any ideas we have on our own. Further,we should
not constrain our search for additional insights to traditional
areas of borrowing, such as economics, social
and cognitive psychology, and statistics. Many disciplines
such as history, anthropology, sociology, and
clinical psychology have useful ideas to offer.
Values in Science
We must stop deluding ourselves and others that as
empirical scientists, we are impartial to the outcomes
of our research, that our research is objective, and that
we are dealing with established facts rather than inferences
of varying quality. Clearly, scientists are advocates
for their theories, hypotheses, and data. Usually
"positive findings" must be produced to persuade
others and to successfully market scientific work. To
argue that all "scientific" research should be designed
to falsify specific hypotheses is misleading and dysfunctional
for our progress. Empirical research is certainly
valuable. However, data should not be viewed
as providing an objective test of a theory's truth value.
Empiricale vidence may be more appropriatelyv iewed
as demonstrating the usefulness of a theoretical idea
in a particular context.
Scientific Behavior
It should be clear that studying science as a social
activity can produce new knowledge, not only about
science but also about the behavior of scientists as well.
For example, Mitroff's (1974) classic study of the
Apollo moon scientists, Knorr-Cetina's (1981) investigation
of laboratory physicists, Latour and Woolgar's
(1979) description of biology scientists at the
Salk Institute, and Zukav's (1979) insights into the
conduct of research on quantum mechanics provide
detailed descriptions of the social nature of science.
These analyses clearly show that scientists are social
beings with social needs, not automatons following a
program of formal logical analysis. In addition, investigations
of collaborative research practices (Over
1982), secretiveness and competitiveness for priority
of discovery by researchers (Gaston 1971), referencing
behavior (Gilbert 1977), and outright fudging of
research results, such as the case of Cyril Burt and
J. B. Watson (see Samelson 1980), provide insights
about scientific progress and the social behavior of the
scientists involved. Finally, studying the marketing
plans of successful scientists could improve our
knowledge of the effectiveness of various marketing
strategies and tactics in producing scientific progress