Eating behaviour and nutrition expert Professor Brian Wansink has been studied and cited widely. He has several published papers on healthy eating habits and nutrition tips. Now six of his papers have been withdrawn or retracted from the journals that had published them after their validity was questioned. Seven of his other popular works have also been called back similarly in the past.
Wansink is a nutritionist associated with Cornell University. Some of his theories include “shopping on an empty stomach” may make a person buy unhealthy food from the supermarkets, “size of the plate” can affect the amount of food consumed per meal, placement of fruit bowls in prominent places encourage fruit consumption, 100-calorie snack pack trends, watching action of TV during dinner leads to overeating, etc. These theories are quick to catch public attention and there are few people who have not heard of these theories and believed them to be true.
His work came under scrutiny when he made some comments on a blog post. In February he had mentioned to his junior researchers to analyze the data in a manner so that the results are interesting and attractive to the public. This form of data manipulation to suit the results is known as “p-hacking”. If the results were not as per expectations, the team analyzed part of the participant population (on the basis of age, gender, lifestyle habits etc.) until they found something worthy of top headlines, say experts. Scientists are taught to avoid this temptation to manipulate the participant population to suit their needs but give in at time because their grants are dependent o the list of publications.
This year in May the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and others in its network expressed their concern over six of his papers and asked for clarifications and more information. JAMA, in their clarification letter wrote to Cornell University who replied, “We regret that, because we do not have access to the original data we cannot assure you that the results of the studies are valid.” Following this, the six famous papers have been withdrawn.
The Cornell Provost Michael Kotlikoff said that they had conducted an investigation where they found that, “Professor Wasink committed academic misconduct in his research and scholoraship, including misreporting of research data, problematic statistical techniques, failure to properly document and preserve research results, and inappropriate authorship.” Kotlikoff issued a statement saying, “He has been removed from all teaching and research. Instead, he will be obligated to spend his time cooperating with the university in its ongoing review of his prior research... We regret this situation which has been painful to the university community. Cornell University remains committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and we are reviewing our research policies to ensure we can meet this commitment.”
Experts feel that this could dissuade other researchers from “p-hacking” and is certainly a welcome move.
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