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posted by takyon on Monday September 24 2018, @03:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the eat-this dept.

This Ivy League food scientist was a media darling. He just submitted his resignation, the school says.

A Cornell professor whose buzzy and accessible food studies made him a media darling has submitted his resignation, the school said Thursday, a dramatic fall for a scholar whose work increasingly came under question in recent years. The university said in a statement that a year-long review found that Brian Wansink "committed academic misconduct in his research and scholarship, including misreporting of research data, problematic statistical techniques, failure to properly document and preserve research results, and inappropriate authorship."

Wansink, a marketing professor at Cornell's business college who was the director of the university's Food and Brand Lab, will retire at the end of the academic year, the school said. The move follows the recent retraction of six of Wansink's papers by the American Medical Association's JAMA Network, including those about how serving bowl size affected food consumption, how fasting changed people's food preferences and how action-packed television programs increased food intake.

Wansink emailed The Washington Post on Thursday a news release of his retirement, which included statements attributed to a university trustee saying that "Cornell and Professor Wansink mutually have decided that Professor Wansink's research approach and goals differ from the academic expectations of Cornell University, and they have decided to part ways accordingly." Wansink said he is leaving his position June 30, 2019.

For years, Wansink enjoyed a level of prominence that many academics would strive for, his work spawning countless news stories. He published a study showing that people who ate from "bottomless" bowls of soup continue to eat as their bowls are refilled, as a parable about the potential health effects of large portion sizes. Another, with the title "Bad popcorn in big buckets," similarly warned about the perils of presenting food in big quantities, according to Vox.

Also at Science Magazine, Ars Technica, CNN, and Retraction Watch.


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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 24 2018, @03:44PM (8 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 24 2018, @03:44PM (#739204) Journal

    Does anything more need to be said? If the media loves it, there is SOMETHING wrong with it.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @04:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @04:03PM (#739218)

    This has been a long time coming. The guy basically treated fraud as the scientific method and wrote blog posts advising his students to do it. Then there are all sorts of numbers than don't add up, inconsistent descriptions of the methods, etc in his publications.

    Theres been a lot about it on this blog: https://andrewgelman.com/2018/09/23/tweeking-big-problem-not-think/ [andrewgelman.com]

    BTW, the comments/comment feed seem desynced for that blog.

  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @04:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @04:15PM (#739229)

    Please. The media flip-flops on issues every other Tuesday. Generalizing conclusions or opinions based on their preference is pure folly.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 24 2018, @04:56PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday September 24 2018, @04:56PM (#739256) Homepage Journal

    #FakeStews!

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by suburbanitemediocrity on Monday September 24 2018, @06:17PM (2 children)

    by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Monday September 24 2018, @06:17PM (#739307)

    "a marketing professor "

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @08:12PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @08:12PM (#739380)

      "A marketing professor". That could even be worse than psychology. How did he get papers into AMA journals at all?

      • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday September 24 2018, @08:50PM

        by Immerman (3985) on Monday September 24 2018, @08:50PM (#739393)

        What part of "marketing" do you not understand? His chosen field of expertise is how to manipulate people into buying things for more than they're worth.

  • (Score: 1) by easyTree on Monday September 24 2018, @08:09PM (1 child)

    by easyTree (6882) on Monday September 24 2018, @08:09PM (#739378)

    Yes:

    Wansink, a marketing professor...

    What the hell? What next, professor of drinking a glass of water?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Tuesday September 25 2018, @12:20AM

      by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday September 25 2018, @12:20AM (#739461) Journal

      He would point you towards drinking a glass of Evian!

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