Fed Report Finds Research Misconduct By Harvard's Hauser

Marc Hauser, a prolific scientist and popular psychology professor who last summer resigned from Harvard University, had fabricated data, manipulated results in multiple experiments, and described how experiments were conducted in factually incorrect ways, according to the findings of a federal research oversight agency posted online Wednesday.

The report provides the greatest insight yet into the problems that triggered a secretive three-year internal university investigation that concluded in 2010 that Hauser, a star professor and public intellectual, had committed eight instances of scientific misconduct. The document, which will be published in the Federal Register Thursday, found six cases in which Hauser engaged in research misconduct in work supported by the National Institutes of Health. One paper was retracted and two were corrected, and other problems were found in unpublished work.

Read the full Globe story here. And check out our past stories on Hauser, whose writing included fascinating work on whether morality is hard-wired. (One wonders: If it is, did he have a glitch in a circuit?) They include The Marc Hauser Files: Was It Confirmation Bias?, The Marc Hauser Counter-Offensive Begins and Monkey Business: Harvard Details Hauser's Misconduct.