Later, in discussing his accusation of bias in psychological science, we asked ourselves how we could test this claim. Eventually, we decided to do a natural experiment based on a literary example we had read about. The writer Jerzy Kosinski, author of the 1969 award-winning novel Steps, allowed a freelance writer named Chuck Ross resubmit a typed manuscript of Steps to fourteen well-known publishing houses, including Random House, the original publisher of the novel. Ross slightly disguised the manuscript to avoid immediate detection-changing only the title and Kosinski's name, nothing else. Remarkably, none of the editorial consultants at these fourteen publishers detected the ruse. All went on to review the manuscript of Steps and all rejected it, despite having won the 1969 National Book Award. Humorously, one publisher's letter stated "while the manuscript was vaguely reminiscent of Kosinski, it lacked his dramatic intensity!"