Scientists Censor What They Study to Avoid Controversy and 'Lunatic-Proof' Their Lives

Chronicle of Higher Education ^ | February 11, 2005 | Lila Guterman

[billorites]

Unwritten social and political rules affect what scientists in many fields study and publish, according to a paper published today in Science, and those constraints are even more prevalent than formal constraints, such as government or university regulations.

The paper is based on interviews with 41 researchers at top academic departments in fields such as neuroscience, drug and alcohol abuse, and molecular and cellular biology. The interviews were conducted by Joanna Kempner, Clifford S. Perlis, and Jon F. Merz, of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Brown University, and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. They asked the researchers if they or any of their colleagues had ever refrained from doing or publishing research.

Almost half of those interviewed said they felt constrained by formal controls, but the respondents said they felt even more affected by informal ones. Many of the scientists interviewed said they had found out their research was "forbidden knowledge" only after papers reporting their results had been published.

One respondent told the interviewers that a colleague's graduate student had a job offer rescinded when the would-be employer found out the student had worked on a study of race and intelligence. Another researcher stood accused of "murderous behavior" after doing an anonymous survey in which he was incapable of intervening when respondents said they were infected with HIV and were having sex without a condom.

Many other researchers said they simply chose not to do studies, or not to publish completed ones, because of concern about controversy. Several said they did not study dogs or other higher mammals because of fears of animal-rights activism. "I would like to lunatic-proof my life as much as possible," one told the interviewers.

Mr. Merz, an assistant professor in Penn's department of medical ethics, said the study was not designed to determine the abundance of constraints on science. But, he said, just from the small group the researchers interviewed, it is clear that people feel constrained "fairly frequently."

"It's a source of bias, another source of nonobjectivity in science," he continued. "It's hard to measure. We don't know really what's not being done."

[Question_Assumptions]

No kidding. Almost anything about general intelligence, stereotypes, race, sex, or sexual orientation have been declared inherently racist, sexist, or homophobic by the left wing intelligencia unless it produces the politically correct answer.

[brivette]

And we all suffer as a result. Shame.

[Malesherbes]

No multi-cultural society has ever existed as a unity for any great length of time without authoritarian or totalitarian government. Political correctness and anti-hate speech legislation are both forms of a creeping authoritarianism designed to hold an increasingly fractured society together. It is only natural that scientific study should be affected by this. (N.B. Switzerland is an exception to the above rule for two reasons: high mountains separating the groups and extreme decentralization.)

[billorites]

Think of all the great research that hasn't been done on blonds.

[wastoute]

This story dovetails nicely with that other one that goes into the professor being fired at the Smithsonian.

[Logophile]

"It's a source of bias, another source of nonobjectivity in science," he continued. "It's hard to measure. We don't know really what's not being done."

Another pervasive source of bias is federal funding of research. The funding agencies largely determine what research is done.

[CyberAnt]

And .. as a further shame .. how many brilliant scientists have been aborted! Even one of them could have come up with a cure for some horrible disease or affliction. That's the real shame .. while the very same people who think killing children is their RIGHT are killing the very people who could possible find a cure for breast cancer.

[LibWhacker]

BTTT