Letter Protesting APS's Treatment of Klaus Fiedler

This is Just the Next Round; More to Come

This was originally posted on 1/23/23 as a call for signatories.

2/1/23 Update

• The letter (which appears in the second half of this entry) was sent to the APS CEO and Board on January 30, 2023.

• A new letter, open to anyone is coming, so please do not sign on here anymore.

• I have edited the introduction accordingly.

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The Text of the Letter Sent to APS

Board of Directors, and the

President and President-Elect of the Association of Psychological Science

Profs. Jennifer L. Eberhardt and Alison Gopnik,

Dear Jennifer and Alison,

We are writing to express our deep concern about your decision to summarily dismiss Klaus Fiedler as editor of PoPS. Having considered all the evidence available to us, we feel that the Association’s actions were unfair, unjustified and a complete denial of due process and the kind objectivity and rationality that one can reasonably expect from a scientific association.

Editors should always have a great deal of latitude in selecting reviewers and deciding how to deal with a manuscript. Fiedler’s actions suggest that he hoped to get an informed discussion going on the pages of PoPS on a vitally important topic – the forceful political infusion of ideological positions into what should be an objective and rational science.

As far as the evidence is available, Fiedler has not done anything to justify his instant dismissal. The reviewers he selected were chosen based on merit and their proven expertise. The fact that they were all critical of Roberts' ideologically driven research in no way indicates bias. They all offered detailed and reasonable justifications for their assessments.

Roberts' suggestion that their status as 'senior white males' had anything to do with their critical assessment of his work is itself racist. Racial status should play no role in selecting reviewers as Roberts implies, nor are editors obliged to seek more favorable reviews to balance the unfavorable ones.

The APS in almost instantly dismissing Fiedler acted in a reprehensible way that is not fitting for a scientific association. Your action represents a complete betrayal of fundamental principles of fairness, due process and objectivity, as the German Psychological Association also stated. Members have not been consulted, the process was not open and transparent, and Fiedler was not given an opportunity to explain his actions.

Even more worrying is that hundreds of our colleagues signed a petition demanding Fiedler's dismissal, without having the benefit of hearing his explanation. We should all be profoundly concerned by this serious violation of fundamental academic principles by our own scientific association.

 We request that you revisit this issue, give Fiedler equal chance to explain his actions, and publish both sides of the case so that all members of APS can have access to the relevant facts and make up their mind accordingly. In particular, those who rushed to judgment without full information should have an opportunity to reconsider their position. We look forward to your urgent response.

With best wishes,

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Feel free to add your

Name, Professional Affiliation via the Comments section below. That is all you need add (though if you wish to leave further comment, that is also welcome). The main list will be periodically updated. Thanks.

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Prof. R.I.M. Dunbar, University of Oxford, UK

Prof. Mario Mikulincer, Reichman University, Israel

Professor Catherine Salmon , University of Redlands

Prof. Joachim Krueger, Brown University, USA

Prof. Geoffrey Miller, University of New Mexico, APS Fellow

Prof. Jonathan Haidt, NYU-Stern School of Business

Prof. Pamela Paresky, Johns Hopkins University 

Prof. Roy Baumeister, University of Queensland

Prof. Joseph Forgas, Psychology, UNSW, Sydney

Prof. Brad Bushman, Ohio State University

Sally Satel MD, Yale University School of Medicine

Prof. Lee Jussim, Rutgers University

Prof. Yair Amichai-Hamburger, Reichman University

Prof. Peter Swan, University of New South Wales, Sydney

Prof. Nira Lieberman, University of Tel Aviv

Prof. Gun Semin, Utrecht University

Prof. Keith Stanovich, University of Toronto

Prof. Dr. W. Stroebe, University of Groningen

Prof. Michael Mills, Loyola Marymount University

Prof. George Paxinos, NEURA, Australia

Prof. Steven Pinker, Harvard University

Prof. Bernhard Hommel, University of Dresden

Prof. Paula J. Stanovich, Portland State University

Prof. Gilad Hirschberger, Reichman University

Prof. Patrizia Catellani, Catholic University of Milan

Prof. Yavor Paunov, Royal institute of Technology, Stockholm

Prof. Csaba Pleh, Central European University, Vienna

Prof. Mark van Vugt, Free University of Amsterdam

Prof. Steve Stewart-Williams, University of Nottingham Malaysia

Prof. George Marcus, Williams College, USA

Prof. Joel Cooper, Princeton University

Prof. Ken Sheldon, University of Missouri, USA

Prof. Anna Krylov, University of Southern California

Prof. Doug Kenrick, Arizona State University

Bill Frezza, MIT Free Speech Alliance

Prof. Bob Maranto

Prof. Marco Del Giudice, University of New Mexico, USA

Prof. J. Michael Bailey, Northwestern University

Prof. Joseph H. Manson, University of California, Los Angeles

Prof. James West, Vanderbilt University

Prof. Chris C. Martin, Oglethorpe University, USA

Prof. Jessica Hehman, University of Redlands

Prof. Andreas Bikfalvi, University of Bordeaux, France

Prof. Dorian Abbot, The University of Chicago
Prof. Robert Knapp, Reed College

Prof. David Kane, Harvard University

Prof. David Mandel, York University

Dr. Eddie Waldrep, Dept. Veterans affairs

Dr. Jane Fisher, University of Nevada, Reno

Dr. Colin Wright, Manhattan Institute

Dr. Carl  Beuke, New Zealand

Prof. Ed Gehringer, North Carolina State university

Prof. Glenn Geher, State University of New York

Prof. Rebecca Shiner, Colgate University

Prof. Delroy Paulhus, University of British Columbia

Prof. John Paul Chou, Rutgers University

Prof. Zach Goldberg, Georgia State University

Prof. Rob Sica, Prof. David Potts, Colorado State University

Prof. David Potts, City College of San Francisco

Prof. Richard Lowery, University of Texas, Austin

Prof. David Donaldson, Ottawa University

Prof. Julie Fitness, Macquarie University

Prof. David C Geary, University of Missouri

Prof. Sadredin C. Moosavi, Rochester Community Technical College
C. Alan Reber, California Southern University

Dr. Samantha Malone

Prof. Robert Kay, University of British Columbia

Prof. Alex Bertrams, University of Bern

Prof. Luana Maroja, Williams College

Dr. Nathan Honeycutt, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Prof. David Morgan, Spalding university

Dr. Samuel Rosenthal, Optave Diagnostics

Dr. Penny Adrian, Trauma Service

Dr. Frank Scavelli, University of East Anglia

Prof. Christopher Ferguson, Stetson University

Prof. Daniel Lakens, Eindhoven University

Prof. David Bertoli, University of Georgia

Dr. David Smith, American College of Education  

Prof. John Staddon, Duke University

Prof. Darrell Worthy, Texas a &M University

Prof. Matt Osborne, Austin Peay state University

Prof. Gad Saad, Concordia university

Prof. James Thompson, University College London

Prof. Axel Meyer, University of Konstanz

Prof. David Morgan, Spalding University

Dr. J Metz, SNIA

Prof. Chris Ellis, Bucknell University

Prof. Matthew J Grawitch, Saint Louis University

Dr. Nathaniel Bork, Rutgers University

Prof. Karl-Markus Mueller, Furtwangen University

Dr. Robert Lynch, Penn State University

Prof. Joseph Cesario, Michigan State University

Dr. Florian Ploeckl, University of Adelaide

Prof. Holger Mitterer, University of Malta

Dr. Bill Frezza, MIT Free Speech Alliance

Prof. Gregory Connor, Maynooth University

Dr. Leif Rasmussen, Northwestern University

Prof. Markus Buehner, LMU Munich

Prof. Jacob L Mackey, Occidental College

Prof. Charles Negy, University of Central Florida

Prof. Randy Wayne, Cornell university

Prof. Eric Kaufmann, Birkbeck College, University of London

Prof. Scott Yenor, Boise State University

Prof. Eric Rasmusen, Indiana University

Prof. Harald Uhlig, University of Chicago

Prof. Barry Smith, University at Buffalo

Prof. Richard Sparks, Mt. St. Joseph university

Prof. Gisela Muller-Plath, Technische Universitaet Berlin

Dr. Peter Hayes, Durham University

Nicholas Schappaugh, Georgia State University

Prof. Maxim Olchanyi, University of Massachusetts

Prof. Chris Rhoads, University of Connecticut

Smriti Mehta, UC Berkeley

Michael Lewis, University of Houston

Prof. Bradley Campbell, California State University, LA

Dr. Rachel Hartman, UNC Chapel Hill

Dr. Timur Sevincer, Leuphana University Luneburg

Mackenzie Moreno, DePaul University

Prof. Robert Gunn, College of the Desert

Prof. Coel Hellier, Keele University

Dr. Ruud Custers, Utrecht University

Prof. Thomas Mueller-Gronbach, University of Passau, Germany

Prof. Henk Aarts, Utrecht University

Prof. Laszlo Majtenyi, University of Miskolc

Prof. Thomas Huddle, UAB Heersink School of Medicine

Prof. Barry Smith, University of Buffalo

Prof. Ginger Katz

Prof. Steven Miller, Williams College

Prof. Charles Trzcinka, Indiana University

Prof. Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School

Dr. Kirsty Miller, Lecturer

Prof. Elizabeth Weiss, San Jose State University

Prof. Joseph H. Manson, University of California, Los Angeles

Charles Trzcinka, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

Dr Carole Sherwood, Clinical Psychologist

Kristine Danowski, MEd, MS, PhD(c), Retired

Nurit Haspel, Professor of Computer Science, UMass Boston.