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1 In 4 Statisticians Say They Were Asked To Commit Scientific Fraud (acsh.org)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the closer-look dept.

As the saying goes, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." We know that's true because statisticians themselves just said so. From a report: A stunning report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concludes that researchers often ask statisticians to make "inappropriate requests." And by "inappropriate," the authors aren't referring to accidental requests for incorrect statistical analyses; instead, they're referring to requests for unscrupulous data manipulation or even fraud. The authors surveyed 522 consulting biostatisticians and received sufficient responses from 390. Then, they constructed a table that ranks requests by level of inappropriateness. For instance, at the very top is "falsify the statistical significance to support a desired result," which is outright fraud. At the bottom is "do not show plot because it did not show as strong an effect as you had hoped," which is only slightly naughty.

4 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Only 1 in 4? by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1 in 4 biostatisticians...

    Dollars to donuts it's much worse in the soft 'sciences'. Slightly remediated by the fact they're too stupid to realize what they were asking was wrong.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:Only 1 in 4? by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This study is talking about biostatisticians. Most of those guys are bound to be working for pharmaceutical companies.

      As for the social science Brian Wansink was recently stripped of his Cornell professorship when he and is lab were caught doing extensive "p-hacking". Interestingly, the research they were doing was essentially psychological in nature, but Wansink has no academic training in psychology; he has a BA in business administration, an MA in journalism and a PhD in marketing, and his lab was operated out of Cornell's business school.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  2. Not a shocker by SirAstral · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1 out of 4 are asked to commit fraud.
    2 our of 4 are "expected" to commit fraud without being asked.
    1 out of 4 are actually trying to get at some form of truth.

    Statistics are always biased by their sample sizes, and criteria.

    There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics.

  3. Re:The scientific method by Megol · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://retractionwatch.com/

    Notice that papers that have been used to direct research and being used as supporting data often have been detected as frauds long after the publication. That means that the falsified data have already escaped most scrutiny and have already wasted time, money and effort.