From a review of Psychology gone wrong
They show how study results can get distorted and changed in re-telling. Remember the Little Albert experiment? An infant was conditioned to develop a fear of white rats by exposing him simultaneously to a white rat and a loud noise. This confirmed a popular theory, so it was immediately accepted as evidence that early childhood experiences could create lasting phobias that would extend to similar objects (in this case, to anything white and furry). Most psychology textbooks have misrepresented the facts about that experiment. They get the child’s age wrong, say he was conditioned with a white rabbit, and make up other stimuli that he supposedly reacted to, like a puppy and a teddy bear. Some textbooks even described how the researchers later “deconditioned” Little Albert, but that never happened. The research was done while he was in the hospital; they knew he would soon be leaving the hospital and it would be impossible to continue the research, and they deliberately decided not to decondition him. He died of hydrocephalus at age 6, so there is no way to know whether he would have had a lifelong phobia.
They uncover social control problems in the scientific community. Scientists who observed misconduct in their peers failed to report it in 36% of cases, and 69% of whistleblowers experienced negative consequences after reporting fraud.
Remember this when someone tell us that science is the best way of discovering truth. Maybe some day it will be. Always check Retractions Watch