Abstract
Disciplines in social and behavioral science have become increasingly committed to promoting social justice activism at the expense of viewpoint diversity. The present study documents the impact of this ideological project on the literature on racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes. Evidence from a recent high-profile retraction suggests that elite gatekeepers are willing to disregard ethical guidelines to censor an article embraced by conservatives. Evidence from additional case studies illustrates selective application of methodological standards based on the political implications of the findings. Serious errors are less likely to be treated as fatal if the contribution supports the activist agenda. By contrast, methodologically sound contributions are labeled as flawed if they challenge the dominant narrative. Although this manner of conduct is consistent with the evolved morality of human tribes, it violates the established norms of science. Observations from recent literature suggest that the integrity of social science research is compromised by our collective failure to value and protect contrarian perspectives. To remedy the situation, I propose that the open science movement – which has been successful at reducing questionable research practices – expand its scope from the craft of doing science to the realm of ideas, assumptions, and viewpoints. In short, I advocate for an “open minds” initiative for the improvement of social science research.
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Notes
The other comment, by Schimmack & Carlsson (2020), challenged Johnson et al. claim that their results are robust across all subgroups. Schimmack and Carlsson’s calculations pointed to a significant overrepresentation of black victims within a subgroup of civilians who are young, unarmed, non-suicidal, and male.
The likelihood, i.e., the probability of victimization is calculated as the number of victimized people divided by the number of people at risk of victimization. If you never encounter the police, you obviously cannot be victimized by them.
The hearing was aired on C-SPAN; the relevant testimonies can be viewed under this link: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4891670/user-clip-heather-mac-donald-phillip-goff-1
Dean Knox, personal communication (March 4, 2022); Anonymous, personal communication (March 5, 2022).
After National Review wrote an article about the retraction, noting the authors’ peculiar reason for it (Verbruggen 2020), Cesario and Johnson updated their statement denying the role of political pressure in their decision (Naftulin 2020). I leave it to the reader to decide what it means when someone first gives one reason for doing something, and then a different reason once that initial reason proves damaging.
The email was shared with me by an anonymous colleague who was approached by Mummolo and Knox in June, 2020.
Despite his record of (at least) six retractions under his belt (Retraction Watch 2020), Dr. Stewart has retained his honorary position as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology and he remains in the editorial board of the journal Criminology (as of 4/28/2023).
This Twitter thread provides additional context to the Peyton episode: https://twitter.com/pylekeyton/status/1430271726303199240
It is hardly a coincidence that the amount of left-wing bias varies considerably between anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, and economics (e.g., Cardiff & Klein 2005).
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful for the helpful comments by Mikko Aaltonen, Jonathan Brauer, Paul Hirschfield, Lee Jussim, Fred Markowitz, Torbjørn Skardhamar, Karoliina Suonpää, Matthew VanEseltine, Joachim Savelsberg, John Paul Wright, and the anonymous reviewers. I wish to thank Dean Knox, Justin Pickett, and three anonymous colleagues for fact-checking and furnishing me with source material. None of these individuals are responsible for the text I wrote.
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Savolainen, J. Unequal treatment under the flaw: race, crime & retractions. Curr Psychol 43, 16002–16014 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04739-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04739-2