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In 2011 the psychologist Daryl Bem published nine experiments suggesting that people could sense the future. Stuart Ritchie, then a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, re-ran one of them three times with Richard Wiseman and Chris French and found no effect. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology rejected their paper without review because it did not publish straight replications; it finally appeared in PLoS ONE in 2012. That episode is one of the cases in his second book, Science Fictions, shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize in 2021. Ritchie went on to research intelligence at Edinburgh and King’s College London, co-host the podcast The Studies Show and lead research communications at Anthropic. This guide covers his 2 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2015–2020 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Stuart Ritchie has written two books: Intelligence: All That Matters (2015), a short introduction to the science of IQ, and Science Fictions (2020), about fraud, bias, negligence and hype in research, shortlisted for the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize. Start with Science Fictions; the shorter Intelligence book shows the research field he came from.
Where to Start with Stuart Ritchie
If you want his best-known book
→ Science Fictions (2020) — why so many published findings fail to replicate.
If you want a short introduction to IQ research
→ Intelligence (2015) — about 160 pages on a century of intelligence testing.
If you want to read a headline study more sceptically
→ Science Fictions (2020) — the chapters on bias and hype.
2 Stuart Ritchie Books, in Order
Intelligence
A short introduction, about 160 pages, to a century of research on intelligence and IQ, published by John Murray Learning in its All That Matters series. Ritchie sets out how IQ scores relate to education, income and life expectancy, the evidence that intelligence is partly genetic and linked to measures of the brain, and the common criticisms of IQ testing, which he answers with recent large studies.
Science Fictions
Published in July 2020 by The Bodley Head in Britain and Metropolitan Books in the US (subtitled How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth). Ritchie argues that the way science is funded and published rewards the wrong things, and works through four failures: fraud, such as Paolo Macchiarini’s tracheal transplants; bias, including p-hacking and unpublished null results; negligence and simple errors; and hype. He tests well-known claims about priming, growth mindset, sleep and nutrition, and ends with remedies such as pre-registering studies. It was shortlisted for the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize, which went to Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life.
In What Order to Read Stuart Ritchie
The two books are independent, so the order is up to you. Science Fictions is the longer and more widely read one, and it needs no background in statistics: Ritchie explains p-values, replication and peer review as he goes.
Read Intelligence: All That Matters second if you want to see the field Ritchie worked in as a researcher, and why he treats one well-replicated finding differently from a single striking study.
A reading path
1. Science Fictions (2020)
2. Intelligence: All That Matters (2015)
The years · 2012–2023
Quick facts about Stuart Ritchie
- Known for
- Stuart Ritchie is known for exposing how fraud, bias, negligence and hype weaken published research, starting with his failed replication of Daryl Bem’s precognition experiments.
- 2012
- Failed replication of Bem’s precognition study, in PLoS ONE
- 2015
- Intelligence
- 2018
- Lecturer at King’s College London
- 2020
- Science Fictions
- 2023
- Starts The Studies Show with Tom Chivers
- Nationality
- Scottish
- Education
- University of Edinburgh; PhD thesis 2014, supervised by Sergio Della Sala and Robert McIntosh
- Research
- Human intelligence, as a postdoctoral researcher at Edinburgh and then at King’s College London
- Academic post
- Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, from 2018
- Honours
- Association for Psychological Science Rising Star (2015)
- Podcast
- The Studies Show, with Tom Chivers, since 2023
- Now
- Research communications lead at Anthropic
The red mark is 2020: Science Fictions, his book on why so much published research is unreliable.
How Stuart Ritchie Writes: Checking the Evidence
Ritchie writes as a working scientist who has run replications himself. Science Fictions starts from his own experience: the Bem study he and two colleagues failed to replicate, and the journals that would not publish the result. From there he builds a case out of named examples, such as the Macchiarini scandal and a survey that found manipulated images in about 4% of 20,000 papers, rather than general complaint.
He separates deliberate misconduct from the quieter problems. In an interview with Behavioral Scientist he called practices such as changing a study’s outcomes after the fact “scarier” than fraud, because they are unconscious biases that can affect well-meaning researchers. Much of the book explains statistical ideas, from p-hacking to publication bias, in plain language for readers without training.
His tone is critical but not anti-science: Science Fictions ends with practical fixes, including pre-registration and software to catch statistical errors. The same habit of reading the study behind the headline runs through his Science Fictions newsletter and The Studies Show.
Watch
Stuart Ritchie on how fraud, bias, negligence and hype undermine science
Michael Shermer talks with Ritchie on The Michael Shermer Show (episode 131, 2020) about Science Fictions, Daryl Bem’s ESP research, p-hacking and how to detect fraud.
Frequently asked questions about Stuart Ritchie’s books
How many books has Stuart Ritchie written?
Two: Intelligence: All That Matters (2015) and Science Fictions (2020). He also writes the Science Fictions newsletter on Substack and co-hosts the podcast The Studies Show.
What are Stuart Ritchie’s books in order?
Intelligence: All That Matters (2015), then Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science (2020).
Where should I start with Stuart Ritchie?
With Science Fictions (2020), his best-known book, on why so many published findings fail to replicate. It assumes no background in statistics.
What is Stuart Ritchie’s most famous book?
Science Fictions (2020), published by The Bodley Head in Britain and Metropolitan Books in the US, and shortlisted for the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize.
Why are there two subtitles for Science Fictions?
The British edition from The Bodley Head is subtitled Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science; the American edition from Metropolitan Books is subtitled How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth. It is the same book.
Did Science Fictions win any prizes?
It was shortlisted for the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize. The prize went to Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life.
What was Stuart Ritchie’s replication of Daryl Bem’s study?
In 2011 Daryl Bem reported experiments suggesting people could sense future events. Ritchie, Richard Wiseman and Chris French repeated one of them three times and found no effect. The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology rejected their paper without review, and it was published in PLoS ONE in 2012 as “Failing the future”.
Is Stuart Ritchie a scientist?
Yes. He is a psychologist with a PhD from the University of Edinburgh who researched human intelligence there and, from 2018, as a lecturer at King’s College London. He has since left academia and leads research communications at Anthropic.
What is The Studies Show?
A weekly podcast that Ritchie has co-hosted with the science writer Tom Chivers since 2023, looking at the studies behind contested scientific claims.
Footnotes
- Stuart J. Ritchie — Wikipedia
- Science Fictions — Wikipedia
- Science Fictions — Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021
- Replication, replication, replication — The Psychologist (BPS)
- Overcoming Science Fictions: a Q&A with Stuart Ritchie — Behavioral Scientist, 2020
- Intelligence: All That Matters — Waterstones
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“They’re less in your face or immoral than fraud. But they’re scarier, because they’re more insidious.”
— Stuart Ritchie, on questionable research practices, interview with Behavioral Scientist (2020)
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