A significant number of social and personality psychologists have told researchers they would discriminate against conservatives in decisions about publishing, grant applications and hiring, according to a study published in the September issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Authors Dr. Yoel Inbar and Dr. Joel Lammers assert in the study the more liberal the psychologist claimed to be, the more likely they were to admit to anti-conservative discrimination.
Study results showed that nearly one quarter of the psychologists surveyed in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) admitted they would discriminate against conservative researchers in awarding grant money, nearly 20 percent would recommend against publishing conservative research and more than one-third of psychologists surveyed would pass over a conservative in hiring if an equally qualified liberal psychologist were available.In an email to The Christian Post, Lammers said that the idea for the study came after a provocative talk last year at the annual meeting of the SPSP by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who was interviewed by The Christian Post in May. Haidt asked the political conservatives in the room to raise their hands. Only three, in an audience of more than 1,000, raised their hands. This "statistically impossible lack of diversity" likely leads to discrimination against political conservatives and an unwillingness to consider alternative hypotheses in research, Haidt told the audience.
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