Harvard Professor Who Studies 'Honesty' Accused Of Data Fraud

Professor Francesca Gino, a Harvard behavioural scientist has been accused of data fraud. Three researchers alleged that she falsified results and has been placed on leave. 

Professor Gino has published 135 articles since 2007, and several of the behavioural science studies she co-authored are under scrutiny for falsified results. 

Reportedly, a professor at Harvard Business School, Max Bazerman, who co-authored a paper with Gino in 2012, said that Harvard informed him that it believed a study that was overseen by Gino had falsified results.

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Harvard Professor Francesca Gino

The study in question claimed that participants who signed truthfulness declarations at the top of the page were more honest than those who signed them at the bottom. 

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the university provided a 14-page document that included evidence of data falsification and revealed that someone had accessed a database and altered the data. 

Three behavioural science academics published the evidence of the alleged fraud in four papers co-authored by Gino on their blog DataColada. 

The academics Uri Simonsohn (ESADE Business School), Leif Nelson (University of California, Berkeley), and Joseph Simmons (University of Pennsylvania) wrote that the discovered evidence of fraud spanning over a decade. 

The scholars said that they shared a report about four of Gino's studies which had the strongest evidence of fraud. 

As far as the scholars know, none of Gino's co-authors assisted in data collection for the studies in question. 

Gino's former colleague who worked with her on eight papers, Maurice Schweitzer, spoke with New York Post.

He said that he was reviewing the papers he worked on with Gino and that other behaviour scientists were doing the same. 

He also said that the allegations against her sent "reverberations" throughout the behavioural scientist's academic community. 

Professor Francesca Gino has collaborated and co-authored many articles in the field of behavioural science. 

She has been honoured as one of the top 40 Business Professors under 40 and has won several awards.