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Political bias, explanatory depth, and narratives of progress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2015

Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. pinker@wjh.harvard.edu http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/about/
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Abstract

Political bias has indeed been a distorter of psychology, not just in particular research areas but in an aversion to the explanatory depth available from politically fraught fields like evolution. I add two friendly amendments to the target article: (1) The leftist moral narrative may be based on zero-sum competition among identity groups rather than continuous progress; and (2) ideological bias should be dealt with not just via diversity of ideological factions but by minimizing the influence of ideology altogether.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 38 , 2015 , e154
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

Pinker, S. (2002) The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. Viking.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2005) Sex ed: The science of difference. The New Republic, February 14, 2005, pp. 15–17.Google Scholar
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Pinker, Susan (2008) The sexual paradox: Men, women, and the real gender gap. Scribner.Google Scholar
Ridley, M. (2010) The rational optimist: How prosperity evolves. HarperCollins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar