Not that you didn't know this already, but it's always nice to have it confirmed by research. I wonder if the researchers prior bias had an impact on their conclusions? :-)
"When people learn about public policy research with which they don't agree, they frequently doubt its validity and assume that the researchers' biases must have influenced the findings, a study has found. <http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/02/03_researchbias.shtml> The study was based on interviews with people about various research findings, some that would appear consistent with liberal thinking, others with conservative thinking, and one that could not be easily placed on the political spectrum. "Our findings raise concerns about how social science researchers are seen by the public," said Robert MacCoun, a professor of public policy, law and psychology at the University of California at Berkeley who conducted the research and is publishing it in the journal /Political Psychology./ "Because researchers' ideological views are supposed to be irrelevant to their empirical results, even partial support for the attitude attribution effect is impressive and troubling."" (from today's Inside higher Ed) Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
