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A paper claiming smartphones created a mental health crisis in young girls should be retracted

A psychologist warns about the dangers of young girls having smartphones and unsupervised time on social media. One of the key scientific papers she cites as evidence actually offers zero support for the warning.

Ambitious academic psychologists quickly discover a startling reality. They can make more money and enjoy more name recognition even among other academics by marketing advice merchandise in the form of books, workshops, and lucrative corporate speaking gigs than they can from putting an equivalent amount of time developing the strength and quality of their research.

There can be a conflict between psychologists making the kinds of strong, definitive statements that appeal to nonprofessional audiences and being true to the often messy and contradictory findings of their research.

Many of us see this as a conflict of interest that should be prominently declared in our scientific papers. This is not a confession of any wrongdoing, but only a…