Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T03:28:31.921Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Political orientations do not cancel out, and politics is not about truth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2015

Hans-Rüdiger Pfister
Affiliation:
Institute of Experimental Industrial Psychology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany. pfister@uni-lueneburg.dehttp://www.leuphana.de/en/hans-ruediger-pfister.html
Gisela Böhm
Affiliation:
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, 5015 Bergen, Norway. gisela.boehm@psysp.uib.nohttp://www.uib.no/personer/Gisela.Boehm

Abstract

Duarte et al. propose that divergent political biases cancel each other out such that increasing political diversity will improve scientific validity. We argue that this idea is misguided. Their recommendations for improving political diversity in academia bear the danger of imposing political interests on science. Scientific scrutiny and criticism are the only viable remedies for bad science.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gauchat, G. W. (2008) A test of three theories of anti-science attitudes. Sociological Focus 41(4):337–57. doi:10.1080/00380237.2008.10571338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldacre, B. (2008) Bad science. Fourth Estate.Google Scholar
Lennon, K. (1997) Feminist epistemology as local epistemology. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume, 71:3754. doi:10.1111/1467-8349.00018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oskarsson, S., Cesarini, D., Dawes, C. T., Fowler, J. H., Johannesson, M., Magnusson, P. K. E. & Teorell, J. (2014) Linking genes and political orientations: Testing the cognitive ability as mediator hypothesis. Political Psychology. [Online Early View version; article first published online: 18 August, 2014]. doi:10.1111/pops.12230. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.12230/abstract;jsessionid; http://lup.lup.lu.se/record/5205812 Google Scholar