Research misconduct complaints and institutional logics: The case of Hans Eysenck and the British Psychological Society

A formal complaint was lodged with the British Psychological Society in 1995 that alleged serious scientific misconduct by Hans J Eysenck. The complaint referred to research into the links between personality traits and the causes, prevention and treatment of cancer and heart disease. Using a framework of institutional logics, we criticise the Society's decision not to hear this complaint at a full disciplinary hearing. We urge the BPS to investigate this complaint afresh. We also support calls for the establishment of an independent National Research Integrity Ombudsperson to deal more effectively with allegations of research misconduct.

Personality and fatal diseases: Revisiting a scientific scandal

During the 1980s and 1990s, Hans J Eysenck conducted a programme of research into the causes, prevention and treatment of fatal diseases in collaboration with one of his protégés, Ronald Grossarth-Maticek. This led to what must be the most astonishing series of findings ever published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature with effect sizes that have never otherwise been encounterered in biomedical research. This article outlines just some of these reported findings and signposts readers to extremely serious scientific and ethical criticisms that were published almost three decades ago. Confidential internal documents that have become available as a result of litigation against tobacco companies provide additional insights into this work. It is suggested that this research programme has led to one of the worst scientific scandals of all time. A call is made for a long overdue formal inquiry.

Emotion suppression and mortality risk over a 12-year follow-up

OBJECTIVE

Suppression of emotion has long been suspected to have a role in health, but empirical work has yielded mixed findings. We examined the association between emotion suppression and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality over 12 years of follow-up in a nationally representative US sample.

METHODS

We used the 2008 General Social Survey-National Death Index (GSS-NDI) cohort, which included an emotion suppression scale administered to 729 people in 1996. Prospective mortality follow up between 1996 and 2008 of 111 deaths (37 by cardiovascular disease, 34 by cancer) was evaluated using Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age, gender, education, and minority race/ethnicity.

RESULTS

The 75th vs. 25th percentile on the emotional suppression score was associated with hazard ratio (HR) of 1.35 (95% Confidence Interval [95% CI]=1.00, 1.82; P=.049) for all-cause mortality. For cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality, the HRs were 1.70 (95% CI=1.01, 2.88, P=.049) and 1.47 (95% CI=.87, 2.47, P=.148) respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Emotion suppression may convey risk for earlier death, including death from cancer. Further work is needed to better understand the biopsychosocial mechanisms for this risk, as well as the nature of associations between suppression and different forms of mortality.

Persönlichkeit, Krebs und koronare Herzerkrankungen:

Zusammenfassung. Die Befundliteratur zu den ätiologisch bedeutsamen Faktoren bei Krebs- und koronaren Herzerkrankungen (KHK) lässt auf einen nur sehr geringen Stellenwert von Persönlichkeitsfaktoren schließen. Nicht mehr als 1 bis 2% der Gesundheits-Krankheitsvarianz sind auf differentialpsychologische Variablen zurückführbar, von denen vorrangig Verlusterlebnisse, Depressionen und gehemmter Gefühlsausdruck mit Krebs in Verbindung gebracht werden, während Typ A-Verhalten sowie dessen Komponenten Ehrgeiz, Ärger und Feindseligkeit mit KHK korrelieren sollen. Verschiedene Anzeichen sprechen dafür, dass im Zuge der Forschung die Bedeutung psychologischer Merkmale im Vergleich zu den bekannten biomedizinischen Risikofaktoren weiter zurückgegangen ist. Als Ursache dafür kommen verschiedene methodische Gesichtspunkte in Betracht, darunter geänderte Zusammensetzung der Stichproben, andere Diagnoseinstrumente und die Einführung immer stringenterer Kontrollen für konfundierende Faktoren. Denkbar ist aber auch, dass sich als Folge der Publikation von Forschungsergebnissen zu Krebs und KHK die untersuchten Krankheiten selbst - und damit ihr Verursachungsgeflecht - geändert haben, etwa über andere Ernährungs- und Bewegungsgewohnheiten. Angesichts der geringen Bedeutung psychologischer Faktoren erscheinen Spekulationen darüber müßig, wie im Einzelnen die Kausalketten von Persönlichkeit zu Krankheit beschaffen sind.