Ideological Restrictions in Research Funding

Public officials currently restrict funding and access to data for research that could potentially be stigmatizing or distressing to members of disadvantaged groups. These policies appeal to ethical principles that encourage researchers to consider the potential for community harm. This essay develops four lines of argument against policies that prohibit stigmatizing research. First, public officials often lack evidence that research causes community harm. Second, even if there was evidence that research caused community harm, effectively prohibiting the research could be even more harmful to people from stigmatized or disadvantaged communities. Third, stigmatizing research can be socially beneficial and otherwise have scholarly merit. And fourth, restrictions on stigmatizing research function as de facto ideological limits on scholarship. For this reason, these policies are inconsistent with viewpoint neutrality and academic freedom. All researchers, regardless of their political orientation, should oppose policies that empower officials to deny funding to researchers who study controversial topics.