Notes of listens to the two-part series by Freakonomics:

Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update) Episode website.

Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update) Episode website.

The podcast focused on discussing academic misconduct particularly in the field of social psychology. It looked at the prevalence of fraudulent behavior, the whistle blower “Data Colada” by three professors and anonymous helpers, the fragile academic system that builds on trust and self-discipline that is vulnerable to incentives and cheating behavior.

The takeaway to learn from these two episodes (for me): any kind of dishonesty and academic fraud is a huge no no no no no no—from both a personal perspective and the greater good for the overall academic community. Moreover, in terms of pure interest in study of incentives, I would look forward for the Freakonomics team to extend their discussion to other fields apart from social psychology—because for research disciplines that differs in terms of their research dynamic, ways of fabricating dishonest research would be different too.

something to be careful about

One of the main focus of the podcast series is around Francesca Gino v. Data Colada incident. Francesca Gino is a professor at Harvard Business School. She has been accused of intentionally manipulating data in a few of her highly-cited papers, whistles blew by the Data Colada team led by three professors from ESADE Barcelona, U Penn and Berkeley. Harvard suspended Gino’s employment. Gino filed defamation lawsuit against Harvard and Data Colada—the lawsuit against Dala Colada was dismissed Sep 2024 ("Honesty researcher’s lawsuit against data sleuths dismissed, Science")

The lawsuit has been controversial, people, especially insiders from academia, aren’t particularly happy with their colleague’s action. Vox “A disgraced Harvard professor sued them for millions. Their recourse: GoFundMe (Kelsey Piper, Aug 2023)” and “I’m with “the bloggers” (The Homebound Symphony)”.

The whole incident can now be readily Googled. I recommend Boston.com’s cover on it “The Harvard professor and the bloggers (Scheiber, Sep 2023)”. Or an update by Vox “A Harvard dishonesty researcher was accused of fraud. Her defense is troubling. (Kelsey Piper, May 2024)”.

extended opinions:

One part from Boston.com makes me rethink my attitude towards research in general (not merely about authenticity but also about quality and popularity of work). But people read what they think in mind, so here’s the paragraph for you

The dishonesty researchers (source)

Gino was something of an academic late bloomer. After growing up in Tione di Trento, a small town in Italy, she earned a doctorate in economics and management from an Italian university in 2004, then did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Business School.

…

After Carnegie Mellon, she took a position in 2008 as an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina — not regarded as a major hub for behavioral research. Soon, however, a series of projects she had started years earlier began appearing in journals, often with high-profile co-authors. The volume of publications she notched in a short period was turning her into an academic star.

Among those co-authors was Ariely, who moved from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Duke University around the same time Gino arrived at North Carolina. Ariely entered the public consciousness early the same year with the publication of “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.”

The book helped introduce mainstream audiences to the quirks of human reasoning that economists traditionally ignored because they assumed people act in their self-interest. Behavioral science seemed to offer easy fixes for nonrational acts, such as our tendency to save too little or put off medical visits. It rode a wave of popular interest in social science.

…

Ariely is famous among colleagues and students for his impatience with what he regards as pointless rules; Gino comes off as something of a stickler. But they seemed to share an ambition: to show the power of small interventions to elicit surprising changes in behavior: Counting to 10 before choosing what to eat can help people select healthier options (Gino); asking people to recall the Ten Commandments before a test encourages them to report their results more honestly (Ariely).

…