The descent into the hell of one of Harvard’s best paid teachers: “Maybe I was naive”

While some of his precepts dangerously close to the border of Bullshit (“Counting up to 10 before deciding what to eat can encourage you to choose healthier foods”), the 47-year-old Italian could hitherto boast of publishing in the biggest scientific journals, seeing her work taken up in the pages of New York Times or from The Economist, Or to be among the 50 most influential management thinkers according to the Thinkers50 ranking, as its website recalls with licked design.

It was through a French sister that the grain of sand came to stop the machine of this successful businesswoman. For example, In 2020, Zoé Ziani, then a doctoral student, was interested in “networking behavior” descent hell one harvard’s best new in a professional environment. In addition, In this area, there is an essential contribution in the scientific literature. Similarly, The descent hell one harvard’s best article is co -signed by Francesca Gino. Consequently, relates to the moral discomfort that arouses networking practices in some people. Consequently. Additionally, Consequently, But when reading her, the Frenchman identifies inconsistencies, the conclusion of the study seems to her to be hardly plausible. Nevertheless, Zoé Ziani shares her doubts to his thesis director as well as his doctoral jury who sweep them with. Nevertheless, a back of hand.

Rigged responses – Descent hell one harvard's best

In the spring of 2021, she expressed her disorder to the blog of scientific investigation “Data Colada”, founded by researchers in behavioral sciences, who in descent hell one harvard’s best turn stuck there and concluded that several anomalies that can be intentional. Moreover, The trio is interested in three other articles signed by Francesca Gino. Furthermore, One of them, still online, relates to the “dishonesty” In income tax declarations, insurance compensation requests or professional invoicing. Consequently, His conclusion is simple: to have a certificate of honesty check before filling out a document. Therefore, rather than after, would encourage more to tell the truth. In addition, Another study claims to demonstrate “How dishonesty can lead to greater creativity”. For example, According to the analysis of Data Colada. For example. Therefore, in one case as in the other, the eminent professor descent hell one harvard’s best new had no choice but to bias his tests (in particular by rigging the responses to surveys) to confirm his hypotheses.

“Data Colada” informs Harvard of his finds. Moreover, The university is launching an internal investigation. Therefore, Eighteen months later, a descent hell one harvard’s best 1,300 pages report confirms the suspicions of whistleblowers. For example, Francesca Gino may contest the accusations. Nevertheless, she is placed on leave without balance. Similarly, loses her access to the campus and her salary exceeding the million dollars annual, a sum that made her the fifth best remunerated employee of the institution until 2019. Similarly, It is the start of the descent into hell for the teacher. whose working methods and the study results had already dotted. of New Yorker In 2023, to the point of feeding serious suspicion in the middle.

Legal action – Descent hell one harvard&#039. s best – Descent hell one harvard's best new

The four incriminated articles are all “Retracts” : Still online, they are accompanied by a warning on their disability. Faced with the commission of inquiry. the interested party will try to reject the fault on her assistants responsible for collecting the raw data. the “to clean”. In vain. Francesca Gino goes to the offensive. initiates legal action descent hell one harvard’s best claiming $ 25 million in damages from the Harvard Business School. the three Data Colada researchers. A defamation complaint against his colleagues is rejected by a Massachusetts judge. who nevertheless authorizes the pursuit of another complaint to the university for an inequitable contract termination.

The fact remains that last May, Harvard definitively acts his dismissal. A extremely rare fact: never since 1940. the year during which the tenure rules were formalized, a professor of this standing had been fallen from his post. The case does descent hell one harvard’s best new not know any impact in France. but it makes a big noise in the Anglo-Saxon press. beyond, the first daily newspaper of Spanish economic news, Expansiongoing so far as to qualify Francesca Gino as“Elizabeth Holmes of the MBA”, (in French: “The Elizabeth Holmes des Masters de Commerce”), by the name of this former rising star of the Silicon Valley sentenced to descent hell one harvard’s best eleven years in prison for fraud. As ironically did the New Yorkerthe behavioral professor Dan Ariely. one of the co-authors of Francesca Gino. also worried about suspicions of falsification, appears as an expert in lying psychology in the documentary of HBO devoted to the fall of Theranos, the start-up founded by Elizabeth Holmes.

A study at 250,000 dollars – Descent hell one harvard's best new

The storm has not finished falling on Francesca Gino. Running stubbornness has resurfaced since its fall. Michael Sanders, professor at King’s College in descent hell one harvard’s best new London, recently testified to his anger against his fellow Times. In 2015. this specialist in public policies was financed a study by the World Bank in Guatemala up to $ 250. 000 in order to improve the tax compliance of the country’s inhabitants. Sanders thinks he has found an effective method by drawing inspiration from the famous Gino research on prior declarations. He goes with his team descent hell one harvard’s best to the country of Central America. The experiment is implemented in collaboration with the Guatemalan administration. The experience ends with a failure: no results. “Nothing”. Blessly relates Sanders who, after having overcome his feeling of “shame”, decided to tell his mishap in a book being written.

In the university environment, some hope that the Gino scandal will cause an electroshock. In a blog note published in 2023. Zoé Ziani returned to the difficulties she had descent hell one harvard’s best new encountered in alerting the scientific community. invited the world of research to “Getting aware of this disturbing truth: committing fraud is, today, a viable career strategy that can propel you to the top of the university world”. Way of saying that the Gino case would only be the visible part of the iceberg? His disgrace in any case concomitantly occurred to that of Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Canadian researcher in neuroscience. forced to resign descent hell one harvard’s best from the presidency of Stanford after a 18-year-old student revealed in the school newspaper the presence of several frauds to manipulate data in at least four of his scientific articles.

In his online testimony. Ziani also called for his colleagues to take concrete measures to promote detection of deceptions: “This implies setting up appropriate channels to report fraud. with solid guarantees to protect identity and absence of repercussions. This implies rewarding descent hell one harvard’s best new (and not to punish) those who discover and denounce fraud. This implies imposing more severe sanctions on fraudsters. Additionally, This implies making the publication of data compulsory” compulsory data “compulsory data”. A fortiori in the field of behavioral sciences accustomed to tape-à-l’oeil research titles?

Descent hell one harvard's best new

Descent hell one harvard&#039. s best

Francesca Gino evokes “a plot”

The fact remains that the path to better scientific integrity is still long. noted in 2023 in the Guardian Ivan descent hell one harvard’s best Oransky and Adam Marcus, two American researchers specializing in academic fraud. For the duo. the research system of research based on an untenable publication volume would promote the race for figures. therefore bad practices. On the review side, the will to “Preserve their reputation” would encourage “Look elsewhere”.

Four years after the first public accusations, Francesca Gino, she did not move descent hell one harvard’s best new his line of defense with an iota. She has opened a new section on her website to “Break the silence”placed free access to the documents in. the file. considered itself a year ago in the Italian daily life printingvictim of a “conspiracy”. And this when at the same time. it was also targeted by accusations of plagiarism: according to the magazine Science. A scientific article and two of his books would contain passages copied from non -cited sources, including student memories and press articles.

Contacted by LibérationThe now ex-Professor at Harvard first sent us back to the complaint of her lawyers. a fifteen-page document targeting. among others, “The secret campaign” of “Data CODA” intended for “ruin your career” par “A mixture of innuendos, half-truths and flagrant lies”. Before agreeing to answer us in an email where she recognizes that he “There are descent hell one harvard’s best new anomalies” in some of. his studies. but who “seem to result from errors in good faith when cleaning or processing data”. She persists in proclaiming her innocence: “I can assert with certainty. as I have always done, that I have deliberately falsified any data or committed any fault”.

For Francesca Gino, Harvard did not act with “discernment” And denying any involvement on her part in fraud is obvious. “Maybe I was naive, but I thought the truth would eventually triumph. And maybe I am still. because I think that in descent hell one harvard’s best the end. the truth will triumph”, ensures Libération The one that defines itself on its LinkedIn page, followed by nearly 100,000 subscribers, such as a “storyteller”. That we could translate by: story telling.