Bo Winegard & Benjamin Mark Winegard (2015)
Abstract
In this essay, we follow up on the work of other scholars who have recently cautioned
about the dangers of ideological uniformity in the social sciences. We forward the
paranoid egalitarian meliorist (PEM) model to help account for bias in the social
sciences. Paranoid is not a pejorative term, but describes a sensitivity to perceived
threats to egalitarian meliorism. We argue (1) that many social scientists are paranoid
egalitarian meliorists; (2) that they are therefore very sensitive to threats to a sacred
egalitarian narrative; (3) that this sensitivity may be excessive (at least in the domain of
science) and may cause researchers to unfairly reject research that challenges
egalitarianism; (4) that this may then lead to the marginalization of individuals who
forward controversial theories and/or data; and (5) that these tendencies lead to bias in
the social sciences.
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