Groupthink in Science

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

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2. Introduction: Definition, Manifestations, and Theoretical Issues

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. The Neurochemistry of Science Bias

      • Loretta Breuning

      Pages 3-14

   3. Groupthink and the Evolution of Reason Giving

      • Gregg Henriques

      Pages 15-25

   4. The Mental and Interpersonal Mechanisms of Groupthink Maintenance

      • David M. Allen

      Pages 27-35

   5. False Beliefs and the Social Structure of Science: Some Models and Case Studies

      • Cailin O’Connor, James Owen Weatherall

      Pages 37-48

   6. Seven Cases: Examples of How Important Ideas Were Initially Attacked or Ridiculed by the Professions

      • David M. Allen, Elizabeth A. Reedy

      Pages 49-62

3. Manipulation and Use of Social Influence in Science: The Financing, Design, and Dissemination of Research Studies and Results

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 63-63

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   2. Sham Dealing and Sham Peer Review in Academic Publishing: Perspectives from a Case Study in a Mexican University

      • Florencia Peña Saint-Martin

      Pages 65-76

   3. Research Grants and Agenda Shaping

      • Brian Martin

      Pages 77-83

   4. The Role of Communicating the Beliefs of the Clinician – Using the Placebo Effect in Clinical Practice

      • Paul Harris

      Pages 85-97

   5. Bias and Groupthink in Science’s Peer-Review System

      • David B. Resnik, Elise M. Smith

      Pages 99-113

   6. Law Versus Science

      • Brian Martin

      Pages 115-126

   7. Conjectures Masquerading as Facts

      • Andrew C. Papanicolaou

      Pages 127-140

4. Examples and Personal Experiences

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 141-141

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   2. Key Opinion Leaders and the Control of Knowledge

      • Joel Lexchin

      Pages 143-152

   3. Conflict Between Public Health Science and Markets: The Case of Tobacco Research – Illustrations from Tobacco and CO2

      • Augustine Brannigan

      Pages 153-165

   4. A Plea for Global Consideration of Human Brain Sex Differences

      • James W. Howell

      Pages 167-173

   5. Ideological Blinders in the Study of Sex Differences in Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields

      • David C. Geary, Gijsbert Stoet

      Pages 175-183

   6. Groupthink in Sex and Pornography “Addiction”: Sex-Negativity, Theoretical Impotence, and Political Manipulation

      • Nicole Prause, D J Williams

      Pages 185-200

This book discusses one of the hottest topics in science today, i.e., the concern over certain problematic practices within the scientific enterprise. It raises questions and, more importantly, begins to supply answers about one particularly widespread phenomenon that sometimes impedes scientific progress: group processes. The book looks at many problematic manifestations of “going along with the crowd” that are adopted at the expense of truth. Closely related is the concept of pathological altruism or altruism bias—the tendency of scientists to bias their research in order to further the ideological or financial interests of an “in-group” at the expense of both the interest of other groups as well as the truth. The book challenges the widespread notion that science is invariably a benevolent, benign process. It defines the scientific enterprise, in practice as opposed to in theory, as a cultural system designed to produce factual knowledge. In effect, the book offers a broad and unique take on an important and incompletely explored subject: research and academic discourse that sacrifices scientific objectivity, and perhaps even the scientist’s own ethical standards, in order to further the goals of a particular group of researchers or reinforce their shared belief system or their own interests, whether economic, ideological, or bureaucratic.  

• groupthink in science
• scientific research integrity
• research misconduct
• bias in research design
• conflict of interest in science
• reliability of biomedical research
• pathological altruism
• group processes in science
• behavioral and social science research
• misuse of statistics in research design
• corruption of research data
• mobbing and shunning in academia
• competitiveness and careerism in academia
• political correctness in science
• politics of journal publishing
• obtaining research funding
• publishing null results
• lawsuits to prevent the advance of science
• controversies in publishing
• social influence in science

• Department of Psychiatry, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA

  David M. Allen, James W. Howell

David M. Allen, M.D.  is a board-certified psychiatrist and professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He received his medical degree from the University of California San Francisco in 1974 and completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Southern California Medical Center. He is the former director of psychiatric residency training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, a position he held for 16 years. Additionally, he has done research into personality disorders and is a psychotherapy theorist. He is the author of three books for psychotherapists: A Family Systems Approach to Individual Psychotherapy, Deciphering Motivation in Psychotherapy, and Psychotherapy with Borderline Patients: an Integrated Approach. Dr. Allen developed a model of psychotherapy called unified therapy, a treatment designed to alter dysfunctional relationship patterns between adults and their primary attachment figures which he believes trigger and reinforce repetitive self-defeating and self-destructive behavior patterns.

James William Howell holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University. Besides his study and work with the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the University of Puerto Rico and Cornell University, Dr. Howell has held teaching and research positions at Frederick College, Cornell University, and Baylor College of Medicine. His work at Baylor was primarily with the Department of Psychiatry’s Sex and Marriage Clinic and the Sleep Laboratory. Currently he is on the adjunct faculties of the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Preventive Medicine of the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. Dr. Howell is the author of several books, book chapters, scientific papers, and articles. In addition to his scientific work, he has published three books and two dozen articles on design. He is a neurobiologist at The Urban Child Institute. The focus of his work is the combined effect of memory, consciousness, sexuality, and perception on the changing self.