Society for Open Inquiry in Behavioral Science (SOIBS) is an American anti-transgender trade group. Its leaders and founding members include many top anti-transgender activists, such as J. Michael Bailey, Ray Blanchard, James Cantor, Alice Dreger, Carole Hooven, Kevin Hsu, Razib Khan, Steven Pinker, Gad Saad, Michael Shermer, Jesse Singal, Debra Soh, Carol Tavris, and Paul Vasey.
Background
Society for Open Inquiry in Behavioral Science was reportedly organized in 2021. In 2022 SOIBS was granted nonprofit status by the IRS.
Many people in SOIBS were triggered by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements implemented by the 7,500-member Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
Website
SOIBS created Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences (JOIBS) to publish materials retracted or rejected by reputable journals:
JOIBS is not a Traditional Academic Journal. We have minimal gatekeeping. This means that we see our role as facilitating scientific communication rather than weeding out supposedly bad work. The reviews, however positive or negative, will be published alongside your work. The purpose of this format is to encourage open and thoughtful evaluation of works of empirical behavioral science during and beyond the initial review process.
Because JOIBS has peer review with minimal gatekeeping, your institution and promotion committees may or may not consider a publication at JOIBS to be a “peer reviewed journal.” Your paper will be peer reviewed, but that may not be what most people mean by the term. Many may think of “peer review” as “heavily curated so only the best, highest quality research gets published.” At JOIBS, we view our role as advancing communication and discourse among both scholars and the public; therefore, we do little gatekeeping or curation.
The first blog post is credited to Ren Gehlot, whose only other post is as administrator on Order My Steps Ministries International. Gehlot’s post promotes the 2023 book Ideological and Political Bias in Psychology edited by SOIBS members Craig L. Frisby, Richard E. Redding, William T. O’Donohue, and Scott O. Lilienfeld. The book includes contributions by several anti-trans activists, most notably chapters by Lee Jussim, Pamela Paresky, Marco Del Giudice, and J. Michael Bailey.
Other contributors include Nathan Honeycutt, Bradley Campbell, George Yancey, Nina Silander, Anthony Tarescavage, Christopher J. Ferguson, Wendy M. Williams, Stephen J. Ceci, Robert Maranto, Jonathan Wai, Matthew Woessner, JoEllen Schimmels, Patrick H. DeLeon, Jessica Hively, Marlene Arias-Reynoso, Sandra M. Wilkniss, Sally Satel, Alexander Mackiel, Jennifer K. Link, Glenn Geher, Robert E. Larzelere, David Reitman, Camilo Ortiz, Ronald B. Cox Jr., Thomas H. Costello, Quincy C. Miller, Kamala London, Elizabeth F. Loftus, Oksana Yakushko, Michael A. Woodley of Menie, Matthew A. Sarraf, Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre, Richard J. Haier, Heiner Rindermann, Bruce Rind, Heinz D. Knoell, Jerwen Jou, Cory J. Clark, and Philip E. Tetlock.
2023 event
SOIBS got funding from Foundation for Individual Rights in Education for an event in Atlanta on February 24, in direct competition with the conference of trans-supportive trade group The Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).
The event was arranged by Cory Clark and had about 75 attendees throughout the day. Many attendees did not want to be outed as attending, but those who acknowledged attending include:
- Lee Jussim
- Cory Clark
- Anne Wilson
- Michael Bernstein
- April Bleske-Rechek
- Joseph Cesario
- Mitchell Brown
- Calvin Isch
- Gordon Pennycook
People
Officers
- Richard E. Redding, President
- Sally Satel, Vice President
- Nathan Honeycutt, Secretary
- Lee Jussim, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Open Inquiry in Behavioral Science
- Catherine Salmon, Treasurer
Executive Board
- J. Michael Bailey
- Roy F. Baumeister
- Cory Clark
- Leda Cosmides
- Craig Frisby
- Robert Maranto
- Michael Mills
- Steven Pinker
- Catherine Salmon
- Nina Silander
- Philip E. Tetlock
- George Yancey
Founders
- J. Michael Bailey, Northwestern University
- Cory Clark, University of Pennsylvania
- Glenn Geher, State University of New York, New Paltz
- Nathan Honeycutt, Rutgers University (now at FIRE)
- Lee Jussim, Rutgers University
- Robert Maranto, University of Arkansas
- Michael Mills, Loyola Marymount University
- Richard Redding, Chapman University
- Catherine Salmon, University of Redlands
- Sally Satel, American Enterprise Institute
Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences
- Lee Jussim, Rutgers University, Editor-in-Chief
- Sonia Yanovsky, Administrative Editor
- Cory Clark, University of Pennsylvania, Associate Editor
- Sally Satel, American Enterprise Institute, Associate Editor
- Craig Frisby, University of Missouri, Associate Editor
- Wilfred Reilly, Kentucky State University Associate Editor
- Advisory Board
- Michael Bailey, Northwestern University
- Harry Crane, Rutgers University
- Nathan Honeycutt, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
- Joachim Krueger, Brown University
- Robert Maranto, University of Arkansas
- Michael Mills, Loyola Marymount University
- Richard Redding, Chapman University
- Sean T. Stevens, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
- Consulting Reviewers
- Michael Bailey, Northwestern University
- Cory Clark, University of Pennsylvania
- Glenn Geher, SUNY New Paltz
- Nathan Honeycutt, Administrative Editor, Rutgers University
- Robert Maranto, University of Arkansas
- Michael Mills, Loyola Marymount University
- Sean Stevens, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
- Harry Crane, Rutgers University
- Richard Redding, Chapman University
“Distinguished Founding Members“
- Dorian Abbott, The University of Chicago, Geophysical Sciences
- Oren Amitay, Ryerson University
- Karl Aquino, University of British Columbia
- Ray Blanchard, University of Toronto
- April Bleske-Rechek, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire
- Benjamin Boyce, Public intellectual
- Marianne Brandon, Private Practice
- Kingsley Browne, Wayne State University Law School
- Rebecca Burch, SUNY Oswego
- David Buss, University of Texas
- Keith Campbell, Keith University of Georgia
- James Cantor, Private practice
- Edward Cantu, University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law
- Bryan Caplan, George Mason University
- Daniel Casasanto, Cornell University
- Joseph Cesario, Michigan State University
- Paul Connor, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, New York University
- Harry Crane, Rutgers University
- Alan Davison, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
- Marco Del Giudice, University of Trieste, Italy
- Pete Ditto, University of California, Irvine
- Alice Dreger, Public Intellectual
- Chris Ferguson, Stetson University
- Nicolai J. Foss, Copenhagen Business School
- Komi Frey, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
- Glenn Geher, State University of New York, New Paltz
- David Geary, University of Missouri
- Zach Goldberg, Manhattan Institute
- Maja Graso, Otago University
- Jonathan Haidt, New York University’s Stern School of Business
- Richard Haier, University of California Irvine
- Diane Halpern, Claremont McKenna College (Emerita)
- Richard Hanania, Center for Study of Partisanship and Ideology
- Christine Harris, University of California, San Diego
- Katie Herzog, Co-host of the Blocked and Reported Podcast
- Carole Hooven, Harvard University
- Kevin Hsu, Penn State, Abington
- Stephen Hsu, Michigan State University
- Hrishikesh Joshi, Bowling Green State University
- Eric Kaufmann, Birkbeck College, University of London
- Razib Khan, Public Intellectual
- Arnold Kling, Public Intellectual
- James Lee, University of Minnesota
- Debra Lieberman, University of Miami
- Elizabeth Loftus, University of California, Irvine
- Jacob Mackey, Occidental College
- Dario Maestripieri, University of Chicago
- John McWhorter, Columbia University
- Matt McGue, University of Minnesota
- Richard McNally, Harvard University
- Michael McCullough, University of California, San Diego
- John Monahan, University of Virginia
- James Morandini, University of Sydney, Australia
- Peter Moskos, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- Carlos David Navarette, Michigan State University
- William O’Donohue, University of Nevada-Reno
- Hal Pashler, University of California, San Diego
- Mark Pendergrast, Public Intellectual
- Qazi Rahman, King’s College, London
- Cesar Rebellon, George Mason University
- Wilfred Reilly, Kentucky State University
- Tania Reynolds, University of New Mexico
- Gad Saad, Concordia University
- Todd Shackelford, Oakland University
- Michael Shermer, Chapman University/Skeptics Society
- Jesse Singal, Co-host of the Blocked and Reported Podcast
- Erec Smith, York College of Pennsylvania
- Vernon Smith, Chapman University
- Debra Soh, Journalist and public intellectual
- Daniele Struppa, President, Chapman University
- Keith Stanovich, University of Toronto
- Sean Stevens, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
- Steve Stewart-Williams, University of Nottingham Malaysia
- Alice Sullivan, University College London
- John Sylla, University of Chicago Law School, American Institute of Bisexuality
- Carol Tavris, Journalist and public intellectual
- John Tooby, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Paul Vasey, University of Lethbridge
- Bill von Hippel, University of Queensland
- Brad Wilcox, University of Virginia
- Anne Wilson, Wilfrid Laurier University
References
Reed, Erin (October 23, 2023). “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” Republished In Junk-Science Journal With A Shady Record. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria-republished
Jussim, Lee; Clark, Cory (August 22, 2023). The Journal of Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences. Unsafe Science https://unsafescience.substack.com/p/the-journal-of-open-inquiry-in-the
Jussim, Lee; Clark, Cory (March 24, 2023). Report from the First Conference of the Society for Open Inquiry in the Behavioral Sciences. Unsafe Science https://unsafescience.substack.com/p/report-from-the-first-conference
Resources
Society for Open Inquiry in Behavioral Science (soibs.com)
- openinquirybehavio.wixsite.com (created December 2022)
GuideStar (guidestar.org)
- Society for Open Inquiry in Behavioral Science
- EIN: 87-3878302
- https://www.guidestar.org/profile/87-3878302
researchers.one (researchers.one)
- JOIBS
- https://researchers.one/journals/joibs
Twitter (twitter.com)