Tracking a “radioactive tracer”: laziness in academia

This research delves into the phenomenon of citation errors in academia, focusing on a specific case where renowned behavioural economist George Loewenstein incorrectly attributed a quote to William Stanley Jevons instead of his son Herbert Stanley Jevons. This unique setting serves as a “radioactive tracer” to investigate the presence of intentional laziness in academic practices, as opposed to unintentional errors. We find that research citing Loewenstein’s paper were significantly more likely to make the same mistake than papers that did not. On the other hand, others citing a subsequent paper by Loewenstein—in which he rectified the error—are not subject to those mistakes. Moreover, those who cited additional works by Jevons, regardless of whether they were authored by William S. or Herbert S., were less likely to commit the error. Additionally, scholars who obtained their PhD from higher-ranked institutions were less likely to make the mistake. Interestingly, papers with female authors were less likely to make such a mistake.