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+--- Thread: Research Scientists exaggerate how ethical they are in doing science (/thread-15783.html)
Scientists exaggerate how ethical they are in doing science - C C - Apr 25, 2024
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/questions-of-character/202404/scientists-exaggerate-how-ethical-they-are-in-doing-science
EXCERPTS: This new discovery emerged from a massive survey of 11,050 scientific researchers in Sweden, conducted by Amanda M. Lindkvist, Lina Koppel, and Gustav Tinghög at Linköping University and published in the journal Scientific Reports.
[...] These results should surprise us for a couple of reasons. One is that they go against the popular narrative of scientists as objective and neutral. When it comes to their own ethical behavior in conducting their research, they appear as a whole to be biased and overconfident. Another reason these results are surprising is that many scientists are likely aware of the existence of scientific research on how people, in general, tend to have an inflated view of their own virtue. So you’d expect that they would be on guard against such a tendency in their own case.
[...] There are dangers that come with scientists having an overly positive view of their own research ethics. Lindkvist helpfully explains one of them: It “may lead researchers to underestimate the ethical implications of the decisions they make and to sometimes be blind to their own ethical failures. For example, researchers may downplay their own questionable practices but exaggerate those of other researchers, perhaps especially researchers outside their field.”
Another danger that Lindkvist notes is a greater tendency to ignore warnings and ethical safeguards if they are dismissed by a scientist as applying to others but not to themselves since they think they are above average.
It would be interesting in future work to see if similar patterns emerge with researchers in other countries besides Sweden. It would also be interesting to look at researchers anonymously rating the research ethics of their colleagues in their own departments and schools... (MORE - missing details)