Groupthink in Science

Introduction: Definitions, Manifestations, and Theoretical Issues. - Groupthink in science: an introduction. - Thomas Kuhn and the huge hurdle of changing normal practice. - Altruism, professionalism, and the filtering of information. - Evolution of reason giving. - The mental and interpersonal mechanisms of groupthink maintenance. - Five case examples of how important ideas were initially attacked or ridiculed by the professions. - Mobbing and shunning behavior in science. - Competitiveness and careerism in academia and academic politics (scientific fraud). - Manipulation and Use of Social Influence in Science: The Financing, Design, and Dissemination of Research Studies and Results. - The politics of the acceptance of articles to preferred journals. - Political correctness in science. - Post-modernism and science. - The difficulty of publishing findings that contravene accepted wisdom. - Issues in obtaining research funding. - Manipulation of research design and methodology to serve pre-existing biases. - Peer review problems. - Lawsuits to prevent the advance of science. - When conjecture becomes fact. - Problems arising from the well-meaning intentions of IRBs and HIPPA. - Problems arising from the lack of political diversity in some academic disciplines and university departments. - Examples and Personal Experiences. - Business interests aligned with academia: the case of Big Pharma. - Public health and the conflict between science and markets: illustrations from tobacco and lead. - Science confronts human sexuality. - Why what you see isn t what you get: understanding the promulgation of social psychological myths. - Groupthink blocking progress in neonatology: the case of Martin Couney. - Vaccination/anti-vaccination. - Bias, disguise, and co-opted science: altruism as scientized ideology across the English professions. - Hurting by helping to support women s participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. - Perception is not reality: a critique of current models of sex addiction. - The tyranny of the normal curve: how the bell curve distorts educational research and practice. - Bad drugs, bad science. - A priori false assumptions that a characteristic is positive or negative in psychological research. Chapter Authors Discuss Possible Overarching Solutions to the Problems Addressed in this Book.