Part 1 of a two-part series on Freakonomics: Why is there so much fraud in academia? Interviews with @briannosek.bsky.social Leif Nelson, @joesimmons.bsky.social, @urisohn.bsky.social, Max Bazerman, and me. Part 2 (about what journals are doing) coming next week freakonomics.com/podcast/why-... - ThreadSky

simine.com • 412 days ago

Part 1 of a two-part series on Freakonomics: Why is there so much fraud in academia?

Interviews with @briannosek.bsky.social Leif Nelson, @joesimmons.bsky.social, @urisohn.bsky.social, Max Bazerman, and me.

Part 2 (about what journals are doing) coming next week

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-there-so-much-fraud-in-academia/

Comments

dpmoriarity.bsky.social•412 days ago

One of my non psych friends was texting me today saying how much he enjoyed this, looking forward to giving it a listen

rachelfloodheaton.bsky.social•412 days ago

Having been in both worlds, I see not a lot, but definitely more fraud in academia. It's not always blatant data fabrication or manipulation, but I see things like selling of one's skills or research in a way that is deceptive or misleading. In industry you would be held accountable for this.

sbmost.bsky.social•412 days ago

Actually listening to it at the moment. Well done!

nicolecrust.bsky.social•412 days ago

Listened. Learned a lot (that I hadn’t heard). It’s quite good. And I appreciated how you depicted the state of things, with frankness but also wisdom and grace. Thanks all around for this.

albertsonb2.bsky.social•412 days ago

Honest question - is there evidence that there’s a lot of fraud? In my experience there are a few, and then there are a lot of us doing careful research.

psbrookes.bsky.social•412 days ago

Whoo Yes!!!

If you frame the question not as "have you ever done a fraud?", but instead "do you intentionally do all the things that are known to stop fraud?", the numbers go through the roof!

It's like asking folks if they speed while driving. The % who admit it vastly underestimates reality 🤔

nate-birkhead.bsky.social•412 days ago

And, in many cases of fraud, it was discovered *by* other academics

awmercer.bsky.social•412 days ago

I had the same question. Relative to what?

simine.com•412 days ago

Good question. For me, my totally subjective feeling is that there’s a lot more than: 1) the public/taxpayers (even people who are into science) think there is, and 2) academics think there is

adegendre.bsky.social•412 days ago

I second that! Also, important to think that there are lots of nuances in fraud - once you consider the whole range of fraudulent behavior - then yeah probably a lot more than the public thinks

economeager.bsky.social•412 days ago

I’ll third it. Also we don’t know the true rate but it’s probably very much higher than the extant rate under our current processes of detection. (I may or may not have a project vaguely in the world about this!)

adegendre.bsky.social•412 days ago

Can’t wait to see what that project will be about!! 😍😍😍😍

awmercer.bsky.social•412 days ago

That’s all fair. Certainly there’s probably more fraud than we’d like. But for example, do we think it’s more fraud than occurs in other, non-academic spheres?

economeager.bsky.social•412 days ago

The works not the world lol

albertsonb2.bsky.social•412 days ago

In my field fraud would mean falsifying data or perhaps selectively reporting results - for the later we’ve moved to preregistration.

albertsonb2.bsky.social•412 days ago

Oops - latter.

albertsonb2.bsky.social•412 days ago

I worry about reports of rampant fraud as the social sciences are under attack - particularly when we’re lacking evidence. But I appreciate the chance to think through different kinds and ways of addressing it.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply