The Mutation of Altruistic Intents in Scientific Research

Abstract

Although scientific research has revolutionized our daily lives, providing us with the comforts of antibiotics and cars, it undoubtedly has a dark side as well—such as the culmination of research scandals ending in destroyed careers or the development of drugs with side effects killing tens of thousands. I aim to highlight various risk factors which may lead to unethical research behaviors and ultimately disastrous consequences. One of these major risk factors is "pathological altruism," a term coined by Dr. Barbara Oakley. Pathological altruism is defined as "attempts to promote the welfare of others that instead result in unanticipated harm" (Oakley, 2012). First, I explore how these research reward processes can be connected to researchers' potentially harmful biases, as evidenced by fundamental psychology principles. Using concrete examples of science fair competitions and thought experiments, I reveal how these biases develop during a researcher's early education and career. Then, by examining the case study of stem cell scientist Haruko Obokata's scientific misconduct scandal, I expand on the "speed versus stability" model of scientific communication (Lewenstein, 1995), which provides further insight on external factors negatively influencing researchers. The case study highlights how the biases discussed in this paper harm individuals' careers, their research fields, and ultimately society. Rather than framing unethical behavior in science in terms of good versus evil, my research aims to provide a supportive framework for the discussion and analysis of the actual mechanism of how research ethics become compromised.