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A Source of Scientific Bias: The Fear of Boring People


The Guardian notes a source of scientific bias in brain-scan studies that applies more broadly as well:

One way of critiquing a piece of scientific research is to read the academic paper in detail, looking for flaws. But that may not be enough, if some sources of bias might exist outside it, in the wider system of science.
By now you’ll be familiar with publication bias: the phenomenon where studies with boring, negative results are less likely to get written up or published.

In other words, scientists are in a sense just like journalists. We — I speak for the latter — do not like to report that we do not know, haven’t the slightest idea, why or how something happened. That’s not a story. No one is going to care enough to read it. It’s boring and it’s disappointing.
There’s a built-in professional bias in favor of finding an explanation, even if it has to be imagined and then backed up with supportive quotations. The explanation should be crisp. It should be simple. It should be easily summarized somewhere around the second paragraph of the article.
Among Darwin-doubters, I think this is often overlooked as a source of the average biologist’s reluctance to relinquish his faith in the crisp, simple, easily summarized theory of natural selection.
To force yourself to admit that you just plain don’t understand why life arose, what accounts for its evolution, goes against every fiber of the personality of a storyteller. And that ultimately is what a historical scientist is.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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