Apropos of our recent discussion of McCaine/Palin's recent attack on science (fruit flies, bear DNA, and a planetarium projector), Kempner has just (November 18) published a study of the effect of unwanted political attention in generating self-censorship of research on sexual behaviour, a topic more in our sphere of interest than any of the above. She found such self-censorship to be "common". It's a disturbing practice and well- worth documenting, but hardly surprising that it occurs.
Self-censorship included cleansing "red-flag" words from abstracts and titles (including: gay; lesbian; bisexual; sexual intercourse; anal sex; homosexual; homophobia; AIDS; bare backing; bathhouses; sex workers; needle-exchange; harm-reduction), which would make identifying relevant studies in searches more difficult. Researchers also reported dropping from research agendas controversial topics (including: the sexual health and/or orientation of adolescents; abortion; emergency contraception; condom use; anal sex; childhood sexual abuse; homosexuality; and the use of various harm reduction strategies.). In 5% of the cases, the researchers said they had made major career changes to avoid controversy. The study was based on an infamous hit-list of NIH grants which was inadvertently released by (US) Republican senators. One wonders to what extent this kind of self-censorship occurs in other countries, and whether the practice will diminish in the US once the new president-elect of the US takes office. Kempnter, J. (2008). The Chilling Effect: How Do Researchers React to Controversy? PLoS Medicine Vol. 5, No. 11, e222 Available on-line at http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get- document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050222 or http://tinyurl.com/5kuwqq See also the item by Yeager in Nature_News, "Scientists self-censor after political attack" http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081117/full/news.2008.1234.html Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
