Diederik Stapel, also known as the ‘Lying Dutchman’, was the protagonist of one of the nastiest cases of professional misconduct in experimental psychology, amidst a recent surge of such cases. The committee in charge of investigating the extent of his fraudulent conduct has recently announced its conclusions. As could have been expected, it looks very bad, also affecting a number of his collaborators who, due to negligence, unwittingly allowed him to engage in such practices (article here in Dutch).
Stapel now says he feels ‘sadness and shame’, but in a surprising turn of events, he has also been writing a diary since the whole commotion started, parts of which he is planning to publish in book form! (Article in Dutch) Is it “a way to try to make money off of his terrible decisions”, as suggested by Bryce Huebner (to whom I owe the pointer to the article on Twitter)? Or is it a case of someone who is so used to being in the spotlight that any form of public attention is welcome? I don’t know what to make of it, but I suppose one shouldn't be too surprised by his penchant for poor judgment.
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