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.

[3] His mother, Ariella (born Jean Hively),[4] a developer of educational software,[3] converted to Judaism to marry his father,[5] David Lehrer, a civil rights lawyer.

[6] While an undergraduate, he worked in the laboratory of Eric Kandel, "examining the biological process of memory and what happens in the brain on a molecular level when a person remembers or forgets information".

[24] 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.

[27] Chris McManus, professor of psychology and medical education, University College London, writing in Nature, opens his review, saying "'Oh no he wasn't!'

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.

Science journalist and Guggenheim Fellow D. T. Max described it for The New York Times as "a precocious and engaging book that tries to mend the century-old tear between the literary and scientific cultures".

[29][verification needed][30] The review by music critic Helen Brown in The Telegraph stated, "Lehrer is a dazzlingly clever young man whose writing bears witness to both the clarity of his scientific training and the humanity of his literary studies.

"[31][verification needed] Jonathon Keats at Salon, writing as an artist, approached the "conceit" noted by McManus from the opposing perspective, and described Proust as being written "arbitrarily and often inaccurately".

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."

[dubious – discuss][citation needed] Steven Berlin Johnson, a technology writer with training in semiotics and English literature,[citation needed] reviewed How We Decide for The New York Times long before its withdrawal from market during the Imagine fabrication scandal, where he wrote, Explaining decision-making on the scale of neurons makes for a challenging task, but Lehrer handles it with confidence and grace.

"[37] Before it was pulled from the shelves by publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), Imagine: How Creativity Works was on the Los Angeles Times' hardcover nonfiction bestseller list for 22 weeks.

[38] Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times called Lehrer adept for Imagine's "teasing out ... social and economic implications of scientific theories while commuting easily among the realms of science, business and art ..." noting that "[h]e deconstructs the creative process behind a Bob Dylan song with the same verve he brings to the story of how Procter & Gamble created the Swiffer, its New Age mop.

... "[12] But Christopher Chabris, writing in The New York Times Book Review, derided Imagine for its "many elementary errors" and formulaic approach, as well as for "Lehrer's failure to grasp some fundamental principles of scientific thinking".

"[41] 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".

Some weeks later, Michael C. Moynihan reported in Tablet Magazine that Lehrer had fabricated quotes attributed to singer Bob Dylan in his book Imagine: How Creativity Works.

[57] Lehrer's publisher for Imagine and for his two other major works, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, announced that unsold print copies of the book would be recalled and sales of e-books would be suspended.[when?

[21] The statement suggested that his work at this NPR venue was untainted, because of their applied journalistic oversight: 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.

/ It is thus my opinion that Lehrer plagiarized others' work, published inaccurate quotations, printed narrative details that were factually incorrect, and failed to address errors when they were pointed out.

"[14] As well, Lehrer lost many scheduled speaking engagements, including addresses to the Holmes Report's Global Public Relations Summit and Iowa State University's College of Engineering; a ticketed book signing at the Aliso Creek Inn in Laguna Beach, California; and an appearance as a part of the Robert Simpson Charles Lectureship in Ethics at Earlham College.

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.

The fact that such a shoddy piece of work could be written by such an ostensibly serious writer is somehow more disturbing than the knowledge that an overconfident journalist invented several quotes.

[62]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.

In context, though, that phrase from Marianne Faithfull, quoted in a Dylan book called Behind the Shades, refers not to the singer's writer's block but to his sexual frustration.)

[25] However, adding to the mounting disgrace of the Imagine recall and severed ties with The New Yorker and Wired.com,[64] Lehrer's publisher announced at the same time that his second book, How We Decide (2009) would also be pulled.

[65]Lehrer also announced plans to continue writing, and spoke of potential safeguards to prevent similar lapses in judgment and accuracy from recurring;[67] at one point he stated, "I need rules.

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.

"[71] In November 2014, the Associated Press (AP) announced that Portfolio, an imprint of Random House, had acquired rights to a work, then titled The Digital Mind: How We Think and Behave Differently on Screens.

It was to be "co-written by Lehrer and Shlomo Benartzi",[72] the latter a behavioural economist,[73] and professor and co-chair of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

[72] 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".