Teaching Ethical Science in a Statistics Course

Modern statistics education increasingly needs to address the importance of scientific and statistical ethics. In our capstone course for the applied statistics minor, we spend three weeks exploring ethical issues in statistical research. This discussion begins by exploring the history of statistics and its ties to Eugenics, followed by a discussion of the reproducibility crisis. Students are encouraged to brainstorm possible causes of this crisis, and to explore the systemic causes of research fraud. We examine the concept of p-hacking and explore the replicability of p-values with a simulation exercise in class. Students develop their own sense about the reliability of p-values and learn about the concept of pre-registration, reading other pre-registrations and developing their own. To end the unit, students work in small groups to examine specific cases including Amy Cuddy, Brian Wansink, and Diedrich Stapel, and the class discusses the scale, significance, and consequences of their potential fraud. While most courses don't have the luxury of this much time, this talk will provide a number of resources including readings, videos, and podcasts that can be used in class or shared with students. In addition, it will share in-class activities, homework assignments, and possible group projects that can be used, modified, or adjusted depending on an instructor's goals and the time available. We argue that this material needs to be introduced into statistics and scientific education for all students so that students can recognize and prevent scientific misconduct and fraud.

Education

Ethics

Fraud

Reproducibility Crisis 

Education

Symposium on Data Science and Statistics (SDSS) 2025