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It may be harder than we thought, but political diversity will (still) improve social psychological science1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 September 2015

Jarret T. Crawford ,
José L. Duarte ,
Jonathan Haidt ,
Lee Jussim ,
Charlotta Stern  and
Philip E. Tetlock
Jarret T. Crawford
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ 08628. crawford@tcnj.edu http://crawford.pages.tcnj.edu/
José L. Duarte
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287. jlduarte@asu.edu http://joseduarte.com
Jonathan Haidt
Affiliation:
Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, NY 10012. haidt@nyu.edu http://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/jonathan-haid
Lee Jussim
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. jussim@rci.rutgers.edu www.rci.rutgers.edu/~jussim/
Charlotta Stern
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden. lotta.stern@sofi.su.se http://www2.sofi.su.se/~lst/
Philip E. Tetlock
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. tetlock@wharton.upenn.edu http://www.sas.upenn.edu/tetlock/
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Abstract

In our target article, we made four claims: (1) Social psychology is now politically homogeneous; (2) this homogeneity sometimes harms the science; (3) increasing political diversity would reduce this damage; and (4) some portion of the homogeneity is due to a hostile climate and outright discrimination against non-liberals. In this response, we review these claims in light of the arguments made by a diverse group of commentators. We were surprised to find near-universal agreement with our first two claims, and we note that few challenged our fourth claim. Most of the disagreements came in response to our claim that increasing political diversity would be beneficial. We agree with our critics that increasing political diversity may be harder than we had thought, but we explain why we still believe that it is possible and desirable to do so. We conclude with a revised list of 12 recommendations for improving political diversity in social psychology, as well as in other areas of the academy.

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Type
Authors' Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 38 , 2015 , e164
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

1.

All authors contributed substantially to this Response and are listed in alphabetical order.

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