Jonah Lehrer

As of March 2015, Lehrer appears to be offering a repeating form of apologia for his misconduct, at student fora, for which he is reported to not be receiving honoraria, according to a report in the Fresno State University student publication, The Collegian; at one such forum at Fresno State, Lehrer stated that his large workload led to "very serious mistakes. I was taking on more projects than I could handle." With regard to the Dylan quotes he admits to having fabricated, Lehrer specifically cites the pressure he felt from the deadline to finish Imagine. Lehrer now states that he "records all his interviews for reference" and "sends interview subjects the quotes he plans to use".

On a more positive note, McManus notes that "The most interesting parts of Proust ... are its manifestos on art and science in the prelude and coda" that begins with C.P. Snow; however, Lehrer proceeds (McManus notes) with "attacks" on Richard Dawkins, Brian Greene, Steven Pinker and E. O. Wilson for failing to engage in a "dialogue of equals" with nonscientists. McManus closes, stating that while Lehrer's notion of a "fourth culture" is a "grand dream", his "attempt at [it] fails" since the neuroscience laid out by Lehrer "seems 'sheer plod', undermining the central conceit—for what artist would partake in such a paltry matter?"

Jonah Lehrer has been a regular contributor to Radiolab as an "explainer", making technical science more accessible and bringing much needed meaning to new scientific research. He has been a lively and compelling voice and has helped make the history of science come alive for listeners. ... Radiolab has not used Jonah as a standalone authority on any topic within an episode. Rather, he has brought new research to the attention of the program and the producers in turn have interviewed primary sources and researchers, weaving the voices together as part of a choir—a style of reporting that defines Radiolab. Since Jonah has not been in the role of reporter for Radiolab and we have employed standard practices of journalism in producing the episodes, we have no reason to believe his work with Radiolab is compromised. But we will review the work as needed.

In March 2014, Lehrer began to post blog entries on the scientific subjects that interested him at jonahlehrer.com; in the opening post, "Welcome to my blog," Lehrer thanks his readers, expresses the desire to regain their trust, and indicates that "when possible, all material will be sent to the relevant researchers for their approval. If that's not possible, an independent fact-checker will review it."

In November 2014, the Associated Press (AP) announced that Portfolio, an imprint of Random House, had acquired rights to a work, then entitled, The Digital Mind: How We Think and Behave Differently on Screens, that was to be "co-written by Lehrer and Shlomo Benartzi", the latter a behavioural economist, and professor and co-chair of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Adrian Zackheim of Portfolio was reported by AP as stating that while "[n]o responsible publisher could entirely overlook his past mistakes ... the prospect of working with him was also fantastically appealing," and as describing Lehrer as "one of the most gifted nonfiction writers of his generation".

The early characterization of the proposed work proved to be inaccurate with regard to the eventual book that was released. Business professor Benartzi is involved with a new Portfolio title that involves Lehrer, entitled The Smarter Screen: Surprising Ways to Influence and Improve Online Behavior (alternative subtitle, What Your Business Can Learn from the Way Consumers Think Online); Lehrer is listed as a contributor, rather than a co-author—Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post notes that Lehrer's name appears on the cover "in far smaller type size than Benartzi's name" Lehrer is described by the publisher as "a science writer living in Los Angeles", and only Benartzi's photograph appears on the jacket.

On June 6, 2013, Simon & Schuster announced that it would publish a book by Lehrer with the working title The Book of Love. In Slate.com, Daniel Engber suggested that Lehrer might have plagiarized portions of his book proposal from the work of his former New Yorker colleague Adam Gopnik. Both had written about the same episode in the life of Darwin, using the same biography (that of Desmond and Moore) as a source. The book was published as A Book About Love in 2016. Reviewing it in The New York Times, Jennifer Senior described it as "a nonfiction McMuffin" and "insolently unoriginal," containing "a lot of dime-store counsel" and "a series of duckpin arguments, just waiting to be knocked down." She concluded, "Perhaps Mr. Lehrer has changed—personally. But not sufficiently as a writer. I fear it may be time, at long last, for him to find something else to do."

The controversy surrounding Lehrer's misuse of Bob Dylan quotes in Imagine and his February 2013 speech to the Knight Foundation feature heavily in Jon Ronson's 2015 book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed. Ronson argues that the media response to Lehrer's journalistic malpractice amounts to shaming, and that is extreme and overdone. Slate.com Journalist Daniel Engber disagreed, arguing that the media has not been "too hard". In assessing Ronson's book in March 2015, Engber argues that Lehrer's Knight Foundation apology (see above) and Ronson's view of Lehrer's actions and of the apology fail to address the full scope of Lehrer's malpractices; Engber states

By March 2013, Lehrer's publisher HMH determined that his first book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist (2007), had no significant problems and would remain in print. However, adding to the mounting disgrace of the Imagine recall and severed ties with The New Yorker and Wired.com, Lehrer's publisher announced at the same time that his second book, How We Decide (2009) would also be pulled.

On February 12, 2013, Lehrer gave a paid speech to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; entitled "My Apology", his speech included the following content:

On June 6, 2013, Simon & Schuster announced that it would publish a book by Lehrer with the working title The Book of Love. In Slate.com, Daniel Engber suggested that Lehrer might have plagiarized portions of his book proposal from the work of his former New Yorker colleague Adam Gopnik. Both had written about the same episode in the life of Darwin, using the same biography (that of Desmond and Moore) as a source. The book was published as A Book About Love in 2016. Reviewing it in The New York Times, Jennifer Senior described it as "a nonfiction McMuffin" and "insolently unoriginal," containing "a lot of dime-store counsel" and "a series of duckpin arguments, just waiting to be knocked down." She concluded, "Perhaps Mr. Lehrer has changed—personally. But not sufficiently as a writer. I fear it may be time, at long last, for him to find something else to do."

Starting in 2012, Lehrer was discovered to have routinely recycled his earlier work, plagiarised widely from colleagues, and fabricated or misused quotations and facts. Scrutiny began when freelance journalist Michael Moynihan identified multiple fabrications in Lehrer's third book, Imagine: How Creativity Works (2012), including six quotations attributed to musician Bob Dylan. Imagine and Lehrer's earlier book How We Decide (2009) were recalled after a publisher's internal review found significant problems in that material. He was also fired from The New Yorker and Wired. In 2016, Lehrer published A Book About Love, to negative reviews.

Lehrer has written for The New Yorker (July 2008-March 2012; staff writer June 2012), Wired (July 2010-June 2012) Scientific American Mind (June 2008-July 2009), Grantland, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe, as well as the journal Nature, and Seed magazine.

Lehrer resigned from The New Yorker on July 30, 2012, after the accusations of fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in Imagine surfaced. On August 31, 2012, Wired.com' s editor-in-chief, Evan Hansen, stating Lehrer's "failure to meet ... editorial standards", severed the relationship between that venue and the writer.

On June 19, 2012, Joe Coscarelli of New York magazine and Josh Levin of Slate reported that five posts by Lehrer on The New Yorker blog had reused significant, identical portions of his own work without acknowledging having done so, referring to the practice as "self-plagiarism". Additionally, Edward Champion reported that portions of Imagine: How Creativity Works had been published previously in various forms by Lehrer, and that he had subsequently re-used parts of his books, unattributed, in further submitted publications, e.g.,

All five of The New Yorker blog posts now appear on the magazine's website with editor's notes listing where Lehrer had previously published related sentences, a list that included The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Wired, and The Guardian. In a response soon after, a spokesperson for Lehrer's publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), stated: "[Lehrer] owns the rights to the relevant articles, so no permission was needed. He will add language to the acknowledgments noting his prior work." Lehrer apologized for this unattributed reuse of his own work. In a related matter, a correction was appended to a January 30, 2012 article by Lehrer on The New Yorker website, noting that quotations published in the original version of that article had been taken from the work of another writer, Peter Dizikes, at another publication, the MIT Technology Review (i.e., without permission or attribution).

In the wake of plagiarism revelations Lehrer resigned from The New Yorker on July 30, 2012, less than two months after he had joined the staff. Several scheduled speaking engagements were cancelled. In the days and weeks that followed, reporting on the scope of the issues, and related criticism, continued. Colleen Curry of ABC News in the U.S. compared Lehrer in mid-July to "Publishing's ... Notorious Offenders", Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, and Jayson Blair.

On July 31, 2012, New York Public Radio issued a statement that described Lehrer "a talented and valued colleague." The statement also expressed that the station was "deeply saddened by the news" of the preceding week and further addressed Lehrer's role as a contributing editor between 2007 and 2012. The statement suggested that his work at this NPR venue was untainted, because of their applied journalistic oversight:

The final episode to which Lehrer is seen to contribute, "The 'Decline Effect' and Scientific Truth", aired on June 29, 2012. It contains a comment indicating audio editing to make two corrections to content. One is a factual quantitative statement. The other is an attribution of a quote without reference to any individual at the program bearing responsibility.

On August 10, 2012, Steve Myers at Poynter.org reported that a quotation from the magician Teller of the performance duo Penn and Teller that had been included in Imagine was inaccurate, but that a previous version of the quote, which Lehrer had used for a 2009 Wired magazine article, had been accurate. In the wake of the disclosures, Wired.com asked journalism professor Charles Seife to investigate Lehrer's posts to its website. Writing in Slate.com (after Wired.com declined to publish his findings), Seife stated that he had found 17 of a sample of 18 Lehrer posts to contain rampant, longstanding recycled work, as well as plagiarism of press releases and of authored work, and issues with misuse of quotes and facts. He summarized his findings in this way:

On August 31, 2012, Wired.com's editor-in-chief, Evan Hansen, stated: "Lehrer's failure to meet WIRED editorial standards leaves us no choice but to sever the relationship."

In The New Republic, Isaac Chotiner gave a mostly negative review to Imagine in June 2012. He accused Lehrer of grossly oversimplifying complicated scientific issues and habitually using "slippery language", such as treating creativity and imagination as synonyms when they actually describe different phenomena. After the revelations about Lehrer's plagiarism and falsification of data, Chotiner revisited Imagine in 2013:

Lehrer had contributing editor roles at a variety of publications, including at Scientific American Mind (2009-2012) and for Radiolab (2007-2012, 38 episodes).

In 2008 Lehrer married journalist Sarah Liebowitz. The couple has two children: Rose, born in 2011, and a son. Lehrer bought the historic Shulman House in Los Angeles in 2010.

Lehrer is the author of three best-selling books: Proust Was a Neuroscientist (2007), How We Decide (2009), and Imagine: How Creativity Works (2012). The latter two of these books have been withdrawn from the market by their publishers after "internal review uncovered significant problems" with the books. These and other work by Lehrer have been characterized as having misused quotes and facts, plagiarized press releases and authored work, and to have otherwise recycled earlier published work. These acts and the process of uncovering them are recounted in So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson.

While at Columbia, Lehrer also contributed to the Columbia Review, and was its editor for two years. Lehrer was a 2003 Rhodes Scholarship recipient, supporting his study at Wolfson College at Oxford University; while he is reported to have planned to study "philosophy, physiology and psychology", he is further reported to have instead studied 20th century literature and philosophy.

Lehrer graduated from North Hollywood High School. When he was 15, he won $1,000 in an essay contest run by NASDAQ. In 2000, he worked as a line chef at the Midtown Manhattan restaurants Le Cirque and Le Bernardin.

Jonah Richard Lehrer (born June 25, 1981) is an American author who fabricated and misused quotations and facts. Lehrer studied neuroscience at Columbia University and was a Rhodes Scholar. Thereafter, he built a media career that integrated science and humanities content to address broad aspects of human behaviour. Between 2007 and 2012 Lehrer published three non-fiction books that became best-sellers, and also wrote regularly for The New Yorker and Wired.com.

Jonah Richard Lehrer was born on June 25, 1981, in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. His mother, Ariella (born Jean Hively), a developer of educational software, converted to Judaism to marry his father, David Lehrer, a civil rights lawyer.