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.
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
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
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
Section: Articles Categories: Titles A to Z Keywords: grading, undergraduate education Review of Woessner & Maranto (2025)
Copyright (c) 2025 George Yancey (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Commentary: Do Gradebooks Lean Left? Relationships between Grades andIdeology in American Higher Education
Section: Articles Categories: Titles A to Z Keywords: undergraduate education, grading Review of Woessner & Maranto 2025
Section: Articles Categories: Titles A to Z Keywords: grading, ideology, higher education, undergraduate education, political correctness While considerable quantitative research demonstrates ideological liberalism among American professors, only qualitative work examines whether this affects undergraduate education. Using the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) dataset surveying students in their first and fourth years in college (n=7,207), we use OLS regressions to test whether students’ political beliefs are associated with reported college grades and perceived collegiate experiences. We find that while standardized test scores are the best predictors of grade point average, ideology also has impacts. Even with controls for SES, demographics, and SAT scores, liberal students report higher college grades and closer relationships with faculty, particularly at elite institutions, with findings driven by social issues like abortion. Nevertheless, conservative students consistently show higher levels of satisfaction with college courses and experiences, and higher high school grades. We discuss implications, and possible limitations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Matthew Woessner, Robert Maranto (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Keywords: Psychosocial development Review of Martin et al. (2024)
Copyright (c) 2024 Harry Crane (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Section: Articles Categories: Titles A to Z Keywords: psychosocial development, political ideology, personality, conservatism Review of Martin et al. (2024)
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Open Inquiry In Behavioral Science https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Psychosocial development is negatively correlated with political extremism
Section: Articles Categories: Titles A to Z Keywords: psychosocial development, political ideology, personality Previous research indicates that in college samples there is a positive correlation between psychosocial development and economic conservatism. We tested the generality of this relationship with a nationally representative sample of respondents from the United States. The result was instead consistent with an alternative hypothesis that psychosocial development is related to political extremism. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association between psychosocial development and political orientation.
Section: Articles Review of Lauritsen (2024) II
Section: Articles Categories: Titles A to Z Review of Lauritsen (2024)
Schein (1973) Revisited: The Think Manager-Think Male Effect is a Statistical Artifact
Section: Articles Keywords: think manager-think male, gender, bias Schein (1973) is a highly cited article in research on sex and gender biases. The original article concluded that people are biased against women regarding requisite management characteristics. However, the present paper replicates Schein (1973) and demonstrates that the findings were a result of an imbalanced ratio of items which exhibited mean differences between men and women targets. In addition, the use of intraclass correlations creates an illusion of large differences or similarities between targets when the actual mean rating differences are practically trivial and statistically nonsignificant. A bias against women, against men, and no bias are obtained by altering the number of male and female items, or by applying the intraclass correlation to more appropriate data. The implications of the results for the measurement of sex and gender biases are discussed. Broader concerns are raised about ideological biases which allow for conclusions and theories to propagate without empirical support.