The New Know-Nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature

The New Know-Nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature, by Morton Hunt. Somerset, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1999. 351+ pp. $24.95 This book portrays the struggle of scientists attempting to conduct research on human nature within the current atmosphere of distrust and aggressive opposition. The ultimate danger is that powerful political factions within our society will halt the advancement of knowledge in social and behavioral sciences. The first chapter, by its very title, “A Clear and Present Danger,” sets the tone of the book. Chapters 2 through 12 are grouped into three parts, each corresponding to a different source of attack against behavioral and social science research: the political left, the political right, and other antagonists. In the first chapter, Hunt presents three cases in which research activities were suspended after they were funded. An attack from the left resulted in the cancellation of an NIH-funded conference because one psychiatrist feared that genetic data might have racial overtones. An attack from political and Christian conservatives prevented the completion of a peer-approved and well-funded national survey of teenagers’ sexual behavior. Opposition from an animal-rights organization halted a project because a researcher was charged with failing to comply with regulations in his study of the effects of crack cocaine on monkeys. The chapter ends with a historical review of the repression of science, from the Inquisition to Lysenko to the formation of the Institutional Review Board to current pressures for political correctness. The remaining chapters expand on the theme of the first chapter, providing countless examples that build on historical events. Part 1, Chapter 2 traces the nature/nurture debate since Galton, and Chapter 3 takes on the “IQ Wars” with all of their taboos and ferocity. In Chapter 4, Hunt begins his look at gender differences with the book of Genesis and works through a historical maze to the present day research of Stanley and Benbow, who were fiercely attacked for finding that differential course-taking patterns failed to account for the large gender differences in math scores. Moving from aptitudes to behavior, Chapter 5 reviews the controversies surrounding research on genetic influences on crime and the Federal Violence Initiative. Part 2 begins with Chapter 6 on sex research, tracing this controversial topic from nineteenth-century Britain, through Freud and Kinsey, to recent efforts to understand AIDS transmission. Hunt details the history of national surveys to study sexual behavior and their opposition by religious and political conservatives–opposition that resulted in the canceling of contracts after they were funded. In Chapter 7, entitled “Just Say No,” Hunt reviews the history of the census from the time of Moses to William the Conqueror to the present-day U.S. census, in which the public has become increasingly unwilling to cooperate. Survey research, in general, is encountering lower response rates, as subjects are exercising their rights to decline. Chapter 8 reviews the history of opposition to social sciences. Part 3, Chapter 9 elaborates on memory research and the controversy over false memory and the role it plays in child abuse and related legal issues. Chapter 10 discusses opposition to harm-reduction research, such as reduced drinking (rather than abstinence) to treat alcoholism, and needle exchange for drug addicts. Chapter 11 focuses on animal-rights issues and the controversy over animal experimentation. Finally, Chapter 12 discusses issues that are not classified elsewhere, such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and resistance to standardized testing and mental health research, all of which have strong anti-intellectual components. There is a great deal of substance in Hunt’s book. He does not base his concerns on a few flimsy case studies.