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Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth Hardcover – Illustrated, July 21, 2020
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An insider’s view of science reveals why many scientific results cannot be relied upon – and how the system can be reformed.
Science is how we understand the world. Yet failures in peer review and mistakes in statistics have rendered a shocking number of scientific studies useless – or, worse, badly misleading. Such errors have distorted our knowledge in fields as wide-ranging as medicine, physics, nutrition, education, genetics, economics, and the search for extraterrestrial life. As Science Fictions makes clear, the current system of research funding and publication not only fails to safeguard us from blunders but actively encourages bad science – with sometimes deadly consequences.
Stuart Ritchie’s own work challenging an infamous psychology experiment helped spark what is now widely known as the “replication crisis,” the realization that supposed scientific truths are often just plain wrong. Now, he reveals the very human biases, misunderstandings, and deceptions that undermine the scientific endeavor: from contamination in science labs to the secret vaults of failed studies that nobody gets to see; from outright cheating with fake data to the more common, but still ruinous, temptation to exaggerate mediocre results for a shot at scientific fame.
Yet Science Fictions is far from a counsel of despair. Rather, it’s a defense of the scientific method against the pressures and perverse incentives that lead scientists to bend the rules. By illustrating the many ways that scientists go wrong, Ritchie gives us the knowledge we need to spot dubious research and points the way to reforms that could make science trustworthy once again.
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMetropolitan Books
- Publication dateJuly 21, 2020
- Dimensions6.4 x 1.32 x 9.56 inches
- ISBN-101250222699
- ISBN-13978-1250222695
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“A highly readable and competent description of the problems facing researchers in the 21st century... An excellent primer for anyone who wants to understand why and how science is failing to live up to its ideals.”
―Wired
“An impressive achievement... A handy guide to what can go wrong in science, nicely blending eye-popping anecdotes with comprehensive studies.”
―National Review
“An unnerving yet much-needed analysis... Frighteningly well-documented... A timely, hair-raising must-read.”
―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Liberally documented with amazing stories... An uncompromising examination of the collision between the ideals of science and the realities of scientific publishing. Highly recommended for popular science readers curious about what lurks behind science headlines.”
―Library Journal (starred review)
“A bracing indictment... Thorough and detailed, this is a sobering and convincing treatise for anyone invested in the intellectual credibility of science.”
―Publishers Weekly
“Excellent... A fascinating study... Sure, some scientists are corrupt. Some are negligent. Some are biased. But that does not mean we need less science. It means we need better science. That’s why books like this are so important.”
―Evening Standard(London)
“We should listen to this warning about how neophilia and hype is ruining research... Ritchie has a gift for turning boring statistical processes into thrilling detective stories.”
―The Times(London)
“A desperately important book. Stuart Ritchie’s much-needed work brilliantly exposes the fragility of the science on which lives, livelihoods, and our whole society depend. Required reading for everyone.”
―Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
“An engagingly accessible set of cautionary tales to show how science and scientists can be led astray, in some instances with fatal consequences, as well as a clear-eyed and chillingly accurate view of how current funding and publishing practices are leading to more of the same mistakes. As we rely now more than ever on science to solve the world’s problems, Science Fictions should be compulsory reading for anyone involved in the communication of science to policy makers and to the public.”
―Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Metropolitan Books; Illustrated edition (July 21, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250222699
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250222695
- Item Weight : 1.25 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.4 x 1.32 x 9.56 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #204,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #65 in Scientific Research
- #633 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- #4,223 in Philosophy (Books)
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The bulk of the book discusses other issues such as replication failures, errors, statistical malpractice, gaming and bad incentives. My biggest gripe is that the author does not even mention, let alone reply to, people who disagree with him. You'd think a guy who spends 352 pages lecturing everyone else on honest reporting of results in all their messy reality would take his own medicine. There is a huge literature on the questions the author discusses, much of it opposing his analysis, but no dissenting voices are mentioned in the text or cited in the notes.
Another issue is the discussion applies to a small sliver of science, but is presented as having broad application. In most fields, Ernest Rutherford's attributed dictum applies, “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” Published results either do not depend on statistics at all, or significance values too low to worry about. In most fields that can only produce results of marginal statistical significance, investigators only test hypotheses for which there is strong theory and prior evidence to believe true.
The author's discussion applies mainly to fields like nutrition where there is little prior reason to think factors like "eating more potatoes" are either good or bad for you, and there are so many confounding factors and so much measurement uncertainty that the sample sizes required for meaningful answers are impractical. I would argue that testing essentially random hypothesis on inadequate data really isn't experimental science in the first place. I would call it an exploratory initial effort to understand things well enough that useful experiments can be run. Just as hard cases make bad law, fields in which meaningful experiments are hard to run in the first place are not the right examples to think about problems and solutions for all of science.
One example of this unmentioned assumption is the author's insistence, without discussion, that null results should be published with the same attention as positive results. So if Kepler had published Epitome Astronomiae in a journal, using Tycho Brache's exceptionally accurate measurements to establish heliocentric astronomy, the journal should have also published articles by hundreds of traditional astronomers asserting that their (inferior) data could not reject the Ptolemaic system.
The author's implicit assumption is that the only difference between a positive and null result is random statistical noise. But good scientists get positive results by carefully considering which hypotheses to test and using rigorous methodology to minimize noise. Many null results come from less careful workers.
Of course, a negative result should be published. That is, if one investigator finds strong evidence for a hypothesis, another investigation finding strong evidence, or even moderate evidence, against the hypothesis should merit publication. But a null finding, an experiment that is consistent both with the hypothesis and its alternative, is generally of little value. A confirming result is of some value, of course, but mainly if it adds something to the original. For example, if the original had marginal statistical significance, more data supporting the same result is useful. Or if the new result changes some of the original paper's conditions--perhaps is done on different kinds of subjects--it adds to the credibility. But an exact replication of a study that was already well done and did not rely on statistics or had extreme significance, is only useful as a check against fraud.
My final objection is the author lets his political opinions creep into the book, which is inappropriate when "bias" is one of his declared enemies. He cheerfully and without comment inverts his principles for climate change and police shootings, and he dismisses without discussion positions considered anti-scientific like objections to GMOs or combination single-strain vaccines.
I'm not taking the opposite side of these issues from the author, but I do think he should apply the same standards to all questions, or explain the differences. My guess is that the author thinks there are some topics that should be off-limits to lay public discussion because the damage from people taking the wrong position outweighs his general preference for openness and rational discussion. But this position is not stated nor defended.
Overall, I can't recommend this book to anyone. If you're well-read in this field, you won't find enough new to be worth the effort. If you're not well-read in this field, the one-sided and narrow account is a poor introduction. I will say that there's nothing false in the book, and it's reasonably pleasant to read. You will learn some things and, if you keep in mind that there's another side to the case, you might find the book useful.
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.
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.
Top reviews from other countries
A must read especially when we are inundated With conflicting Covid information
He takes a dry complicated subject ,statistics and Gives an easily understandable and entertaining
Description of some of the pitfalls in modern science.
I I’ve been a physician for over 45 years and this is the best book on the scientific method that I’ve ever read











