of 10 Guéguen studies in 2017. The notice, signed by the editor-in-chief and assistant editor of the journal, refers to implausible research methods, lack of ethics approval and informed consent, and "implausible" or "incorrectly analyzed" data.

Source https://retractionwatch.com/2025/03/03/nicolas-gueguen-five-studies-bust-size-hitchhiking-retracted/

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