So today in class we talked a little about Sir. Cyril Burt's twin study. And at first I was amazed at the ammount of twins he found that were separated at birth. But what even shocked me more was that it was all really a HUGE fraud. Why do you guys think that he thought he had to make up such a big lie that effected so much of what has gone on and is going on today? And do you think if you were trained under his literature that you would believe the reanalysis of the information? I cant really say one way or the other but I would like to think that I would be able to see the reality of the situation!

I think he did it because he felt sure that he was right about the situation. We all want to succeed in life and he was no different than we are. Maybe his desire to succeed got in the way of his moral and ethical responsibility. We see it happen in the business world often. A good example is the Enron situation. Why did they doctor the accounting books in order to grow the business. They had an incentive to succeed and once the CEO became greedy never having enough money a lot of people lost jobs and years of retirement money. Simply he thought the benefits would out weigh the cost, however as with the case of Enron, he was wrong.

I agree with you guys.. it's just amazing that he made up all those facts! I also think that if you really believe something your mind won't allow something contrary to enter so that you can re-evaluate your thoughts. Some people just believe something so much that it is a reality for them! I know that everyone is like this to an extent but I also think that people, if they are truly open-minded, can step back and re-evaluate what they think and try to consider something else. It is especially important for a person to be like this if they are in a research field where things are constantly changing. Scientists, historians, etc. are constantly finding new things that completely change people's view point. Therefore, it is important for us all to be very open-minded and willing to change.

Meaghan Dunham
Music Ed.

When people think they're right or believe something (especially if they are closed minded) they'll find any way to prove to others that their opinion is right. Even if, in this case, it means making up your own statistics and experiments. I still can't believe someone would take such extreme measures though.

I agree with ya'll I think that when people decide they want to prove something or believe in something so much they will do anything to make others believe in what they believe in or even make them agree with them. I can't remember if we talked about it in this class but I believe it was in one of the CI classes, my professor introduced the fact that a lot of the text books make up authors to put on the covers to make it seem more legitimate or scholarly.

Maybe Cyril Burt has been called out on his fraudulence now but we still love to see that twins have that connections. E.g. Mary-Kate and Ashley built an empire on it. Anyway, it is sad but he probably thought it was really cutting edge and if he fudged a little... no big deal. Obviously, it was but I am just trying to take a historical prospective. Later.

I agree with you all as well. I think that when people believe in something so strongly and are trying to convince others that it is true, they end up convincing themselves as well. In extreme cases I think people can start knowing something is wrong or untrue, but end up believing it themselves. I still find it hard to believe that he made all of that up.

I think he made it up to be recognized. He probably wanted it to be true and therefore made it so in his mind. I also think that a lot of the data we take for fact has some amount of fraudulance involved.