By Kristy Bleizeffer
HBS Professor Francesca Gino wrote ‘It Pays To Break The Rules.’ She is now accused’ of fabricating research data
In 2018, Adam Grant – the world-renowned organizational psychologist and superstar professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School – offered enthusiastic praise for the latest book by his colleague and research collaborator: “Francesca Gino is the best kind of rebel: the one who doesn’t just break the rules, but invents a better way.”
Perhaps the blurb was unintentionally prescient.
Gino, an award-winning behavioral scientist at Harvard Business School, has been accused of breaking the rules – quite brazenly – in at least four published research papers, and possibly many more. A spate of news articles in the last several days detail instances in which Gino is accused of fabricating data and manipulating results. And at least one paper – a study examining ways to elicit more honest responses – has since been retracted.
A PROLIFIC, AWARD-WINNING RESEARCHER
The questions raised about her research are reminiscent of the public humiliation faced by another Harvard Business School professor, Amy Cuddy, only a few years ago. After a blog post critical of a 2010 study on the effects of “power poses,” Cuddy found herself savaged by fellow academics on social media. There was increased scrutiny of much of her work and a surfeit of insulting commentary. Many now believe Cuddy, who quietly left her tenure-track job at HBS in 2017, was something of a victim, a mean-spirited “target of mockery and meanness on Facebook, on Twitter, and in blog posts,” as a New York Times writer would later describe it.
Gino’s profile at HBS now states that she is on administrative leave. If the accusations prove to have merit, it could mark the fall of a rising academic star blessed with the intelligence, innovative thinking, and an endearing Italian accent capable of charming both academics and titans of business alike. Today, some of her colleagues are wondering if she is the academic version of Elizabeth Holmes or, like Cuddy, another victim of a culture where social media allows envious colleagues to unmercifully pile on.
Growing up in the small mountain town of Tione di Trento, Italy, Gino had little knowledge of the cut-throat ecosystem surrounding college rankings or the vaulted reputation of Harvard University, she wrote in a Linked-in post dated three months ago. She earned three economics degrees at two lesser known Italian universities: a BA from the University of Trento in 2001 and both an MS and PhD in economics and management from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy, in 2004.
So when she arrived at Harvard for the first time as a postdoctoral fellow, she wrote that she didn’t know enough to be intimidated.
“People cared about the research they were doing. They were unafraid to ask questions. I had remarkable professors. The fact that I didn’t realize how much of a prestigious place Harvard was meant I was very courageous. I would meet up with professors, and I asked all sorts of questions,” she wrote.
“But I was also very receptive to criticism. Sometimes my professors would tell me my papers were terrible and needed a lot of work. I was grateful for the feedback. All I wanted to do was understand how to make them better.”
Her visit to the U.S. was meant to last about nine months, but she ended up staying for two years at Harvard. She has since held a variety of academic positions at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, and London Business School, according to her 2022 CV posted on her HBS faculty profile.
Gino returned to Harvard in 2010, teaching negotiations while researching how and why people make decisions in the workplace. In 2014, she was named the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration, a title that has since been removed from her Harvard profile, according to an article in The Harvard Crimson.
Her time at Harvard was the start of a prolific and decorated career.
Gino has authored or co-authored more than 100 academic and journal articles and racked up nearly 33,000 Google citations. Her work has been covered by media outlets like The Economist, The New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and The Wall Street Journal.
In her March 2021 Ted Talk, “The Power of Why: Unlocking a Curious Mind,” she talks about recapturing your inquisitive instinct with her charming Italian cadence. She’s been invited to talk to American Express, Google, and P&G, and created training programs for Goldman Sachs, Merck, and Walmart.
She’s been named one of the world’s 50 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers 50 three different times, most recently in 2021. She won the HBS Faculty Award by Harvard Business School’s MBA Class of 2015 and earned the 2013 Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award from the Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division.
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