Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British writer and journalist. Up until 2011, Hari wrote for The Independent, among other outlets, before resigning after admitting to plagiarism and fabrications dating back to 2001.[1]
After the scandal, he began writing books on technology, addiction and medical policy, which have attracted criticism for inaccuracy and poor citational practices. His books include 2022's Stolen Focus, about technology and modern lifestyles' impact on attention spans and mental health, and 2015's Chasing the Scream, about addiction and the war on drugs. Both were New York Times bestsellers, and Hari’s 2015 TED Talk based on Chasing the Scream was one of the most-watched of the year.[2][3]
Hari’s other books include Magic Pill, about semaglutide medications used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, and Lost Connections, about depression, anxiety, and related mental health conditions. He is also listed as a producer and writer on the 2021 film The United States vs. Billie Holiday, which was nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and other awards.[4]
Early life
Hari was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to a Scottish mother and Swiss father,[1] before his family relocated to London when he was an infant.[5] Hari states he was physically abused in his childhood while his father was away and his mother was ill.[6]
In 2000, Hari was joint winner of The Times Student News Journalist of the Year award for his work on the Cambridge student newspaper, Varsity.
After university, he joined the New Statesman, where he worked between 2001 and 2003, and then wrote two columns a week for The Independent. At the 2003 Press Gazette Awards, he won Young Journalist of the Year.[9] A play by Hari, Going Down in History, was performed at the Garage Theatre in Edinburgh, and his book God Save the Queen? was published by Icon Books in 2002.[9]
2011 plagiarism, fabrication and misconduct scandal
Plagiarism
In June 2011, bloggers at Deterritorial Support Group, as well as Yahoo! Ireland editor Brian Whelan, discovered that Hari had plagiarised material published in other interviews and writings by his interview subjects.[12][13][14] For example, a 2009 interview with Afghan women's rights activist Malalai Joya included quotations from her book Raising My Voice in a manner that made them appear as if spoken directly to Hari.[15] A piece entitled "How Multiculturalism Is Betraying Women" which Hari submitted when entering the Orwell Prize was plagiarised from Der Spiegel.[16]
Hari initially denied any wrongdoing, stating that the unattributed quotes were for clarification and did not present someone else's thoughts as his own.[17][18] However, he later said that his behaviour was "completely wrong" and that "when I interviewed people, I often presented things that had been said to other journalists or had been written in books as if they had been said to me, which was not truthful".[19] Hari was suspended for two months from The Independent[20][21] and in January 2012 it was announced that he was leaving the newspaper.[22]
The Media Standards Trust instructed the council of the Orwell Prize, who had given their 2008 prize to Hari, to examine the allegations.[23][24] The council concluded that "the article contained inaccuracies and conflated different parts of someone else's story" and did not meet the standards of Orwell Prize-winning journalism.[25][26] Hari returned the prize,[27] though he did not return the prize money of £2,000.[28] He later offered to repay the sum, but Political Quarterly, which had paid the prize money, instead invited him to make a donation to English PEN, of which George Orwell had been a member. Hari arranged with English PEN to make a donation equal to the value of the prize, to be paid in installments when he returned to work at The Independent, but he did not return to work there.[29]
Fabrication and misrepresentation
In one of the stories for which Hari won the Orwell Prize, he reported on atrocities in the Central African Republic, stating that French soldiers told him that "Children would bring us the severed heads of their parents and scream for help, but our orders were not to help them." However, an NGO worker who translated for Hari said that the quotation was invented and that Hari exaggerated the extent of the devastation in the CAR.[30][31] In his apology after his plagiarism was exposed, Hari said that other staff of the NGO had supported his version of events.[32][33]
In an article about military robots, Hari falsely claimed that former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi was attacked by a factory robot and was nearly killed.[34][35][36] Hari falsely claimed that a large globe erected for the Copenhagen climate summit was "covered with corporate logos" for McDonald's and Carlsberg, with "the Coke brand ... stamped over Africa."[36]Private Eye's Hackwatch column also suggested that he pretended to have used the drug ecstasy and misrepresented a two-week package tour in Iraq as a one-month research visit, in order to bolster support for the Iraq war by stating that Iraqi civilians he spoke to were in favour of an invasion, although in an earlier article[37] he had given a conflicting account stating that Iraqis were reticent about their opinions.[38]
In September 2011, Hari admitted that he had edited articles on Wikipedia about himself and journalists with whom he had had disputes. Using a sock puppet account under the name "David r from meth productions", he added false and defamatory claims to articles about journalists including Nick Cohen, Cristina Odone, Francis Wheen, Andrew Roberts, Niall Ferguson[40] and Oliver Kamm,[41] and edited the article about himself "to make him seem one of the essential writers of our times".[40]
In July 2011, Cohen wrote about the suspicious Wikipedia editing in The Spectator,[40] prompting the New Statesman journalist David Allen Green to publish a blog post collecting evidence.[42] Hari used the fake identity "David Rose" to pretend to be an editor who was qualified in environmental science, and David Allen Green noticed that an 'methuselahproductions' email address associated with the David Rose identity had also been used to post incest erotica.[43][44][45]
This led to an investigation by the Wikipedia community and "David Rose" was blocked from Wikipedia.[42] Hari published an apology in The Independent, admitting that he had been "David Rose" and writing: "I edited the entries of people I had clashed with in ways that were juvenile or malicious: I called one of them anti-Semitic and homophobic, and the other a drunk. I am mortified to have done this, because it breaches the most basic ethical rule: don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you. I apologise to the latter group unreservedly and totally."[46]
Use of libel law to suppress criticism
Hari used threats of suing for libel to prevent critics revealing his misrepresentations.[47] British bloggers criticised his critique of Nick Cohen's What's Left: How Liberals Lost Their Way for factual and interpretive errors. Hari used libel law against a blogger who wrote that "a reputation for making things up should spell career death", leading to the blogger removing the post in question.[39]
Hari’s 2015 book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, is a critique of the global prohibition of illicit drugs.[48][49] Hari argues that prohibition, drug laws, and the persecution of people who use drugs collectively do more harm to people and society than the drugs themselves.[50] Hari also delivered a 2015 TED Talk on the topic.[51] Hari posits that illicit drug use and most addictions are neither primarily character flaws nor genetic disorders, but rather responses to negative experiences and/or a lack of supportive relationships.
The book covers the history of drug prohibition, starting in early 20th-century America. Figures discussed in the book include jazz singer Billie Holiday, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics Harry J. Anslinger, and gangster Arnold Rothstein.
In Chasing the Scream Hari discusses the societal consequences of the war on drugs, such as mass incarceration, crime and violence, and the role of drug cartels. Hari advocates for decriminalization, harm reduction, and treatment as alternatives to punishment. The book presents examples of where such policy shifts are effective according to Hari, including Portugal and Vancouver, Canada, among others.
John Harris, reviewing for The Guardian, wrote that "Chasing the Scream is a powerful contribution to an urgent debate, but this is its central problem: in contrast to the often brutal realities it describes, it uses the gauche journalistic equivalent of the narrative voice found in Mills & Boon novels."[52] Barbara Spindel, in a review in the San Francisco Chronicle, praised Hari's writing but that his focus on himself and his own experiences come off as "as naive or, worse, manipulative" when compared to the people he interviewed.[53]Seth Mnookin writing for New York Times stated that Hari's arguments are weakened by forced conclusions, an eagerness to accept some researchers' conclusions, and a reliance on anecdotes instead of data. Mnookin describes these issues as an extensions of Hari's previous professional misconduct: "Hari might not be passing off other people’s work as his own anymore, but he still seems to be looking for quick fixes."[54] A wholly positive write-up by Kirkus Reviews described Chasing the Scream as a “compassionate and humane argument to overturn draconian drug policies.”[55]
Lost Connections (2018)
Lost Connections challenges conventional understandings of depression, anxiety, and related mental health issues, arguing that these conditions are not solely caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Instead, citing extensive research conducted for the book, Hari proposes that the root causes of depression and anxiety are often rooted in social, environmental, and psychological factors, such as access to meaningful work, proximity to friends and family, and past experiences with childhood trauma.
The book dedicates significant time to human connection, emphasizing its crucial role in mental well-being. Hari explores how modern society, characterized by superficial interactions and increasing isolation, contributes to feelings of loneliness and disconnection, and how these states relate to the more long-term conditions of depression and anxiety.
The second half of Lost Connections explores solutions to these mental health conditions, approaching them from the premise described above. Hari highlights the importance of meaningful relationships, community involvement, and a sense of purpose in combating mental illness.
Hari cites his own childhood issues, career challenges, and experiences with antidepressants and psychotherapy as fueling his curiosity in the subject.
Lost Connections suggests a more holistic approach to the treatment of depression and anxiety. While Hari emphasizes that someone who finds benefits in taking an anti-depressant medication, for example, should not stop taking them, they should also consider lifestyle changes that aim to address the underlying causes of their mental health issues, such as those social and environmental factors discussed in the book.
Hari's 2022 book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, continues with the author’s focus on mental health. The book argues that people’s declining attention spans are not due to personal failings, but rather are the result of systemic societal forces primarily rooted in modern technology.[57]
As with his previous books, Stolen Focus presents a mix of research, interviews, and first-person narrative. Hari identifies twelve factors contributing to an "attention crisis". Examples include technology addictions such as social media, the increased prevalence of chronic stress, the decline of children's exposure to outdoor play and independent exploration, and the purported influence of ultra-processed foods on brain functions.
Hari suggests that late-stage capitalism's emphasis on profits over human well-being creates environments that constantly bombard humans, not only with stimuli, but also with demands. He criticizes the tech industry for designing products that exploit people’s emotional vulnerabilities to maximize engagement at the cost of focus. Stolen Focus also discusses the impacts of sleep deprivation and the lack of opportunities for meaningful work.
Hari calls for collective action and the formation of "movement to reclaim our minds". His suggestions focus on societal changes, rather than personal action, and include calling for a shorter work week, providing children with greater access to nature, and more robust regulation of the tech industry.
Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight Loss Drugs, explores the development and rise in popularity of semaglutide medications for type 2 diabetes and obesity. The book focuses on the best-known of these medicines, Novo Nordisk’s brand-name Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss, but its findings are applicable to semaglutide drugs in general.
In addition to a summary of existing research, Hari interviews scientists in the space. He also delivers a first-person account of his own experience taking Ozempic for more than one year.
Upon publication, both The Telegraph and Booklist gave positive reviews.[60][61]
Criticism of inaccuracy and misrepresentation in books
Due to the previous scandals, Hari put the audio of some interviews conducted for Chasing the Scream online. Writer Jeremy Duns criticised instances where quotes were inaccurately transcribed or misrepresented, stating that out of a sample of dozens of clips, "in almost all cases, words in quotes had been changed or omitted without being noted, often for no apparent purpose, but in several cases to subtly change the narrative."[62][63] In a review for New Matilda, Michael Brull expressed reservations about Hari's citational practices and highlighted contradictions between the narrative in Chasing the Scream and a 2009 article by Hari.[64]
The journalist Zoe Stavri criticised Lost Connections for a lack of citations for key claims like "between 65 and 80% of people on antidepressants are depressed again within a year", reliance on the work of a single researcher, treating research on a single class of antidepressants as if it applies to all antidepressants, and conflating stress and depression.[65][66] The psychologist and science writer Stuart Ritchie criticised Hari for repeatedly stating that "between 65 and 80% of people on antidepressants are depressed again within a year" without a clear citation. He traced the source to a pop science book rather than a review of the scientific literature.[67]
Ritchie and the neuroscientist Dean Burnett both criticised Stolen Focus for failing to cite strong evidence for the existence of shrinking attention spans, as well as for presenting mainstream psychological concepts as niche ideas that Hari had discovered.[68] Writer/broadcaster Matthew Sweet investigated some of the statements in the book and found that Hari had failed to cite the primary sources for some studies, and misrepresented the results of studies that suggested multitasking could have benefits in certain conditions.[69][70] An author of one of the papers Hari cited intervened to state that he was "not happy with misrepresentation of our results".[71][72]
Magic Pill attracted criticism for inaccuracies. Writing for The Guardian, Tom Chivers criticised the use of references which did not support the book's claims, as well as scientific inaccuracies.[73] A fact check by The Daily Telegraph found six examples of "errors, outdated data and disputed claims".[74]Private Eye magazine lambasted Hari's book for what it described as false claims and dubious references.[75]
Personal life
Hari is gay.[76][77] In a 2002 article, he stated that he had had sex with men who were members of homophobic far-right and Islamist groups.[78]
Awards
Student News Journalist of the Year by The Times, 2000[79]
Johann Hari (2024). Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight Loss Drugs. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-52667015.
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↑ Adkins, T. S.; Bulmer, N. S. D.; Jones, P. M.; Langley, H. C. (2018). A Register of Admissions to King's College Cambridge, 1934–2010. King's College Cambridge. p.988.
1 2 Spanner, Huw (November 2004). "Let The Fiery Columns Glow". Third Way Magazine. pp.16–19.
↑ "Archive.ph". 8 June 2021. Archived from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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