Ideological Asymmetries in Social Psychological Research: Rethinking the Impact of Political Context on Ideological Epistemology

Authors

Ingrid J. Haas, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

0000-0002-7316-6605

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory (2020) 31(1): 29–34

doi: 10.1080/1047840X.2020.1721234

Comments

Copyright 2020, Taylor and Francis. Used by permission

Abstract

Ideological asymmetries in social psychological research: rethinking the impact of political context on ideological epistemology.

Conclusion

In sum, while I agree with many of the arguments raised by Clark and Winegard (this issue), we should continue to de-bate the degree to which liberals and conservatives are equally motivated by tribalism, especially in the context of contemporary American politics. While there is no doubt that personal political views influence the questions that scientists deem important, I do wonder to what extent the ideological biases recently observed in the field of social psychology generalize to the social sciences as a whole (and political science in particular). I am also left wondering where we go from here. I think that Clark and Winegard (this issue) are correct that limiting the impact of ideological bias may require changes to the incentive structure for social scientists and I wonder if professional organizations in so-cial psychology, in particular, should consider making more explicit calls for research to remain separate from personal politics. More importantly, the argument (Clark and Wine-gard, this issue) that people value group loyalty and ideol-ogy over truth is a troubling one and future research should continue to examine the circumstances under which truth wins out over ideology and group loyalty, both in politics and in science.