This book discusses one of the hottest topics in science today, i.e., the concern over certain problematic practices within the scientific enterprise. It raises questions and, more importantly, begins to supply answers about one particularly widespread phenomenon that sometimes impedes scientific progress: group processes. The book looks at many problematic manifestations of going along with the crowd that are adopted at the expense of truth. Closely related is the concept of pathological altruism or altruism biasthe tendency of scientists to bias their research in order to further the ideological or financial interests of an in-group at the expense of both the interest of other groups as well as the truth. The book challenges the widespread notion that science is invariably a benevolent, benign process. It defines the scientific enterprise, in practice as opposed to in theory, as a cultural system designed to produce factual knowledge. In effect, the book offers a broad and unique take on an important and incompletely explored subject: research and academic discourse that sacrifices scientific objectivity, and perhaps even the scientists own ethical standards, in order to further the goals of a particular group of researchers or reinforce their shared belief system or their own interests, whether economic, ideological, or bureaucratic.  

David M. Allen,M.D. is a board-certified psychiatristand professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He received his medical degree from the University of California San Francisco in 1974 and completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Southern California Medical Center. He is the former director of psychiatric residency training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, a position he held for 16 years. Additionally, he has done research into personality disorders and is a psychotherapy theorist. He is the author of three books for psychotherapists:A Family Systems Approach to Individual Psychotherapy, Deciphering Motivation in Psychotherapy, andPsychotherapy with Borderline Patients: an Integrated Approach. Dr. Allen developed a model of psychotherapy called unified therapy, a treatment designed to alter dysfunctional relationship patterns between adults and their primary attachment figures which he believes trigger and reinforce repetitive self-defeating and self-destructive behavior patterns.

James William Howellholds a Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior from Cornell University. Besides his study and work with the Atomic Energy Commission (now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the University of Puerto Rico and Cornell University, Dr. Howell has held teaching and research positions at Frederick College, Cornell University, and Baylor College of Medicine. His work at Baylor was primarily with the Department of Psychiatrys Sex and Marriage Clinic and the Sleep Laboratory. Currently he is on the adjunct faculties of the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Preventive Medicine of the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. Dr. Howell is the author of several books, book chapters, scientific papers, and articles. In addition to his scientific work, hehas published three books and two dozen articles on design. He is a neurobiologist at The Urban Child Institute. The focus of his work is the combined effect of memory, consciousness, sexuality, and perception on the changing self.  

Introduction: Definitions, Manifestations, and Theoretical Issues.- Groupthink in science: an introduction.- Thomas Kuhn and the huge hurdle of changing normal practice.- Altruism, professionalism, and the filtering of information.- Evolution of reason giving.- The mental and interpersonal mechanisms of groupthink maintenance.- Five case examples of how important ideas were initially attacked or ridiculed by the professions.- Mobbing and shunning behavior in science.- Competitiveness and careerism in academia and academic politics (scientific fraud).-Manipulation and Use of Social Influence in Science: The Financing, Design, and Dissemination of Research Studies and Results.- The politics of the acceptance of articles to preferred journals.- Political correctness in science.- Post-modernism and science.- The difficulty of publishing findings that contravene accepted wisdom.- Issues in obtaining research funding.- Manipulation of research design and methodology to serve pre-existing biases.- Peer review problems.- Lawsuits to prevent the advance of science.- When conjecture becomes fact.- Problems arising from the well-meaning intentions of IRBs and HIPPA.- Problems arising from the lack of political diversity in some academic disciplines and university departments.-Examples and Personal Experiences.- Business interests aligned with academia: the case of Big Pharma.- Public health and the conflict between science and markets: illustrations from tobacco and lead.- Science confronts human sexuality.- Why what you see isnt what you get: understanding the promulgation of social psychological myths.- Groupthink blocking progress in neonatology: the case of Martin Couney.- Vaccination/anti-vaccination.- Bias, disguise, and co-opted science: altruism as scientized ideology across the English professions.- Hurting by helping to support womens participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.- Perception is not reality: a critique of current models of sex addiction.- The tyranny of the normal curve: how the bell curve distorts educational research and practice.- Bad drugs, bad science.- A priori false assumptions that a characteristic is positive or negative in psychological research. Chapter Authors Discuss Possible Overarching Solutions to the Problems Addressed in this Book.