Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences
The Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences (JOIBS) is the official publication of the Society for Open Inquiry in Behavioral Science. Dedicated to fostering intellectual exchange and upholding the highest standards of scholarly rigor, the journal provides a platform for the dissemination of empirical research across all domains of behavioral science, broadly defined. The journal exclusively publishes empirical studies and commentaries on these studies. Submissions are welcomed on a rolling basis, ensuring continuous opportunities for scholars to contribute and engage.
Section: Articles Keywords: memory of emotion, memory bias, memory distortion, cognitive appraisal, #MeToo, reappraisal Review of Patihis & Carter (2026)
Copyright (c) 2026 Matthew Grawitch (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Joachim Krueger (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: institutional neutrality, faculty attitudes, academic freedom Review of Eren (2026) II
Copyright (c) 2026 Jukka Savolainen (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: institutional neutrality, faculty attitudes, academic freedom Review of Eren (2026) I
Copyright (c) 2026 Mitch Brown (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: critical race theory, white ethnicity, racial inequality Review of Sakamoto et al. (2026)
Copyright (c) 2026 Eric Kaufmann (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Against Monotheorism: Review of Sakamoto et al. (2026)
Copyright (c) 2026 Jason Manning (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Tao: A Philosophical Explanation for Mental Health? Commentary on Hu & Kirkegaard (2026)
Section: Articles Keywords: political orientation, mental health, body modification, measurement invariance, IRT, DIF, MCV Review of Hu & Kirkegaard (2026) III
Copyright (c) 2026 Nina C. Silander (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: political orientation, mental health, body modification, measurement invariance, IRT, DIF, MCV Review of Hu & Kirkegaard (2026) II
Copyright (c) 2026 Richard Redding (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: political orientation, mental health, body modification, measurement invariance, IRT, DIF, MCV Review of Hu & Kirkegaard (2026) I
Copyright (c) 2026 Andrew Hartz (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Left-Wing Ideology, Mental Health and Body Modifications
Section: Articles Keywords: political orientation, mental health, body modification, measurement invariance, IRT, DIF, MCV Recent research has identified a recurring association between left-wing political ideology and poorer mental health. These findings show both reduced positive well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) and increased negative symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety). We administered 76 mental health and 41 political ideology items to a sample of 978 fairly representative American adults recruited via the Prolific data platform. Overall, we found that every aspect of mental health correlated negatively with overall leftism (r’s for 18 diagnoses = -0.20, last 2 weeks symptoms = -0.14, MMPI-subset = -0.17, life satisfaction = -0.15, all p’s < .001). Diagnoses were the primary predictor of leftism in multivariate models. This relationship was not explained by measurement bias, as invariance testing revealed only minimal, counter-balancing item bias. Furthermore, we expanded this network by incorporating behavioral markers, finding that body modifications (e.g., unnatural hair color, tattoos) showed weak-to-modest associations with both left-wing ideology and mental health diagnoses.
Copyright (c) 2026 Meng Hu, Emil O. W. Kirkegaard (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: Sexism, Neosexism, Biases, Decision Making, Attitudes Review of Grawitch et al. (2025)
Copyright (c) 2025 Bo Winegard (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Maja Graso (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Decision-Making in Ambiguous Situations: The Impact of Neosexism and Gendered Settings
Section: Articles Keywords: Sexism, Neosexism, Biases, Decision Making, Attitudes This study examined how people judge whether an interaction is sexist when the situation is ambiguous. We tested how judgments were influenced by (a) sex composition of the interaction (e.g., male-female, female-female), (b) the setting of the interaction (banking, a traditionally male-typed context vs. daycare, a traditionally female-typed context), and (c) individual attitudes about sexism. Across two scenarios, people rated the behavior as more sexist when a male addressed a female in the banking context. This effect was absent in the daycare context. People who showed more sensitivity to potential sexism were more likely to rate behavior as sexist across both contexts, and this affected how favorable they found the interaction and what advice they gave in response. These findings suggest that both individual beliefs and situational context shape how people interpret potentially biased behavior.
Copyright (c) 2025 Matthew J. Grawitch, Kristi N. Lavigne, Falak Saffaf (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Chilling Effects? The Impact of Political Statement-Making on Faculty at R1 Universities
Section: Articles Keywords: academic freedom, faculty attitudes, institutional neutrality Domestic and international socio-political crises have reinvigorated debate about whether colleges should issue statements on topics outside of their academic missions of teaching and research. Philosophical arguments for and against the practice of institutional neutrality are abundant, but no empirical research has looked at attitudes towards institutional position-taking among faculty and how institutional statements may affect faculty’s professional and extramural behaviors. This study addresses this gap through a survey of tenure-track faculty (N=250) at U.S. R1 universities. Findings indicate that a majority of faculty are familiar with at least some institutional statements issued by their universities, but a non-negligible percentage is unfamiliar with them (22%). Most faculty favor neutrality and have disagreed with at least some of the institutional positions taken. Self-censorship has been a reported outcome of institutional statements among a third of the faculty, and about half of faculty report modifying their professional engagement with a topic based on their university’s position. Formal sanctions of faculty due to behaviors indicating their disagreement with statements were rare, but they nevertheless expressed concerns about social marginalization, which may be attributable to their reported perception of strong ideological homogeneity among their academic community. Among demographic variables, race and tenure status were found to have a significant impact on responses to the survey questions. Non-white and untenured faculty were more likely to indicate constraint in expressing their viewpoints, and more likely to be discouraged from participating in professional activities on a topic if their views were misaligned with those of their university. The results point to some chilling effect of statements, for which institutional neutrality should be considered.
Copyright (c) 2026 COLLEEN EREN (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: Misconception, Performance, Gap, Sex, Male, Female, Athletics Review of Rohrer (2025)
Copyright (c) 2025 April Bleske-Rechek (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Joachim Krueger (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A Dramatic Underestimate of the Performance Gap Between Elite Male and Female Athletes
Section: Articles Keywords: Misconception, Performance, Gap, Sex, Male, Female, Athletics Strong evidence shows that anatomical and physiological sex differences favor men over women in nearly every athletic event, yet several researchers have published widely disseminated claims of an inherent advantage for women in some athletic events. The present study assessed the prevalence of this misconception with a survey of a diverse sample of 300 U.S. adults. For each of four events (1500-m run, 100-m dash, long jump, and 800-m swim), participants were asked, “The world record for professional women is closest to the world record for males of what age?” The correct answer for each event is age 14, yet, for each event, at least 64% of participants responded that the women’s world record is closest to the record for males of age 18 or older (mean and median estimate ≈ age 20). This stark misconception suggests that many people in the U.S. and possibly elsewhere underestimate the contribution of biology to the male-female performance gap in athletics and, by extension, underrate the impact of allowing biological males to compete in female-only sports.
Copyright (c) 2025 Doug Rohrer (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Review of ‘Perceived Effectiveness and Risk of Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE): Perspectives of a US Sample of 125 Male Clients’
Section: Articles Keywords: Sexual orientation change, psychosocial health, marriage, ex-gay Review II
Copyright (c) 2025 Holly Lawford-Smith (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Review of “Perceived Effectiveness and Risk of Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE): Perspectives of a US Sample of 125 Male Clients”
Section: Articles Keywords: Sexual orientation change, psychosocial health, marriage, ex-gay Review I
Copyright (c) 2025 Catherine Salmon (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Perceived Effectiveness and Risk of Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE): Perspectives of a US Sample of 125 Male Clients
Section: Articles Keywords: Sexual orientation change, psychosocial health, marriage, ex-gay Background: Voluntary therapeutic interventions to reduce unwanted same-sex sexuality are collectively known as sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE). Currently almost all evidence addressing the contested question whether SOCE is effective or safe consists of anecdotes or very small sample qualitative studies of persons who currently identify as sexual minority and thus by definition failed to change. We conducted this study to examine the perceived effects and risk outcomes for a group of SOCE participants unbiased by current sexual orientation. Methods: We examined a convenience sample of 125 men who had undergone SOCE for homosexual-to-heterosexual change in sexual attraction, identity and behavior, and for positive and negative changes in psychosocial problem domains (depression, suicidality, self-harm, self-esteem, social function, and alcohol or substance abuse). Mean change was assessed by parametric (t-test) and nonparametric (Wilcoxon sign rank test) significance tests. Results: Exposure to SOCE was associated with significant declines in same-sex attraction (from 5.7 to 4.1 on the Kinsey scale, p <.000), identification (4.8 to 3.6, p < .000), and sexual activity (2.4 to 1.5 on a 4-point scale of frequency, p < .000), with large effect sizes ranging from .56 to .94 (Cohen’s d). From 45% to 69% of SOCE participants achieved at least partial reduction of unwanted same-sex sexuality; full reduction was achieved by 14% for sexual attraction and identification, and 26% for sexual behavior. Rates were higher among married men, but 4-10% of participants experienced increased same-sex orientation after SOCE. From 0.8% to 4.8% of participants reported marked or severe negative psychosocial change following SOCE, but 12.1% to 61.3% reported marked or severe positive psychosocial change. Net change was significantly positive for all problem domains. Conclusion: SOCE was perceived as an effective and safe therapeutic practice by this sample of participants. We close by offering a unifying understanding of discrepant findings within this literature and caution against broad generalizations of our results.
Copyright (c) 2025 D. Paul Sullins, Christopher H. Rosik (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reappraising a First Date Partner Biases Memories of Emotion: Evidence from Two Experiments
Section: Articles Keywords: memory of emotion, memory bias, memory distortions, #MeToo, reappraisal Previous research has found memories of emotions are malleable, and that extended to autobiographically important memories of emotions. It was unclear whether this would generalize to memories of emotions towards former date partners. After finding significant results in Experiment 1, we then conducted the larger Experiment 2 examining whether memories of emotion towards a first date partner can be biased with changing cognitive appraisals. Participants were 93 UK students or young adults of average age 22 in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, 201 UK participants from the general public of average age 37 were recruited online (Prolific). After randomly assigning participants to different writing prompt conditions to nudge their current appraisals of their first date partner, we found subsequent recall of emotion was biased accordingly. Those reappraising their partner in a downward direction remembered more negative emotions, including distress, compared to comparison conditions. Reappraising downwards biased memories of how unsafe they felt on their first date, and of feeling forced to do something. These biases might be important to consider when people reappraise past dating experiences, especially if the original memories have faded with time, or were not encoded well initially.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lawrence Patihis, Harry Carter (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Socioeconomic Differentials among White Ethnics in the American Community Survey, 2017-2021
Section: Articles Keywords: racial/ethnic inequality, whiteness, education, wages, poverty, affluence, household income, critical race theory We investigate socioeconomic variation among Whites in the United States. Using data from the American Community Survey, we explore educational attainment, wages, poverty, affluence, and household income by ancestry groups among non-Hispanic, single-race Whites. The results indicate that persons who identify as White report a wide variety of ethnic ancestries. Some ethnic groups have relatively high socioeconomic attainments while others have low outcomes, including a few ethnic groups with poverty and high-school dropout rates that are similar to Blacks. Some of the socioeconomic variation between White ethnic groups is explained by demographic control variables such as age, nativity, region, and disability, but notable socioeconomic differentials frequently persist. Indeed, some of the between-ethnic differentials are as large as the differentials between Whites overall and Blacks. A great deal of socioeconomic variation within specific ethnic groups is furthermore often evident. This substantial heterogeneity in socioeconomic characteristics is inconsistent with the critical demography paradigm which tends to portray Whites as a homogenous and uniformly advantaged group. Our findings suggest that the demographic heterogeneity of Whites — which includes substantial variation in both ethnic identity and socioeconomic characteristics — is a more realistic assessment in the contemporary era of rising class inequality.
Copyright (c) 2026 Arthur Sakamoto, John Iceland, Chunhui Ren (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: Authoritarianism, Left-Wing Authoritarianism, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Ideology, Ideologically-Incongruent Review of Conway & Houck (2025)
Copyright (c) 2025 Joseph Manson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Can Liberals Also Be Authoritarians? Comment on Conway & Houck (2025)
Copyright (c) 2025 Richard Redding (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Ideologically Incongruent Authoritarianism: Understanding Liberal Right-Wing Authoritarians and Conservative Left-Wing Authoritarians
Section: Articles Keywords: Authoritarianism, Left-Wing Authoritarianism, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Ideology, Ideologically-Incongruent Ideologically incongruent authoritarians – liberal right-wing authoritarians and their counterpart conservative left-wing authoritarians – represent an important yet understudied group. What underlies the incongruence displayed by incongruent authoritarians? We present four conceptual frameworks for understanding this question: Psychological Ambivalence, Rigidity of the Right, Religion-Specific Authoritarianism, and Ecological Threat. We examined each of these frameworks using data from 14 studies and over 9,000 participants. Findings offer modest support for all four frameworks, but no framework on its own comprehensively accounts for incongruent authoritarianism. What is clear, however, is that ideologically incongruent authoritarians in the U.S. comprise a meaningful category with predictable differences from both their fellow non-authoritarian ideologues and their counterpart congruent authoritarians. As such, this work advances our current understanding of authoritarianism, provides unique insight into the psychology of incongruent authoritarians, and contributes to the ongoing asymmetry debate in political ideology.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lucian Gideon Conway III, Shannon C. Houck (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Review of Negy & Ferguson (2025): “Predicting Radical Progressive Ideology (RPI) from Personality and Attitudinal Variables”
Section: Articles Keywords: DEI, Radical Progressive Ideology, Left-Wing Authoritarianism, Anti-White Attitudes, Wokism Review of Negy & Ferguson (2025): “Predicting Radical Progressive Ideology (RPI) from Personality and Attitudinal Variables”
Copyright (c) 2025 Anonymous (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The (De)merits of Radical Progressivism: Commentary on Negy & Ferguson (2025)
Section: Articles Keywords: DEI, Radical Progressive Ideology, Left-Wing Authoritarianism, Anti-White Attitudes, Wokism Commentary on Negy & Ferguson (2025)
Copyright (c) 2025 Sonia Yanovsky (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Uncomfortable Truths in the Science of Sex Differences: Review of Bleske-Rechek et al. (2024)
Section: Articles Keywords: sex differences, harm, liberal science, censorship, identity Review of Bleske-Rechek et al. (2024)
Copyright (c) 2024 Steve Stewart-Williams (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Women’s Stronger In-group Favoritism Underlies Their Censorship of Science: Review of Bleske-Rechek et al. (2024)
Copyright (c) 2024 Tania Reynolds (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Predicting Radical Progressive Ideology (RPI)
Section: Articles Keywords: DEI, Radical Progressive Ideology, Left-Wing Authoritarianism, Anti-White Attitudes, Wokism Many critics of higher education contend it has become infused with a radical progressive ideology (RPI). Critics of this ideology often focus on “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Broadly defined, CRT/DEI are a set of beliefs espousing that U.S. and Western societies are based on “white supremacy” and that social inequalities are due to racially-designed barriers to oppress non-Whites. These views are often accompanied by a deemphasis on classically liberal values such as free speech and due process. Advocates of CRT/DEI demand that society become more egalitarian, just, and inclusive. However, many ideas and tenets of CRT/DEI are debatable and are contested by critics due to the ideas’ questionable empirical support. The purpose of this study was to examine select personality and attitudinal variables that may predict endorsement of CRT/DEI ideas that we call “radical progressive ideology” (RPI). Based on a sample of university students, three variables emerged significantly correlating with RPI: left-wing authoritarianism, anti-White attitudes, and anti-U.S. attitudes. Findings suggest that those embracing RPI may hold prejudicial views of Whites and of the U.S. as a country and may be desirous of punishing those not sharing their radical progressive ideology. Additional implications are discussed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Charles Negy, Christopher J. Ferguson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0