An esteemed scientific journal appears to have been conned into publishing what appears to be a fake study on the effects of mommy kisses on their children’s boo-boos.

Kisses from mommy are not an effective way of remedying children’s boo-boos, according to a new study which was published online by the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. The study, which was allegedly conducted on 943 pairs of toddlers and their mothers, examined whether a kiss from a child’s mother after a minor injury significantly reduced the child’s distress.

“Maternal kissing of boo-boos is a common practice that appears to have no ability to reduce the distress of toddlers and may have significant untoward effects,” the anonymous authors of the study concluded. “On the basis of this study, we recommend a moratorium on the practice.”

In order to conduct the study, which would require the observation of children after experiencing minor injuries, the researchers wrote that they intentionally constructed scenarios in which children would hurt themselves. In one scenario, the researchers placed chocolate in an area where a child would likely bump his head trying to reach the chocolate. In another, they placed a child’s favorite object behind a heated coil so the child would burn herself trying to access the object:

Read the article “Scientific Journal Publishes Fake Study on Whether Mommy Boo-Boo Kisses Really Work” on thefederalist.com.