The New Ethics: Harvard Innovates Again

June 26, 2023

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

I have no idea if the weird orange newspaper’s story “Harvard Dishonesty Expert Accused of Dishonesty” is on the money. I find it amusing and a useful insight into the antics of Ivory Tower professor behavior. As a old dinobaby, I have seen a number of examples of what one of Tennessee Williams’ well-adjusted characters called mendacity. And this Harvard confection is a topper.

The snagged wizard, in my mental theater said, “I did not mean to falsify data, plagiarize, or concoct a modest amount of twaddle like the president of Stanford University. I apologize. I really am sorry. May I buy you a coffee? I could also write your child a letter of recommendation to Harvard admissions.” This touching and now all-too-common scene has been visualized by the really non-imitative MidJourney system.

The core of the “real news” story is captured in this segment of the article:

A high-profile expert on ethics and dishonesty is facing allegations of dishonesty in her own work and has taken administrative leave from Harvard Business School.

The “real news” article called attention to the behavior of the high profile expert; to wit:

In 2021, a 2012 paper on dishonesty by Gino, behavioral economist Dan Ariely and other co-authors was retracted from the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences after the Data Colada team suggested there was fraud in one of the experiments involved. [Ah, Data Colada, the apologizing professor’s pals.]

If true, the professor attacked the best-selling author and others for not being on the up and up. And that mud slinger from the dusty Wild West of Harvard’s ethics unit alleged fudged information. That’s a slick play in my book.

What’s this say about the ethical compass of the professor, about Harvard’s hiring and monitoring processes, and about the failure of the parties to provide a comment to the weird orange newspaper?

Ah, no comment. A wise lawyer’s work possibly. An ethical wise lawyer.

Stephen E Arnold, June 26, 2023

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.