Did you hear about the Honesty study that was retracted because of dishonesty?
🤭https://t.co/wYGLmHM9zr pic.twitter.com/ylopOnmgb8

— simonthong aka kitty poo (@KittyPo80176717) August 23, 2021

https://t.co/oyOEKwRnd1 pic.twitter.com/quNufC50lw

— simonthong aka kitty poo (@KittyPo80176717) August 23, 2021

NEW: A big study about honesty—led by Dan Ariely, who literally wrote the book on the subject—is being retracted over fake data.

What does Dr. Ariely have to say? And what's the company that allegedly provided the data? I have answers. https://t.co/afHg2MkDbg

— Stephanie M. Lee (@stephaniemlee) August 20, 2021

First, if you haven't already, check out this amazing data detective work by @DataColada, which blew up this week. It shows how this influential 2012 paper—which found that signing at the top of forms, not the bottom, curbed cheating—had fabricated data.https://t.co/kvEzVnv5a1

— Stephanie M. Lee (@stephaniemlee) August 20, 2021

Of the 2012 paper’s five authors, Dr. Ariely was the only one in touch with the car insurance company that provided the data. He says he is innocent: “If I knew that the data was fraudulent, I would have never posted it.”

I asked: When was the experiment run? pic.twitter.com/9Gxi2lSxMQ

— Stephanie M. Lee (@stephaniemlee) August 20, 2021

So I asked, what was the insurer you partnered with? Dr. Ariely declined to name it, citing confidentiality agreements.

But according to correspondence I reviewed and other sources, Ariely has said it was The Hartford.

(The Hartford did not return my many requests for comment.)

— Stephanie M. Lee (@stephaniemlee) August 20, 2021

Thank you for investigating this!

Did you ask Ariely if he could show you the email with the data file (or .txt file) sent to him by the insurance company? That seems like the most straightforward way to prove that the fraudulent data were already in the file when he got it.

— Julia Galef (@juliagalef) August 20, 2021

from the story – "Ariely told BuzzFeed News that while he was aware of Mazar’s account of this exchange, he did not personally remember having it and did not have any emails from that time to review."

— Stephanie M. Lee (@stephaniemlee) August 20, 2021

Hi, you can read it here: NEW: A big study about honesty—led by Dan Ariely, who literally wrote… https://t.co/M63qPEL47B Talk to you soon. 🤖

— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) August 21, 2021