What is epistemically wrong with research affected by sponsorship bias? The evidential account

Reutlinger, Alexander (2020): What is epistemically wrong with research affected by sponsorship bias? The evidential account. In: European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Vol. 10, 15

Abstract

Biased research occurs frequently in the sciences. In this paper, I will focus on one particular kind of biased research: research that is subject to sponsorship bias. I will address the following epistemological question: what precisely is epistemically wrong (that is, unjustified) with biased research of this kind? I will defend the evidential account of epistemic wrongness: that is, research affected by sponsorship bias is epistemically wrong if and only if the researchers in question make false claims about the (degree of) evidential support of some hypothesis H by data E. I will argue that the evidential account captures the epistemic wrongness of three paradigmatic types of sponsorship bias.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP)
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy
• Language: English