by Alex Edmans | 3 Jan 2025 | A fact is not data, A statement is not fact, Confirmation bias, Data is not evidence, Evidence is not proof
Chris van Tulleken’s “Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … And Why Can’t We Stop?”, on the dangers of Ultra-Processed Food (UPF), was one of the most successful books of 2023. It was a #1 Sunday Times Bestseller and an Economist, Daily...
by Alex Edmans | 16 Dec 2023 | A statement is not fact, Confirmation bias, Data is not evidence, Diversity, Evidence is not proof
My LinkedIn feed came alive with this post: Francesca Gino is the Harvard Business School professor accused of faking data in her research. HBS is conducting an investigation into the matter and I am reserving judgement until its outcome; this post is on...
by Alex Edmans | 4 Nov 2023 | A fact is not data, A statement is not fact, Evidence is not proof
Someone thoughtfully sent me a Harvard Business Review article, ‘How Your Company’s Social Purpose Can Also Drive Profit’, thinking I’d like it given my book Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, gives a similar message. My...
by Alex Edmans | 27 Oct 2023 | Evidence is not proof
One of my research fields in behavioural economics, which suggests that people don’t always act in perfectly rational ways. A famous experiment in this field is known as the Ultimatum Game. There are two players, a ‘proposer’ whom we’ll call Amelia, and a ‘responder’,...
by Alex Edmans | 23 Sep 2023 | Evidence is not proof
One of the most famous psychology experiments conducted on children is the Marshmallow Study. In a 1972 paper, Walter Mischel and co-authors gave three-to-five-year-olds at the Stanford Bing Nursery School a marshmallow. They could eat it now, but if they waited 15...
