Comments on: Allegations of Ideological Bias are Anti-Scientific

By: The Imagined Ideological Divide « The Situationist

The Imagined Ideological Divide « The Situationist — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:45:18 +0000

[...] Allegations of Ideological Bias are Anti-Scientific [...]

By: John Jost

John Jost — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:58:52 +0000

Dear Ian, All I am saying is this: If you have the scientific goods to demonstrate that (a) poor people who support conservative economic policies are motivated by self-interest, or (b) pervasive gender stereotypes are healthy for girls and women, then you should simply produce the evidence, and then we can have a meaningful discussion. I for one would be interested in your data. Anything else, it seems to me, is unhelpful and counterproductive. John Jost

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:36:51 +0000

I’d like to apologize to prof. Jost and to the readers of this blog for the contemptuous tone of my initial response.

My frustration comes from a deep conviction that the issue of liberal bias is very important for social scientists to discuss openly and, if need be, confront, for our own sakes, and for the sakes of all those whose lives are directly affected by the policies that our work influences. It seems like prof. Jost intends to mark the issue as illegitimate, as completely unworthy of the slightest consideration. Ironically, Jost seems to be motivated by a need to “legitimize the status quo” in the social sciences, but I’ll stop here before I insult him again.

All I ask is that we not bully people who believe that there is pervasive liberal bias in the social sciences into keeping that opinion to themselves. I hope that’s fair.

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:24:15 +0000

It’s not terribly surprising that Prof. Jost feels so threatened by the growing consensus that liberal bias is a serious problem in the social sciences. If I built a psychological theory around the assumptions that conservative economic policies are contrary to the interests of the working class and that gender stereotypes are instruments of female oppression, I’d be nervous too. In fact, I’d be so nervous that I would write an essay like the one above without realizing the irony in saying, “Social scientists are open to other perspectives, and if anyone has the nerve to suggest otherwise, we need to forcefully condemn them for being anti-scientific!”