"Political endorsement by scientific journals can undermine and polarize public confidence in the endorsing journals and the scientific community," reports a new study by Stanford economist Floyd Zhang in Nature Human Behavior. Shocked? Not at all.
A month before the U.S. presidential election, Nature published an editorial supporting Democratic candidate Joe Biden for president. The editorial justified its endorsement by citing Donald Trump's "disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic" and also decrying his promotion of "nationalism, isolationism and xenophobia — including tacitly supporting white-supremacist groups." Consequently, the editors declared, "We cannot stand by and let science be undermined. Joe Biden's trust in truth, evidence, science and democracy make him the only choice in the US election."
