Commentary on a recent event

On May 14, 2022, a gunman walked into a supermarket in Buffalo, NY, and opened fire on the customers, killing 10 and injuring three. The alleged killer published a document explaining he chose a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood to maximize the likelihood of killing Black people. He believed in the "Great Replacement" theory that Jews were conspiring to commit "White Genocide" by having inferior races outbreed the superior White race. The 180-page "Manifesto" relied on a mix of Internet memes, plagiarized arguments from a similar killing in New Zealand, links to White nationalist and antisemitic websites, and citations to scientific publications. Overwhelmingly, the scientific publications cited in the document were from psychology. In this brief article, the author contends that psychologists need to ask themselves why an alleged deranged killer took his inspiration from psychology and not, for example, human genetics. The answer is that geneticists have recognized the responsibility that comes along with inquiry. While researchers are free to pursue any questions they desire, scientific and editorial standards still need to be met for disciplinary integrity. The heart of academic freedom is the ability and responsibility to distinguish responsible scholarship from its pretender. Psychology must do better. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).