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R acialScience : 1995

by Dorothy Tennov

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ademia has become a battlefield over the writings of academically credentialed individuals

ho support political policies disfavored by others. Despite this, on the hbe-l (humanehavior and evolution) list, members who have participated for several years have developede overt mutual respect and friendliness, even when opinions differ. The list is worthy of

study in its own right, but in this paper I confine myself to an analysis of list members overt reactions to

recent invasions by members of the political Right some of whom did not live up to standards ofdecorum that had developed and were maintained by members of longer standing.

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It is appropriate to examine the proposition that the findings and interpretations of racial differences bybiologically oriented behavioral scientists deserve serious attention in view of the dangers they pose

both to scientific progress in the study of human nature and to the welfare of members of the larger

society. Among evolutionary biologists, we in the neurosciences in human ethology, sociobiology,evolutionary psychology, and evolutionary anthropology are implicitly charged with responsibility for

examining the causes of the human social and economic conditions that lie within precise aspects of

human nature itself.

Whatever may be the eventual development of electronic communication among scientists and scholars,

it has already revealed both concurrence and disagreements regarding human vulnerability to

ethnocentrism, xenophobia, misogyny, and other forms of agonistic human behavior. Among specificquestions that need to be addressed is whether as yet unidentified or ignored human characteristics are

obstacles to their own discovery. The information explosion might, to many people, be little more thananother way of shopping, transferring money, or getting the latest scores on sports and financial events.

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However, to those attempting to understand nature at the cutting edge of contemporary thought, shared

knowledge has the potential for explosive expansion. The scientists of human behavior are, therefore,

implicitly charged with responsibility for examining the causes of the human social and economicconditions that lie within precise aspects of human nature itself.

Copyright 1995 Dorothy Tennov