Bounded research ethicality: researchers rate themselves and their field as better than others at following good research practice

Abstract

Bounded ethicality refers to people's limited capacity to consistently behave in line with their ethical standards. Here, we present results from a pre-registered, large-scale (N = 11,050) survey of researchers in Sweden, suggesting that researchers too are boundedly ethical. Specifically, researchers on average rated themselves as better than other researchers in their field at following good research practice, and rated researchers in their own field as better than researchers in other fields at following good research practice. These effects were stable across all academic fields, but strongest among researchers in the medical sciences. Taken together, our findings illustrate inflated self-righteous beliefs among researchers and research disciplines when it comes to research ethics, which may contribute to academic polarization and moral blindspots regarding one's own and one's colleagues' use of questionable research practices.

Figure 1

Distributions of ratings of research ethicality. Top panel: comparisons between oneself and researchers in one’s field, n = 10,906. Bottom panel: comparisons between researchers in one’s field and those in other fields, n = 10,816.

Figure 2

Effect sizes (Cohen’s d) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the full sample and divided by academic field. Top panel: comparisons between oneself and researchers in one’s field. Bottom panel: comparisons between researchers in one's field and in other fields.