Social Psychologists Are Conformist And Discriminatory
10/26/2012
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I'm not exactly sure what social psychologists do. (Their work doesn't come up all that much in intellectually lively circles.) Search out evidence of conformity and discrimination, I guess. So, as you would expect from the Law of Projection, it turns out that social psychologists are so conformist and discriminatory themselves that I can barely stay awake to finish typing this sentence about them. From Perspectives on Psychological Science:

Political Diversity in Social and Personality Psychology 

Yoel Inbar and Joris Lammers 

Tilburg University 

Abstract 

A lack of political diversity in psychology is said to lead to a number of pernicious outcomes, including biased research and active discrimination against conservatives. The authors of this study surveyed a large number (combined N = 800) of social and personality psychologists and discovered several interesting facts. First, although only 6% described themselves as conservative “overall,” there was more diversity of political opinion on economic issues and foreign policy. Second, respondents significantly underestimated the proportion of conservatives among their colleagues. Third, conservatives fear negative consequences of revealing their political beliefs to their colleagues. Finally, they are right to do so: In decisions ranging from paper reviews to hiring, many social and personality psychologists said that they would discriminate against openly conservative colleagues. The more liberal respondents were, the more they said they would discriminate.

Lee Jussim of Rutgers offers an amusing parody of "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" in regard to Liberal Privilege in academia.

One of Robert Conquest's three laws of politics is "Everyone is conservative about what he knows best." Social psychologists must not know best about much.

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