Harvard professor researching 'honesty' put on leave for falsifying data

Francesca Gino's Harvard profile indicates that she is currently on administrative leave. (Image credit: www.hbs.edu)

Known for her studies on honesty at Harvard Business School, Professor Francesca Gino now finds herself at the centre of controversy as multiple behavioural science studies she co-authored are under scrutiny for falsified results.

One of the studies under investigation is a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, later retracted. The study examined the impact of signing truthfulness declarations at the beginning versus the end of self-report forms.

The authors claimed that participants who signed at the top of the page displayed greater honesty than those who signed at the bottom.

However, Max Bazerman, an HBS professor and co-author, stated that Harvard informed him of potential falsification in the study's results. A 14-page document provided by the university reportedly contained compelling evidence, including unauthorized data access and tampering.

Further allegations emerged when a blog called DataColada, run by behavioural science academics, published a series of posts outlining evidence of fraud in four academic papers co-authored by Gino.

The allegations spanned over a decade, with some papers published as recently as 2020. The authors of the blog expressed concerns about the potential widespread presence of fake data in Gino's papers, possibly involving dozens of studies.

The blog authors disclosed that they had shared their concerns with Harvard Business School in 2021, presenting a detailed report on four studies with the strongest evidence of fraud. They acknowledged that Harvard possessed more comprehensive information, including original data collected through the Qualtrics survey software.

If the alleged fraud involved altering downloaded data files, the original Qualtrics files would serve as conclusive evidence. The scholars emphasized that to their knowledge, none of Gino's co-authors were involved in or aware of the data fabrication.

Francesca Gino's Harvard profile indicates that she is currently on administrative leave. The accusations have prompted a wave of scepticism surrounding her work and have raised questions about the oversight and quality assurance mechanisms within academic institutions.