Stuart Vyse’s (2017) article about Daryl Bem and p-hacking was disturbing. The most serious implication is that Daryl Bem, a famous and well-respected psychologist, has been guilty of “an unethical manipulation of data in search of statistical significance” to support claims of the paranormal. Such manipulation is especially serious in this field for three reasons.
1. If evidence for the paranormal were found, the implications for the rest of science would be profound.
2. There is very little evidence for the paranormal—and Bem’s claims are frequently cited as providing it.