The Trolley Problem With Science

The Trolley Problem With Science

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Imagine a scientist who does an experiment, and doesn’t like the results. Perhaps the scientist had hoped to see a certain pattern of findings and is disappointed that it’s not there.

Suppose that this scientist therefore decided to manipulate the data. She goes into the spreadsheet and adds new, made-up data points, until she obtains a statistically significant result she likes, and publishes it.

That’s bad.