An up-front guide to getting promoted: slow and steady

For many years there has been a debate about the explanation for the common observation that faculty who sit nearer the front of the conference room at departmental grand rounds are more likely to have higher academic rank. There is an obvious correlation between rank and age, so that the natural tendency of older faculty to be closer to the front in order to hear and see better poses one confounding variable. But the underlying questions – whether faculty who sit closer to the front get promoted because they sit closer or choose to sit closer in order to get promoted or sit closer because they feel more engaged and want to participate rather than be more passive, or nap – has never been addressed. It is akin to a nature/nurture question, but the truth of the observation has never been supported by data. The following study, financed by the Academy, was intended to answer this contentious question and provide a path forward. Fifteen years ago the Academy funded a large study to investigate this question via a long-term, multi-center trial. The following is an analysis of the results.