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Political orientations do not cancel out, and politics is not about truth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2015

Hans-Rüdiger Pfister
Affiliation:
Institute of Experimental Industrial Psychology, Leuphana University Lüneburg, 21335 Lüneburg, Germany. pfister@uni-lueneburg.dehttp://www.leuphana.de/en/hans-ruediger-pfister.html
Gisela Böhm
Affiliation:
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, 5015 Bergen, Norway. gisela.boehm@psysp.uib.nohttp://www.uib.no/personer/Gisela.Boehm

Abstract

Duarte et al. propose that divergent political biases cancel each other out such that increasing political diversity will improve scientific validity. We argue that this idea is misguided. Their recommendations for improving political diversity in academia bear the danger of imposing political interests on science. Scientific scrutiny and criticism are the only viable remedies for bad science.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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