Nature Human Behavior Editorial Is Anti-Science | City Journal
Nature Human Behavior, one of the most prestigious journals for social science research, recently published an editorial titled Science must respect the dignity and rights of all humans. Though short, the article generated tremendous pushback among academics and intellectuals concerned about the spread of social-justice ideology into science. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker said the journal was no longer a peer-reviewed scientific journal but an enforcer of a political creed, while Greg Lukianoff, the CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, described the journal s statement as an epistemic catastrophe. What did the editorial say?
In short, it took the position that scientific truth should defer to politics. The journal now considers it appropriate to suppress research that undermines or could reasonably be perceived to undermine the rights and dignities of people or groups, as well as text or images that disparage a person or group on the basis of socially constructed human groupings. Researchers are urged to consider the potential implications of research on human groups defined on the basis of social characteristics and to contextualise their findings to minimize as much as possible potential misuse or risks of harm to the studied groups in the public sphere. Anything that could be perceived as disparaging is now fair game for rejection or retraction.