fake
Explanation
This comic uses the structure of a relationship confession to satirize academic publishing in economics.
In the first panel, a woman confesses to her partner: "Anna, I have a confession. I've been faking orgasms." Her partner responds: "Seriously?" This sets up what appears to be a standard relationship drama about sexual honesty.
The second panel reveals the partner already suspected: "You knew?!" "I noticed about five years ago." But then the confession takes an unexpected turn: "I've been experimentally ramping down the quality of my work to the point I contribute nothing. All of my results and all of your publications remain unchanged." This reframes "faking it" from a sexual context to an academic one -- the person has been deliberately producing lower and lower quality work as an experiment to see if it matters.
The third panel shows the result: "Look, I got the results published in an economics journal!" titled "Erotic Moral Hazard: A Case Study." The partner responds: "We need to work on our relationship." "I just need three more years of data."
The comic is a layered joke about several things at once: the "replication crisis" in social sciences (particularly economics), where published results often can't be reproduced; the concept of moral hazard (behaving differently when you know there are no consequences); and the stereotype of academics who turn every aspect of their personal life into research material. The title "Erotic Moral Hazard" perfectly captures the intersection of the relationship and economics themes. The final line -- wanting three more years of data rather than fixing the relationship -- satirizes the academic mindset of prioritizing research over human connection.