Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth

by Stuart Ritchie

Having perpetually to seek funding is not just an expenditure of time: it leads to an enormous amount of failure and disappointment. The problem is compounded by what’s known as the Matthew Effect: when scientific grants are allocated, the already rich get richer. (The name is a reference to Matthew 25:29: ‘For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.’)14 There’s good evidence that this occurs: in one large study, scientists whose early-career grant applications were judged to be just above the arbitrary threshold for being funded subsequently got more than twice as much money in other grants across the following eight years as scientists whose scores had been just below that threshold, even though the quality of their initial applications can’t have been all that different.15 In this climate, many scientists quit the profession out of frustration, while those who stay are forced to hype up their grant applications to compete for money with the well-funded old guard. It’s a toxic atmosphere, and it’s not difficult to imagine how the accuracy of the science itself becomes an afterthought.16