
The Truth Wears Off (2010) - helloworld
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/13/the-truth-wears-off
======
hudibras
By Jonah Lehrer, later fired for plagiarism and fabricating quotes. A
Wired.com review of articles that he wrote for them said

"Lehrer has a cavalier attitude about truth and falsehood. This shows not only
in his attitude toward quotations but in some of the other details of his
writing. And a journalist who repeatedly fails to correct errors when they're
pointed out is, in my opinion, exhibiting reckless disregard for the truth. It
is thus my opinion that Lehrer plagiarized others' work, published inaccurate
quotations, printed narrative details that were factually incorrect, and
failed to address errors when they were pointed out."

~~~
thaumaturgy
It's fine to point out that a controversial piece was written by someone that
might not be impartial or, in this case, has had some ethical issues.

However, other people contacted the scientists interviewed by Lehrer and asked
for their opinions on what he wrote, and they generally agreed that it was
accurate: [http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/11/05/jonah-lehrer-
nat...](http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/11/05/jonah-lehrer-nature-of-
truth/)

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avsteele
Feynman mentions the Rhine example in his cargo cult science lecture
([http://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/cargocul.htm](http://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/cargocul.htm))

I think an even more interesting example, one that shows greater subtlety of
these effects, is the trend in experimental measurements taken when performing
the Millikan Oil drop experiment
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_drop_experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_drop_experiment)).

This is also mentioned in Feynman's lecture. I had a plot I can't find now of
the historical measures. It quite funny how the measurements trend slowly from
Millikan's value to the true one over time.

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bkohlmann
In my last year of business school, I took a class called Consumer behavior.
It was easily one of my favorite courses and the professor was incredible.

But one day she wanted to prove a psychological insight about rating Coffee -
namely that in blind taste tests, people can’t distinguish between $5/lb
coffee and $100/lb coffee (she literally bought all types). We set up a blind
tasting line and all rated the drinks after a sip or two. Then we submitted an
o line poll.

Her mistake came in actually showing the results real time - they showed that
we COULD tell the difference, even if subtly. She went on to explain, without
looking at the screen, that we had just proven the theory right.

Now, it’s true that we could’ve been the “outlier” group that randomly aligned
with the the ratings. But it shows that if our group had been the first to be
tested all those year ago, the researcher may have stopped - who reports on
what you expect?

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klenwell
Interesting that Jonah Lehrer is the author of this.

Here's a more recent New York Times article about him that might be title,
"Does the Stigma Wear Off?":

[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/books/a-fraud-jonah-
lehre...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/books/a-fraud-jonah-lehrer-says-
his-remorse-is-real.html)

I don't think this article was affected by his disgrace and I still like a lot
of what he's written. Still, in light of Lehrer's own subsequent history, it's
hard not to read a certain ironic biographical significance into the final
paragraph.

~~~
hudibras
A later Radiolab episode on the same topic that he contributed to was found to
have errors, and WNYC issued two corrections.

[https://www.wnyc.org/people/jonah-lehrer/](https://www.wnyc.org/people/jonah-
lehrer/)

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darkerside
All of the effects described in the article, despite the mystical tone, can be
explained by regression to the mean, publication of outlying results, and
confirmation bias in future publishings.

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anon1253
It was more or less the basis of my PhD in epidemiology that I dropped out of:
[https://joelkuiper.eu/academic-publishing](https://joelkuiper.eu/academic-
publishing) (Most academic publishing isn't academic (and how to deal with
it))

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hammock
Ignoring all the ad hominem about Jonah Lehrer here -- I recall a number of
other discussions on HN about how the scientific method and science are
different, how something is broken, about the irreproducibility of studies,
about reversion to the mean, etc. Don't be distracted by who authored this
piece.

~~~
ubernostrum
If a particular person has been demonstrated in the past to be an unreliable
source, it is not fallacious to say that they have been demonstrated in the
past to be an unreliable source.

Not every comment about a person is an example of the _ad hominem_ fallacy.

~~~
darkerside
Well, ad hominem is certainly a logical fallacy, and discrediting the article
by discrediting the author is a clear example of it. However, logic is not the
only basis in which to challenge an article.

I agree the information is relevant, and I think it's worth people
understanding that logical arguments are not the only ones that carry water.

~~~
ubernostrum
Casting doubt on an article by pointing out the documented, verifiable
unreliability of its author or primary source is _not_ an example of the _ad
hominem_ fallacy. HN has an unfortunate love of the fallacy fallacy.

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draw_down
[https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/02/the_decline_effect_i...](https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/02/the_decline_effect_is_stupid.html)

