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 (urisohn.com), professor of behavioral science at Esade Business School.

• RESOURCES:• "Gino v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (courtlistener.com/docket/67659904/gino-v-harva…)," (Court Listener, 2025).
• "Statement from Dan Ariely (danariely.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Ariel…)," (2024).
• "Data Falsificada (Part 4): 'Forgetting The Words (datacolada.org/112),'" by Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson, and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2023).
• "They Studied Dishonesty. Was Their Work a Lie? (newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/09/they-studied…)" by Gideon Lewis-Kraus (The New Yorker, 2023).
• "Evidence of Fraud in an Influential Field Experiment About Dishonesty (datacolada.org/98)," 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 (pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.1209746109)," 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 (datacolada.org/37)," by Uri Simonsohn and Joe Simmons (Data Colada, 2015).
• "Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are (youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc)," by Amy Cuddy (TED, 2012).
• "Daily Horizons: Evidence of Narrow Bracketing in Judgment from 10 Years of MBA-Admission Interviews (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=20…)," by Uri Simohnson and Francesa Gino (Psychological Science, 2012).
• "Spurious? Name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21299311)," 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 (journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797611417…)," by Joe Simmons, Leif Nelson, and Uri Simohnson (Psychological Science, 2011).

• EXTRAS:• "Will We Solve the Climate Problem? (freakonomics.com/podcast/will-we-solve-the-cli…)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025).
• "Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (freakonomics.com/podcast-tag/academic-fraud)" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
• "When I'm Sixty Four (youtube.com/watch?v=HCTunqv1Xt4)," by The Beatles (1967).

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