Issues of scientific misconduct in the forms of fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism (FFP) tend to be most prominently reported in the biomedical area, where fraudulent data may lead to serious consequences for patients receiving treatment. Nevertheless, scientific misconduct in the social sciences may also cause considerable damage—not the least being the undermining of public trust in a scientific endeavor that aims to be of benefit to social decision-making. Among the cases that have been most prominent in this area are those associated with anthropologists and psychologists.

Anthropology Cases

The American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901–1978) in her famous 1928 study, Coming of Age in Samoa, described adolescence in those islands in glowing terms with little cultural competition and easy and frequent sexual activities among teenagers that was not condemned by Samoan society. The only problem with this book, which received high acclaim, was that it was based on a myth...