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Portrait of Brian Wansink

Photo: Brian Wansink · Public domain

Born in United States — Food psychology / marketing / behavioural nutrition / scientific integrity

Brian Wansink

Science, medicine and health

Documented profile covering 6 controversies, including “2018–2022: corrections bring total to eighteen retracted papers; he subsequently resumes publishing using old datasets” and “2018–2019: Cornell finds academic misconduct; Wansink resigns and is barred from teaching and research until departure”.

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Profile No. 2032 · Updated on 12 October 2026

Portrait of Brian Wansink

Photo: Brian Wansink · Public domain
6Documented controversies+ 1 background event
10Sources
0Formal charge · all time
0Conviction

§ Legal statuses reflect the documented sources as of the date shown; they replace neither court decisions nor the presumption of innocence. Counts are not a rating. Methodology

I. Documented controversies

01

December 2018–May 2022

2018–2022: corrections bring total to eighteen retracted papers; he subsequently resumes publishing using old datasets

No legal proceedings

Further withdrawals followed the JAMA retractions, including two papers in Annals of Internal Medicine in December 2018. Retraction Watch counted eighteen retracted Wansink papers in 2022, one of which had been retracted twice. That year, he resumed publishing, notably using older data.

State of the evidence
Documented
Attribution
Directly implicated

Sources · 2

  1. [1]
    Retraction WatchThe Joy of Cooking, vindicated: Journal retracts two more Brian Wansink papersPressHigh reliability
  2. [2]
    Retraction WatchCornell food marketing researcher who retired after misconduct finding is publishing againPressHigh reliability

Last verified: 14 September 2026

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02

20 September 2018–30 June 2019

2018–2019: Cornell finds academic misconduct; Wansink resigns and is barred from teaching and research until departure

No legal proceedings

A Cornell faculty committee found that Wansink had committed academic misconduct involving misrepresentation of data, problematic statistical techniques, inadequate documentation and retention of results, and improper authorship practices. He submitted his resignation; Cornell announced that he would no longer teach or conduct research and would leave the university at the end of the academic year.

State of the evidence
Documented
Attribution
Directly implicated

Sources · 3

  1. [1]
    Cornell UniversityProvost issues statement on Wansink academic misconduct investigationOfficial statementVery high reliability
  2. [2]
    NatureUniversity says prominent food researcher committed academic misconductPressVery high reliability
  3. [3]
    Retraction WatchCornell food marketing researcher who retired after misconduct finding is publishing againPressHigh reliability

Last verified: 14 September 2026

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03

2014–March 2018

2014–2018: Kickstarter campaign raising more than $10,000 for 'Slim by Design' programme remains undelivered for years

No legal proceedings

Wansink raised over $10,000 from 76 Kickstarter backers to develop a coaching programme based on his 'Slim by Design' method. In 2018, several backers said that they had received neither the promised service nor regular responses to requests for updates, and the programme had still not been delivered in its promised form.

State of the evidence
Documented
Attribution
Directly implicated

Sources · 1

  1. [1]
    The Cornell Daily SunNew Controversies Emerge Surrounding Cornell Professor's Fundraiser and StudiesPressHigh reliability

Last verified: 14 September 2026

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04

November 2016–2017

2016–2017: blog post about repeated analysis of one dataset triggers extensive external review of statistical practices

No legal proceedings

A Brian Wansink blog post explaining how an initially inconclusive dataset had been reanalysed from multiple angles drew researchers' attention to practices resembling p-hacking or intensive searching for publishable results. External teams then began systematically re-examining his work.

State of the evidence
Documented
Attribution
Directly implicated

Sources · 1

  1. [1]
    Retraction WatchCornell food marketing researcher who retired after misconduct finding is publishing againPressHigh reliability

Last verified: 14 September 2026

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05

January–April 2017

2017: approximately 150 inconsistencies identified in four papers from same buffet study; Cornell initially describes repeated errors but not misconduct

No legal proceedings

A detailed reanalysis of four Cornell Food and Brand Lab publications identified approximately 150 statistical inconsistencies or impossibilities, including incompatible sample sizes, impossible degrees of freedom and statistics inconsistent with published means and standard deviations. In April 2017, Cornell stated that numerous data handling and analysis errors had been alleged and would be reassessed by external experts.

State of the evidence
Documented
Attribution
Directly implicated

Sources · 2

  1. [1]
    BMC Nutrition / PubMed CentralStatistical heartburn: an attempt to digest four pizza publications from the Cornell Food and Brand LabAcademic publicationVery high reliability
  2. [2]
    Cornell UniversityCornell University Statement Regarding Questions About Professor Brian Wansink’s ResearchOfficial statementVery high reliability

Last verified: 14 September 2026

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06

21 September–20 October 2017

2017: 'Can Branding Improve School Lunches?' first retracted and replaced, then fully retracted after major error concerning children's ages

No legal proceedings

JAMA Pediatrics initially issued a retraction and replacement to correct pervasive errors in the 2012 paper. A few weeks later, the authors requested full retraction after learning that the children were aged three to five, rather than eight to eleven as stated, affecting interpretation of the study.

Attribution
Directly implicated

Sources · 2

  1. [1]
    JAMA PediatricsRETRACTED: Can Branding Improve School Lunches?Very high reliability
  2. [2]
    JAMA PediatricsNotice of Retraction. Wansink B, Just DR, Payne CR. Can Branding Improve School Lunches?Very high reliability

Last verified: 14 September 2026

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II. Documented background

Documented biographical or institutional milestones (elections, appointments, foundings, acquisitions…). These are not controversies and are not counted as such.

  1. 8 May–19 September 2018

    2018: JAMA Network retracts six studies after Cornell can no longer guarantee validity without original data

    After publishing expressions of concern, JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Pediatrics retracted six of Wansink's studies. Cornell had replied that, without the original data, it was unable to guarantee the six studies' scientific validity.

    Sources · 2
    1. JAMA Network / JAMA Internal Medicine — Notice of Retractions: Wansink
    2. Nature — University says prominent food researcher committed academic misconduct

III. Constellation of documented links

No documented link with another published profile for now.

Two profiles are linked when a documented controversy of one names the other. The link points to that controversy and its sources; it does not indicate a personal relationship.

IV. Has something changed?

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