Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 308 ratings

Price: 12.5

Last update: 05-08-2024


Top reviews from the United States

Harvey Motulsky
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful overview of some huge problems facing science.
Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2020
The book is really well written and explains a bunch of problems facing science, from fraud to publication bias. Part of the problem is bad statistics, which is well explained. Much of the problem is a system with incentives to do the wrong thing. It ends with a review of various suggestions that have been proposed or tried.

In addition to the big ideas, the book tells lots of stories that make it fun to read. The author is very thoughtful and never tries to overgeneralize.

All scientists should read this book to get an overview of what the reproducibility crisis is all about. Nonscientists will find it interesting too. The author is careful to write in clear language and define technical terms. Although the author is a psychologist, he includes plenty of examples from biology and physics. The book is general about science, not just about psychology.

I read it on a Kindle, which was fine. The tables and figures were all easy to read on a Kindle. One thing to know is that while most of the footnotes are simply citations, about a third of them are author notes, some quite lengthy. In fact, the notes fill close to a third of the pages.
E. Bernal
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book on some things wrong with modern science.
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2021
Well written and many good illustrative examples. Includes a guide in the back on how to read a scientific paper, and gives examples on how to determine when a study may be flawed and the nature of the flaw. If you're not mathematically oriented, you may need to read certain passages a couple of times to get what's happening statistically. You learn that scientists are just like any other group of people and behave just as noble or ignobly. He does mention "Climategate", but, oddly, to me, says not to use this to discredit all climate science. Well, no science should be discredited unless it is, in fact, discreditable. Any climate science should stand or fall on it's merits, like any scientific field.
Dan
5.0 out of 5 stars The corrupt side of science
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2023
As the author mentions, the issue of publication bias, fraud, and data manipulation continues to plague the scientific community. As a researcher, I find this book's evidence thoughtful and easy to validate. Honestly, it is beyond disheartening that such malpractice continues to occur. In my experience and opinion, researchers ( especially students ) often feel pressured to produce quick results to secure funding, continue their program of choice, and advance their careers. This behavior leads to a culture where cutting corners and even outright dishonesty are too common. It's as if the politics in the scientific community have compromised the intended nature of the scientific method. I highly recommend the book.
Richard Cuper
5.0 out of 5 stars Become a skeptic
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2020
This book was eye opening and disturbing. Anyone of my age (75) could intuit that there were issues in scientific studies. I have live through numerous cycles of eggs, coffee, wine, butter, bacon and other common items, and the good for you, bad for you studies that were humorous at times and extremely confusing in guidance. Like many other people, I now just read the studies for laughs and continue on with my life. But deep inside I really hope for some factual, valid insight on how to live a healthier life.
The author states the problem succinctly. The nexus of money, prestige and tenure provides too great an impetus for the result of studies, not the actual findings which are usually dry and not totally conclusive. The issue of complexity and variance in individuals and populations is discussed as is the difficulty of choosing a study group. The author is honest in talking about the special difficulties in the soft sciences, psychology and sociology that has lead to some rather bogus theories that still circulate to the harm of the general public. And the author is also brutally honest about outright fraud.
Like a good business person, the author doesn't complain about a problem without providing a suggested solution. And of course, good luck with common sense ideas.
Money, prestige and tenure will always win. Become an educated skeptic.
I had no problem reading this book. I have taken courses in statistics which help in some of the details. but specialized knowledge is not really necessary. Author's style was east to read.
Green
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent account of modern scientific fraud and malpractice
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2024
What I appreciate about this book is that it does not just focus on dishonesty in science, but on the everyday problems created by its practice in modern societies. The heart of the issue is that while there are some objectively bad practitioners, in many cases it is the system’s perverse incentives that are the problem.

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