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Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

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Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#181

Post by DrScientist »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #41
zetazzed wrote: post #34

Individual researchers have huge incentives for fraud, but large universities are the ones who most need to look inward here. HBS could become a beacon for stronger research practices in this area - requiring study preregistration and data collection methods that carefully trace provenance and changes. If HBS has fewer but better quirky marketing psychology studies, their reputation will do well. However for an indiv…

For similar reasons, I left academia. I joined academia for the pursuit of truth, and forth the glory of Knowing. But it turned out that academia doesn’t really do this anymore, it just sells itself as doing these things. Academia is entirely a “reputation” system, as it turns out, from paper publishing to student-evaluations to “public rankings.” As it turns out, the capitalist marketplace must also contend with the…

I think this is a little unfair - academia is stuffed full of people seeking truth and doing good work.

However as a PhD student I decided that science academia wasn't for me - not because of out and out fraud - but because I could see success depended on marketing, networking and self-promotion - simply doing excellent quality work was required, but not sufficient.

Some of this is fair - part of an academics job is not just to discover new stuff, but to educate about it's discovery.

Anyway I decided I didn't have a loud enough trumpet and sharp enough elbows.

I'd agree that you find less politics in industry.

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#182

Post by johnwheeler »

throwaway744678 wrote: post #171
justinclift wrote: post #162

Ahhh, they misunderstood something vitally important. This guy's speciality is Applied Dishonesty , so he's not the abstract sort with just theory and no practise. ;)

Pretty sure Francesca Gino identifies as a she! But then, who knows? [0] https://twitter.com/francescagino

He’s talking about Ariely, who the first blog post seems to implicate by saying the xls files came from his computer and none of the coauthors were responsible (Gino listed as a coauthor).

Does this implicate Ariely or did I read that wrong?

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#183

Post by pxeger1 »

TylerE wrote: post #73
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #21

Adding to the irony: She is the best-selling author, most recently, of “Rebel Talent: Why it Pays to Break the Rules in Work and Life.”

Yet another example for assumption that all book titles with that sort of semi-colon + second sentence title are universally lowest common denominator crap, at best.

Not that it matters, but that's a colon, not a semicolon

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#184

Post by xdavidliu »

hsjqllzlfkf wrote: post #174
xdavidliu wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do experts in criminals commit crimes? Are experts in autism autistic? Are experts in military history bellicose?

"are" betrays a very black and white view of the world. I think they're all overrepresented, yes.

you're implying that an expert in criminology is more likely than non-experts in criminology to commit crimes, and similarly "more likely" for the other two examples?

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#185

Post by jjk166 »

mcpackieh wrote: post #115
jjk166 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a distinction between understanding and practicing ethics. It's like taking a course on leadership vs being a good leader - some people might have a legitimate desire to be a good leader, but not know the best techniques; taking a course allows them to understand how to be a good leader so that they might become one. As another example, an atheist could study theology not to better practice religion but mere…

> Someone can likewise have every intention of being ethical, but just be bad at it. Is there really any empirical evidence that such people exist and could be helped by an ethics course? I think laymen [to ethics] with a desire to be ethical can generally go about being ethical with little more than the Golden Rule. And if somebody hasn't figured out the Golden Rule yet by the time of their mandatory ethics course i…

What you are describing is morality, not ethics. You would probably benefit from an ethics course.

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#186

Post by mcpackieh »

jjk166 wrote: post #185
mcpackieh wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone can likewise have every intention of being ethical, but just be bad at it. Is there really any empirical evidence that such people exist and could be helped by an ethics course? I think laymen [to ethics] with a desire to be ethical can generally go about being ethical with little more than the Golden Rule. And if somebody hasn't figured out the Golden Rule yet by the time of their mandatory ethics course i…

What you are describing is morality, not ethics. You would probably benefit from an ethics course.

M8 I took an ethics course. Thank goodness the professor taught me insightful things like "don't write software that hurts people", I never would have thought of that myself! Don't write code for x-ray machines if I don't know what I'm doing.. got it!

Incidentally I still have my assigned text from that course, right next to me in fact. "Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace" Hmmm...

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#187

Post by mcpackieh »

anonymouskimmer wrote: post #152
mcpackieh wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone can likewise have every intention of being ethical, but just be bad at it. Is there really any empirical evidence that such people exist and could be helped by an ethics course? I think laymen [to ethics] with a desire to be ethical can generally go about being ethical with little more than the Golden Rule. And if somebody hasn't figured out the Golden Rule yet by the time of their mandatory ethics course i…

> Is there really any empirical evidence that such people exist and could be helped by an ethics course? Yes. Many, many people (including me) don't speak up when we see someone else doing something wrong. These ethics courses not only drill home the point of the importance of speaking up, but helpfully give many mechanisms in which one can speak up anonymously, or otherwise in a protected manner. A hypothetical of a…

If you haven't learned how to speak up before you get to a college ethics class, I honestly question whether you ever will. Normally this sort of principle is drilled into people at a very young age. If it doesn't stick, I don't think a professor telling you to read Kant or Singer is going to do any good.

And you don't, or shouldn't, need an ethics course to tell you that minor deviations from the plan can have unintended consequences that might have ethical implications. Take taxi drivers for instance, a minor shortcut over a sidewalk could have lethal consequences; do we expect taxi drivers to know this already without having taken an ethics course in college? Of course.

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#188

Post by anonymouskimmer »

mcpackieh wrote: post #187
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there really any empirical evidence that such people exist and could be helped by an ethics course? Yes. Many, many people (including me) don't speak up when we see someone else doing something wrong. These ethics courses not only drill home the point of the importance of speaking up, but helpfully give many mechanisms in which one can speak up anonymously, or otherwise in a protected manner. A hypothetical of a…

If you haven't learned how to speak up before you get to a college ethics class, I honestly question whether you ever will. Normally this sort of principle is drilled into people at a very young age. If it doesn't stick, I don't think a professor telling you to read Kant or Singer is going to do any good. And you don't, or shouldn't, need an ethics course to tell you that minor deviations from the plan can have unint…

Honestly I was thinking of the kind of 1 hour "course" that college students and employees get mandated once a year. Those are chock full of useful information and tips. Probably a big change from semester long for-credit college "courses".

Many people learn early in life that to speak up is to get shut down. This can be combated later in life with good examples and policies.

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#189

Post by anonymouskimmer »

jack_riminton wrote: post #168
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good managers are not necessarily good at the task they are managing. There's nothing odd about this. A good manager should have a great understanding at what they are managing, but not necessarily be individually competent at it.

If that were true, why do the most innovative companies not have Innovation Managers?

Because all of their employees were hired in advance to be good at self-innovation-management? Because a higher-level executive is taking on these duties in addition to, or in lieu of, their other duties. You can do a job without it being your job title.

Re: Harvard dishonesty expert accused of dishonesty

#190

Post by sgerenser »

wittjeff wrote: post #17

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Ariely , author of (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, later accused of data fraud and academic misconduct.

Previous HN discussion about Dan Ariely’s discredited paper: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28210642
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