163. The Data Sleuth Taking on Shoddy Science

Uri Simonsohn is a behavioral science professor who wants to improve standards in his field — so he’s made a sideline of investigating fraudulent academic research. He tells Steve Levitt, who's spent plenty of time rooting out cheaters in other fields, how he does it. SOURCES:Uri Simonsohn, professor of behavioral science at Esade Business School. RESOURCES:"Gino v. President and Fellows of Harvard College," (Court Listener, 2025)."Statement from Dan Ariely," (2024)."Data Falsificada (Part 4): 'Forgetting The Words,'" by Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson, and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2023)."They Studied Dishonesty. Was Their Work a Lie?" by Gideon Lewis-Kraus (The New Yorker, 2023)."Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About Dishonesty," by Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson, and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2023)."Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient anddecreases dishonest self-reports in comparison tosigning at the end," by Lisa Shu, Nina Mazar, Francesca Gino, Dan Ariely, and Max Bazerman (PNAS, 2021)."Power Posing: Reassessing The Evidence Behind The Most Popular TED Talk," by Uri Simonsohn and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2015)."Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are," by Amy Cuddy (TED, 2012)."Daily Horizons: Evidence of Narrow Bracketing in Judgment from 10 Years of MBA-Admission Interviews," by Uri Simohnson and Francesa Gino (Psychological Science, 2012)."Spurious? Name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions," by Uri Simohnson (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011)."False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant," by Joe Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simohnson (Psychological Science, 2011). EXTRAS:"Will We Solve the Climate Problem?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025)."Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."When I'm Sixty Four," by The Beatles (1967). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.