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+--- Thread: Article The true story of the dishonest honesty study (book review) (/thread-19088.html)
The true story of the dishonest honesty study (book review) - C C - Oct 31, 2025
https://www.city-journal.org/article/max-h-bazerman-inside-an-academic-scandal-fraudulent-data-study
EXCERPTS: Some social-science findings are just plain fun. They instantly lend themselves to media coverage and perhaps a TED Talk. Harvard business professor Max H. Bazerman made such a finding back in 2012: people behaved more honestly, he and four coauthors reported, if they signed a statement promising to be honest beforehand.
[...] Some companies changed their processes in response to the findings. Just one problem: the effect was never real. The data analyzed for at least two and perhaps all three experiments had been doctored. Shockingly, it seems that two separate processes, involving different people, contributed to the fakery—in a study about honesty... (MORE - details)