Social Science Research is the most manipulated research on the face of the earth, and before anyone tries to tell me other wise, please, I majored in it. For the most part there is no objectivity in the Social (soft) Science research, besides the majority of the researchers are extreme left wingers who claim to do value free research (nothing wrong with being a democrat, however, I believe extremists are harmful on both sides).
First thing they teach you in graduate school is to look at the study and the tools they used to measure the data, look for the basis and the credibility of the researcher. Most researcher are looking for a result before they do their research. Of course they are going to try to skew the results to meet thier needs. Political research is done the same way.