Much of what passes as academic research these days is often just propaganda designed to look like scholarship.

In today’s Martin Center article, James Nuzzo looks at some egregious cases that are both unethical and dishonest.

Whereas critiques of misguided scholarship often emphasize that it is a waste of taxpayers’ money and leads to ill-conceived public policies and healthcare practices, I also believe that human-participant research informed by “critical” epistemology is prone to violating core principles of ethical research. Moreover, I believe that such work often does not meet the definition of research. Therefore, in many instances, human-participant research informed by critical theory should not be approved by university institutional review boards (IRBs).

Whereas critiques of misguided scholarship often emphasize that it is a waste of taxpayers’ money and leads to ill-conceived public policies and healthcare practices, I also believe that human-participant research informed by “critical” epistemology is prone to violating core principles of ethical research. Moreover, I believe that such work often does not meet the definition of research. Therefore, in many instances, human-participant research informed by critical theory should not be approved by university institutional review boards (IRBs).

In one case, researchers sought to prove their belief about “white ignorance” by interviewing a group of white adolescents. When the responses didn’t show what the researchers wanted, they simply interpreted them to support their predetermined conclusions. Nuzzo states:

Crucially, these activist academics had no intention of reaching a conclusion other than one that confirmed their beliefs in “white supremacy,” “white privilege,” and “white ignorance.” We know this because they told us! “Importantly, the aim of the present analysis was not to test or ‘prove’ whether white ignorance exists; rather our analysis starts from the macrosystem of white supremacy and asks how and in what ways white ignorance shows up in white adolescents’ developing racial identities.”

Crucially, these activist academics had no intention of reaching a conclusion other than one that confirmed their beliefs in “white supremacy,” “white privilege,” and “white ignorance.” We know this because they told us! “Importantly, the aim of the present analysis was not to test or ‘prove’ whether white ignorance exists; rather our analysis starts from the macrosystem of white supremacy and asks how and in what ways white ignorance shows up in white adolescents’ developing racial identities.”

Take a moment to read the whole thing.

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