, Columnist
No Wonder Scientists Ask Statisticians to Cook the Data
Careers rise and fall based on whether a study proves the researcher’s hypothesis. No one gets famous for proving that an interesting idea is untrue.
Don’t look too closely.
Photographer: Manuel Breva Colmeiro/Moment RF, via Getty Images
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You won't believe the things scientists ask statisticians to do.
When statisticians responded to a survey about the kinds of requests they received from biomedical scientists, a number of them reported “inappropriate requests” like throwing out or ignoring inconvenient data points and otherwise finding ways to make things look like the scientist got a desired result, rather than the truth.