Hauser was involved in the study of intelligence in animals, leading up to a theory of the biological bases of human intelligence and morality. Gross discusses the pressures on scientists that would lead them to falsify data, which is what Hauser did, and how easy it can be for them to get away with it. Hauser was studying the intelligence of a South American monkey known as the “cotton-top tamarin,” which meant that it was just about impossible to catch him out unless you wanted the next couple of years of your life in a lab with a bunch of cotton-tops, not everyone’s cup of tea.
Dr. Gross sums up the state of affairs this way:
“The procedures and conclusions of the investigation raise many questions. Its methods and results remain secret. Its procedures bore no relation to the due process that is the goal of our judicial system. We have no clear idea of the exact nature of the evidence, of how many studies were examined and if anyone besides the three whistleblowers and Hauser was asked to testify. I was told by one of the whistleblowers that, to this person’s surprise and relief, the committee, which included scientists, did look carefully at evidence, even going so far as to recalculate statistics.
“Aside from their potential injustice to the accused and accusers, the secrecy of the investigation and the paucity of specific facts in the conclusions are deleterious to the entire field of animal cognition. Exactly what kind of irregularities existed in the “eight instances of misconduct” and what they might imply for other papers by Hauser and for the field in general remained unclear.
“Although some of my knowledge of the Hauser case is based on conversations with sources who have preferred to remain unnamed, there seems to me to be little doubt that Hauser is guilty of scientific misconduct, though to what extent and severity remains to be revealed. Regardless of the final outcome of the investigation of Hauser by the federal Office of Research Integrity, irreversible damage has been done to the field of animal cognition, to Harvard University and most of all to Marc Hauser.”
Afterwords I
This is hardly the first, and hardly the worst, Harvard hush-up. Back in 2006, Harvard paid close to $30 million to cover up the massive misdeeds of Harvard dude Andrei Shleifer, who engineered a massive investment hustle while operating a federal program intended to teach the Russians about private enterprise. (One would have to say, the Russians have learned quite a bit about private enterprise, Harvard-style.) Shleifer, who in a more just world, if such a one exists,* might have gone to jail, was protected in serious Crimson good old boy fashion by such too big to fail big shots as Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, who, of course, were only protecting Harvard itself. But, somehow, I don’t expect any of this to affect the Harvard brand that much.
Afterwords II
In addition to discussing human fraud, Dr. Gross has some interesting things to say about animal intelligence. Gross discusses several papers that Hauser wrote on the ability of chimpanzees to understand human hand gestures as indicators of the gesturer’s intent or desires. He finishes by adding to Hauser’s troubles with a gesture of one-upmanship : “Incidentally, since Hauser published the two papers, dogs have been shown to be better than chimpanzees at interpreting human gestures. Sic transit gloria, the primacy of primates in cognition.”
Funny, but since humans have been unconsciously breeding dogs for thousands of years to do what we want them to do, this doesn’t strike me as what you might call virgin data. When we humans teach animals to do things they don’t do on their own, whose intelligence are we demonstrating, theirs or ours?†
*According to current multiverse speculation, there could as many as 10200 universes around. Which, to my mind, suggests that a more just world doesn’t exist. Travel to the end of time, and there will just be more Larry Summerses, all the way down.
†Years ago, I was watching some performing dolphins with a friend of mine. “It’s amazing how smart they are,” he said. Clever fellow that I am, I replied “If they were really smart it would be us jumping through the hoops.”
