[Xmca-l] Re: in the eye of the beholder

[John Cummins]

Apropos the Scientific American article, below is a recent abstract of a recent article, and also ( I hope) a functional link to a preprint of the whole paper.

John


Authors: José L. Duarte, Jarret T. Crawford, Charlotta Stern, Jonathan Haidt, Lee Jussim, and Philip E. Tetlock

Deadline for Commentary Proposals: Monday August 11, 2014

Abstract: Psychologists have demonstrated the value of diversity, particularly diversity of viewpoints, for enhancing creativity, discovery, and problem solving. But one key type of viewpoint diversity is lacking in academic psychology in general and social psychology in particular: political diversity. This article reviews the available evidence and finds support for four claims: 1) Academic psychology once had considerable political diversity, but has lost nearly all of it in the last 50 years; 2) This lack of political diversity can undermine the validity of social psychological science via mechanisms such as the embedding of liberal values into research questions and methods, steering researchers away from important but politically unpalatable research topics, and producing conclusions that mischaracterize liberals and conservatives alike; 3) Increased political diversity would improve social psychological science by reducing the impact of  bias mechanisms such as
confirmation bias, and by empowering dissenting minorities to improve the quality of the majority's thinking; and 4) The underrepresentation of non-liberals in social psychology is most likely due to a combination of self-selection, hostile climate, and discrimination.  We close with recommendations for increasing political diversity in social psychology. 

Keywords: Social psychology, diversity, politics, bias, sociology of science


Download Target Article Preprint (please give the page a few moments to load):
http://journals.cambridge.org/BBSJournal/Call/Duarte_preprint