Two Behavioral Scientists Who Study Honesty Accused of Using Falsified Data: Planet Money : NPR

Sean Gallup/Getty Images for Burda Media

Sean Gallup/Getty Images for Burda Media

Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino are two of the biggest names in behavioral science. Both have conducted sensational research on how to make people more honest. We emphasize exist Planet MoneyThe two have worked together before. Paper About how to “nudge” people to be more honest when filling out forms or tax returns. Their trick: move the position where people have to prove they’ve filled out the form honestly from the bottom of the form to the top.

But recently, questions have arisen about whether the data that Ariely and Gino relied on in their famous paper on honesty was faked — and whether their study of honesty itself was built on lies. Studying the cells of an Excel spreadsheetthis The shape of the data distributionand even the fonts used.

The Hartford, an insurance company that worked with Ariely on one of the implicated studies, told NPR in a statement this week that it can confirm that the data it provided for the study was altered after it was given to Ariely but before the study was published: “It is clear that the data was improperly manipulated and supplemented with synthetic or fabricated data.”

Ariely denied that he was responsible for falsifying the data. “Access to the data files was my entire involvement in the data,” he told NPR.

Here’s the statement The Hartford gave to NPR:

This episode was produced by Emma Peaslee, with assistance from Willa Rubin. Keith Romer edited and Sierra Juarez fact-checked. James Willetts did the design. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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