Posted by Jonathan Adler:
How Academics Are Like Teenagers:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_19-2009_07_25.shtml#1248522246
From an [1]item by Nicholas Wade on conformity at NYT's TierneyLab:
�Academics, like teenagers, sometimes don�t have any sense
regarding the degree to which they are conformists.�
So says Thomas Bouchard, the Minnesota psychologist known for his
study of twins raised apart, in a [2]retirement interview with
Constance Holden in the journal Science.
Journalists, of course, are conformists too. So are most other
professions. There�s a powerful human urge to belong inside the
group, to think like the majority, to lick the boss�s shoes, and to
win the group�s approval by trashing dissenters.
The strength of this urge to conform can silence even those who
have good reason to think the majority is wrong. You�re an expert
because all your peers recognize you as such. But if you start to
get too far out of line with what your peers believe, they will
look at you askance and start to withdraw the informal title of
�expert� they have implicitly bestowed on you. Then you�ll bear the
less comfortable label of �maverick,� which is only a few stops
short of �scapegoat� or �pariah.�
References
1.
http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/researcher-condemns-conformity-among-his-peers/?ref=instapundit
2. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/325/5936/27
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
