A prominent behavioral scientist at Harvard University who once led a study on honesty faces allegations of academic misconduct after an investigation into her study reportedly showed the results may have been fabricated. ing.

Co-author Francesca Gino, who has published several behavioral studies in peer-reviewed journals, has been accused of falsifying findings in a 2012 paper she co-authored with three colleagues. report. In the study, Gino reportedly found that if people pledged to be honest at the beginning and end of the form, they were less likely to be dishonest when filling it out, the media explained.

In 2020, three of the study’s co-authors, including two other researchers, presented a new study to the scientific community that cast doubt on the 2012 findings after failing to replicate the results. In 2021, three researchers said that at least one experimental result from a 2012 study suggested fraud, The Chronicle reported.

“Many of us have been influenced by her scholarship and leadership in this field, and as co-authors and colleagues, we are very upset.” https://t.co/pQatVEQTwT

— Higher Education Chronicle (@chronicle) June 24, 2023

Pointing specifically to the experiments conducted for the 2012 study, Uli Simonsson of the ESADE Business School in Barcelona, ​​Leif Nelson of the University of California, Berkeley, and Joseph Simmons of the University of Pennsylvania found that the data had been manipulated. the New York Times (NYT) said. ) report.

In this experiment, 100 participants were promised $1 for each puzzle they solved on a worksheet containing 20 puzzles. Participants were tricked into believing that cheating could not be detected, but in fact the researchers were able to see if they solved the puzzles and how many puzzles they solved. In the survey, those who pledged to be honest at the top of the form claimed to be more honest than those who pledged to be honest at the bottom of the form, the news agency said.

Simonzoon, Nelson, and Simmons cited digital records of the research results and later discovered that the data collected by the researchers were manipulated in Excel spreadsheets.of August 2021, the same three data researchers found that another experiment conducted by Gino in the same study also contained questionable data. In this study, customers were asked to report the mileage of their vehicles to their insurance companies. Once again, Simonsohn, Nelson, and Simmons concluded that the data purportedly collected by the respondents was produced by someone involved in the study.

The allegations “stunned and surprised” Gino’s co-authors, according to The New York Times, and co-author Dan Ariely of Duke University retracted the 2012 paper. Maurice Schweitzer, a behavioral scientist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said Gino has worked with so many collaborators over the years and is considered a “leader in the field” in behavioral science. , told the media there were no allegations of fraud. It is being felt throughout the academic community. (Related: Texas A&M professor arrested for lying about ties to China while being funded by NASA)

Schweitzer told The New York Times that he was reviewing the eight studies he co-authored with Gino for signs of fraud, and said other scholars were following suit.

According to Gino faculty page I am enrolled in Harvard Business School and am currently on leave of absence.