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Given that, for various reasons, a majority of published research is wrong, and given that academics inhabit a very rarefied and solipsistic reality rather diff
by grabcocque 10y ago
Given that, for various reasons, a majority of published research is wrong, and given that academics inhabit a very rarefied and solipsistic reality rather different from most of us, you might well ask why you'd think academics would be well suited to sniffing out hoaxes. If anything I'd suggest quite the opposite.
- mcguire 10y agoBy and large, nobody is well suited to sniffing out hoaxes. This particular example is rather egregious, since it involves the "critical studies" people, who were meandering around in territory that they were completely ill-equipped to navigate. But there are plenty of other examples from academia and elsewhere, where the recipients of the hoax were supposed to thoroughly understand the details. Further, those hoaxes outside academia, such as Theranos and Bernie Madoff, tend to be directly harmful rather than merely embarassing---one would think the victims would have been more careful.