The conservative bias of life scientists

Abstract

Life scientists may think of themselves as liberal, but they seem to have a strong conservative bias that negatively impacts diversity in research. The bias can be revealed with a Google Scholar search; the phrase conserved from [species X] to humans occurs over 90,000 times, yet the reverse, conserved from humans to [species X] is found fewer than 1000 times (Figure 1A). I will explore why this conservative bias in direction exists in the literature and the implications that it has on our thinking and choices for research.