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The conservative bias of life scientists
1Department of Biology, Neuroscience and Behavior Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Abstract:
Life scientists may think of themselves as liberal, but they seem to have a strong conservative bias that negatively impacts diversity in research. The bias can be revealed with a Google Scholar search; the phrase "conserved from [species X] to humans" occurs over 90,000 times, yet the reverse, "conserved from humans to [species X]" is found fewer than 1000 times (Figure 1A). I will explore why this conservative bias in direction exists in the literature and the implications that it has on our thinking and choices for research.
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