The widespread misuse and misrepresentation of statistical information can give the field a bad name. Some say that \u201cnumbers don\u2019t lie,\u201d but the people who use numbers to support their claims often do.<\/p>\r\n Clearly, it is never acceptable to falsify data the way this researcher did. Sometimes, however, violations of ethics are not easy to detect.<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n Many types of statistical fraud are difficult to detect. Some researchers simply stop collecting data once they have just enough to prove what they had hoped to prove. They don\u2019t want to take the chance that a more extensive study would produce data contradicting their hypothesis. Professional organizations like the American Statistical Association clearly define expectations for researchers. There are even federal laws in the United States about the use of research data.<\/p>\r\n [\/hidden-answer]<\/p>\r\n<\/section>\r\n When a statistical study uses human participants, as in medical studies, both ethics and the law dictate that researchers be mindful of the safety of their research subjects. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services oversees federal regulations of research studies with the aim of protecting participants. When a university or other institution engages in research, it must ensure the safety of all human subjects. For this reason, research institutions establish oversight committees known as Institutional Review Boards (IRB)<\/strong>. All planned studies must be approved in advance by the IRB. Key protections that are mandated by law include the following:<\/p>\r\n It is important that students of statistics take time to consider the ethical questions that arise in statistical studies. How prevalent is fraud in statistical studies? You might be surprised\u2014and disappointed.\u00a0Vigilance against fraud requires knowledge. Learning the basic theory of statistics will empower you to analyze statistical studies critically.<\/p>","rendered":" The widespread misuse and misrepresentation of statistical information can give the field a bad name. Some say that \u201cnumbers don\u2019t lie,\u201d but the people who use numbers to support their claims often do.<\/p>\n
\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"261473\"]\"Stapel did not deny that his deceit was driven by ambition. But it was more complicated than that, he told me. He insisted that he loved social psychology but had been frustrated by the messiness of experimental data, which rarely led to clear conclusions. His lifelong obsession with elegance and order, he said, led him to concoct sexy results that journals found attractive. \u201cIt was a quest for aesthetics, for beauty\u2014instead of the truth,\u201d he said. He described his behavior as an addiction that drove him to carry out acts of increasingly daring fraud, like a junkie seeking a bigger and better high.\"[footnote]\u201cFlawed Science: The Fraudulent Research Practices of Social Psychologist Diederik Stapel,\u201d Tilburg University, November 28, 2012, http:\/\/www.tilburguniversity.edu\/upload\/064a10cd-bce5-4385-b9ff-05b840caeae6_120695_Rapp_nov_2012_UK_web.pdf<\/a> (accessed May 1, 2013).[\/footnote] The committee investigating Stapel concluded that he is guilty of several unethical practices, including:\r\n\r\n\r\n\t
\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"466002\"]Any personally identifiable information obtained during data collection from students must be removed to protect the privacy of student information.\r\n\r\n\r\n\t
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Ethics<\/h2>\n