Some local news, quite shocking for my professional community - I laughed a lot today :-)

Are you a meat eater? Then you can breathe a sigh of relief: you are not a selfish bastard.

When the papers one and all published social psychologist’s Diederik Stapel's findings,  vegetarians the world over tucked contentedly into their tofu. They had  known all along and now science had confirmed it: you can’t trust a  meat eater. They think about a juicy steak and, boom, they turn into  selfish bastards.

Their joy didn’t last very long, however. This week, Stapel (45) was  shopped by two fellow researchers who thought his methods, although not  unheard of in the scientific world, were a little unorthodox: Stapel  made up his own data. He also made up a student who collated the non  existent data.

The Gelderlander was one of the few papers who questioned the validity of the findings.  It asked  Stapel’s research partner social psychologist Roos Vonk, who  is a vegetarian, if  the research could possibly have been biased. At  the time Vonk huffily dismissed this possibility as ‘insulting’ and  described herself and her fellow researchers as ‘experienced scientists  with an excellent track record’.

Vonk has since apologised to the paper. ‘It goes to show that even  psychologists can be completely wrong about people’, she said ruefully.  She didn’t like to speculate why Stapel, who has agreed to step down  from his job at Tilburg University, did what he did.

Read more from this article

Science Magazine: Dutch University Sacks Social Psychologist Over Faked Data

The Scientist: Dutch Scientist Fired for Faking Data

It's always a relief when truth wins against lies. This may have direct repercussions on some of my colleagues, however, who collaborated with this guy...

How unfortunate for those who supported his work with no idea that he was engaging in fraud.

But then, someone will value publicity over honesty in any field. Sad that this occurs in scientific research which is supposed to be devoted to truth.

I think this is another example of why we should avoid jumping on the first scientific bandwagon.  This is another reason why you should be very carefull about throwing away your intuition. 

If your experiences and understanding run contrary to the latest scientific study there is probably a good reason for that. 

This is why results must be reproducible, and why studies must be subjected to peer review.

The fact that a scientist wears a white coat does not of necessity make him or her a saint...

Sep 10, 2011 -- 6:54PM, solfeggio wrote:

He actually published falsified data supposedly showing that people who eat meat are boorish? 

It is a bit more subtle what he did. His falsified data supposedly show - in the first place - that thinking of meat makes people less social and more egoistic. That's the "root link" claimed to exist.

Further faked results, go into the category you mentioned: That a preference for meat eating (instead of fish or vegetables) is prevalent among lonely people, who are less sure of themselves (the bully candidates), presumably because meat eating symbolises power over other beings.