Science versus orthodoxy: Anatomy of the congressional condemnation of a scientific article and reflections on remedies for future ideological attacks

In July 1999, the U.S. Congress passed a Formal resolution condemning our a rticle on child sexual abuse (CSA), an article in which we concluded, based on 59 meta-analytically reviewed studies using college samples, that the a ssumed harmfulness of CSA had been overstated (Rind, Tromovitch, & Bauserma n, 1998). The condemnation followed months of attacks by social conservativ es and by mental health professionals specializing either in curing homosex uality or in treating patients by inducing them to recover memories of CSA. In this article, we detail the chronology behind the attacks. Then we disc uss the science behind our meta-analysis, showing that the attacks were spe cious and that our study employed sound science, advancing the field consid erably by close attention to issues of external, internal, and construct va lidity, as well as precision and objectivity. Next, we discuss orthodoxies and moral panics more generally, arguing that our article was attacked as v ehemently as it was because it collided with a powerful, but socially const ructed orthodoxy that has evolved over the last quarter century. Finally, w e offer reflections and recommendations For fellow researchers, lest this k ind of event recur. We focus on the need for greater cognizance of historic al attacks on science to anticipate and deflate future attacks. We argue th at our research should stand as another reminder among many that sacred-cow issues do not belong in science. We discuss nonscientific advocacy in the social sciences and the need to recognize and counter it. We discuss the fa ilure of psychology to adequately deal with the study of human sexuality, a problem that enabled the faulty attacks on our article, and we suggest dir ections for becoming more scientific in this area. And last, we raise the i ssue of how professional organizations might deal more effectively with suc h attacks in the future.