Update on 20 August: Harvard confirms misconduct by morality researcher
Do animals think? For many years, each time the media wanted insights into this most intriguing of questions, was the scientist of choice. His produced a string of intriguing papers suggesting that monkeys have uncannily human-like mental capacities, and Hauser was always ready with an eloquent explanation.
Now that work lies under a cloud, after the that Harvard has conducted a three-year misconduct investigation into work carried out in Hauser鈥檚 laboratory.
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At least one scientific paper is being retracted, questions are swirling around the rest of Hauser鈥檚 work, and Harvard is refusing to comment. All of which leaves other researchers annoyed that the university has not disclosed the details of the scandal, even though it has left the field of animal cognition in confusion.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important that Harvard release the data that they questioned, because otherwise you don鈥檛 know what to believe,鈥� says , a specialist in primate cognition at Columbia University in New York.
While Hauser has enjoyed a high public profile 鈥� his work has featured regularly in New 杏吧原创, among other publications 鈥� some of his scientific colleagues contacted by New 杏吧原创 say they had already questioned his conclusions. Primatologists who spend their career working with just a few species have 鈥渁 high level of intuition鈥� about what their favourite animals are capable of, explains of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. 鈥淢arc would come out with findings that we found hard to follow.鈥�
Roots of language
Hauser made his name through studies suggesting that and were capable of mental feats previously seen as human specialisms.
In the paper that is now being retracted, for instance, published in Cognition in 2002 (), Hauser played recordings of series of syllables to tamarins and found that the animals seemed to recognise sequences that followed a similar pattern, even when syllables themselves were different. This capacity is thought to be crucial to children鈥檚 ability to learn languages 鈥� but Hauser鈥檚 work suggested it emerged earlier in primate evolutionary history for some other purpose.
The current Harvard investigation isn鈥檛 the first time that Hauser鈥檚 findings have come under question, however. After he published a paper in 1995 suggesting that cotton-top tamarins can recognise themselves in a mirror (), the researcher who first demonstrated this ability in chimps, of the State University of New York at Albany, asked to see videos of the experiments. 鈥淚 was shocked when I sat down and reviewed the tapes,鈥� says Gallup. 鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 a shred of evidence.鈥�
Gallup says that he was worried about Hauser鈥檚 over-enthusiastic interpretation of his results. But according to other scientists in the field, Harvard decided to investigate his lab only after students who had worked there came forward with allegations of data falsification 鈥� a much more serious charge.
Paper trail
It is not clear how much of Hauser鈥檚 work may be based on flawed data. Some journals have been told of problems with papers they have published. Science, for instance, was informed on 27聽June that an investigation had examined record-keeping in a 2007 paper exploring whether various primate species are able to understand human gestures that indicate the presence of hidden food () 鈥� but the journal has so far received no further details.
Meanwhile, related experiments showing the responses of wild rhesus macaques to human gestures, which were described in a 2007 paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B (), have been repeated. A correction states that the experiments were repeated after 鈥渢he discovery of incomplete video records and field notes鈥�.
Given that Hauser鈥檚 lab has worked on many aspects of cognition, including the evolution of morality and monkeys鈥� abilities to count and perform simple arithmetic, scientists in the field are frustrated by Harvard鈥檚 insistence that it will provide no further details at present. 鈥淎s a general policy, reviews of faculty conduct are considered confidential,鈥� university spokesman Jeff Neal told New 杏吧原创.
Hauser is now on leave for a year, and a message to his email was met with an auto-reply: 鈥淚 am on leave, working furiously on a book, and thus will only be checking email irregularly.鈥�
Right to silence?
鈥淢arc Hauser鈥檚 rights are being protected. Harvard鈥檚 rights are being protected,鈥� complains , a specialist in chimpanzee cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. 鈥淲ho鈥檚 looking out for the scientific community? We鈥檙e in a quandary.鈥�
Even some of Hauser鈥檚 Harvard colleagues are calling for the university to end the confusion by revealing the details of its investigation. , who works on human cognition and education, told New 杏吧原创: 鈥淜eeping proceedings secret simply produces rumours, and, in the era of blogging, these can be wild.鈥�
While the recriminations grow, some researchers hope that the affair will encourage those studying animals鈥� mental capacities to be more careful before making extraordinary claims from behavioural observations, because such observations require careful checks to ensure reliable recording and correct interpretation.
Gallup, for instance, argues that several findings about mirror self-recognition in animals are based on over-interpretation of flimsy data. 鈥淢arc鈥檚 not alone in that respect,鈥� he says.
鈥淥ne benefit of this will be that people will be more careful about going out on a limb,鈥� predicts Terrace.
