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 article on child sexual abuse (CSA), an article in which we concluded, based on 59 meta-analytically reviewed studies using college samples, that the assumed harmfulness of CSA had been overstated (Rind, Tromovitch, & Bauserman, 1998). The condemnation followed months of attacks by social conservatives and by mental health professionals specializing either in curing homosexuality or in treating patients by inducing them to recover memories of CSA. In this article, we detail the chronology behind the attacks. Then we discuss the science behind our meta-analysis, showing that the attacks were specious and that our study employed sound science, advancing the field considerably by close attention to issues of external, internal, and construct validity, as well as precision and objectivity. Next, we discuss orthodoxies and moral panics more generally, arguing that our article was attacked as vehemently as it was because it collided with a powerful, but socially constructed orthodoxy that has evolved over the last quarter century. Finally, we offer reflections and recommendations for fellow researchers, lest this kind of event recur. We focus on the need for greater cognizance of historical attacks on science to anticipate and deflate future attacks. We argue that 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 failure of psychology to adequately deal with the study of human sexuality, a problem that enabled the faulty attacks on our article, and we suggest directions for becoming more scientific in this area. And last, we raise the issue of how professional organizations might deal more effectively with such attacks in the future.     

Sweetening the Till: The Use of Candy to Increase Restaurant Tipping1

A common practice among servers in restaurants is to give their dining parties an unexpected gift in the form of candy when delivering the check. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of this gesture on the tip percentages received by servers. Experiment 1 found that customers who received a small piece of chocolate along with the check tipped more than did customers who received no candy. Experiment 2 found that tips varied with the amount of the candy given to the customers as well as with the manner in which it was offered. It is argued that reciprocity is a stronger explanation for these findings than either impression management or the good mood effect.     

CONDEMNATION OF A SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE: A CHRONOLOGY AND REFUTATION OF THE ATTACKS AND A DISCUSSION OF THREATS TO THE INTEGRITY OF SCIENCE

On July 12, 1999, our meta-analysis on child sexual abuse published in Psychological Bulletin, one of the American Psychological Association's (APA) premiere journals, was condemned by the U.S. Congress (H. Con. Res. 107). The condemnation followed months of attacks on the article, the APA, and us by various social conservatives and psychoanalytically-oriented clinicians. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) was asked by the APA to independently review our article. After considering criticisms of it and the article itself, AAAS declined, but commented that it was the criticisms, not our methods or analyses, that troubled them because these criticisms misrepresented what we wrote. The current article chronicles this whole affair. First, we provide background, explaining why an article such as ours was needed. Then we accurately summarize the article, given that it has been so widely misrepresented. Next we present a chronology of the events leading up to and following the condemnation. We then present and refute all the major criticisms of the article, which have included both methodological and conceptual attacks. Next we discuss the threat to science that these events portend. We conclude by discussing the need to separate moral judgments from scientific research, the conflation of which formed the basis for the distortions and condemnation.     

Effect on Restaurant Tipping of Presenting Customers With an Interesting Task and of Reciprocity

Research has shown that servers can increase their tip percentages by positively influencing customers' mood and using the compliance technique of reciprocity. These factors were examined in the current study. An experiment was conducted in which a female server either did or did not present customers with a novel, interesting task that has been shown in previous research to stimulate interest and enhance mood. Additionally, sometimes she allowed customers to keep the task, in an attempt to elicit reciprocity. It was predicted that both of these manipulations would increase tip percentages. Presenting customers with the interesting task did increase tips, from about 18.5% to 22%, although the reciprocity manipulation had no effect.     

Effect of Beliefs About Future Weather Conditions on Restaurant Tipping

Research has shown that favorable weather is associated with increased tipping and that beliefs that weather is favorable can produce higher tips. In the current study, the possibility that beliefs about future weather conditions would affect tipping was experimentally examined. A server in a midscale restaurant wrote on the back of customers' checks either nothing, that the weather would be good the next day, or that the weather would not be so good the next day. Compared to writing nothing ( M = 18.73%) or giving an unfavorable forecast ( M = 18.18%), giving a favorable forecast ( M = 22.21%) resulted in significantly higher tip percentages. The power of beliefs, irrespective of their veridicality, regarding the state of atmospheric conditions in affecting human response is discussed.     

Effect on Restaurant Tipping of Male and Female Servers Drawing a Happy, Smiling Face on the Backs of Customers' Checks

Research has shown that a server's smiling can increase restaurant tips and that a server's writing "thank you" on the backs of checks can also increase tips. In the current study, these two approaches were combined. An experiment was conducted in which a male or female server drew a happy, smiling face on the backs of checks before delivering them to customers, or simply delivered checks with nothing drawn on the back. It was predicted that this tactic would increase tips for the female server because of an increased perception of friendliness, but would not increase tips for the male server because such behavior would be perceived as gender-inappropriate. Results were consistent with predictions.     

Effect of Server's “Thank You” and Personalization on Restaurant Tipping1

Servers in restaurants frequently use the tactic of writing “thank you” on the backs of checks before delivering them to dining parties. Servers also frequently personalize their interaction with dining parties by signing their first name below the gratitude message. The effectiveness of these tactics in increasing tips was examined. In a field experiment conducted in an upscale restaurant in a large Northeastern city, a server wrote on the backs of the checks either nothing, “thank you,” or “thank you” plus her first name. The addition of “thank you” increased tip percentages, although personalization by adding her first name had no effect. It was concluded that the commonly employed low-cost tactic of expressing gratitude to customers by writing “thank you” on the check can produce a worthwhile return.     

Effects of Impressions of Amazement and Foolishness on Compliance

Impression management theory maintains that the use of strategic tactics such as self-promotion can influence targets in desired directions. Self-promotion concerns an actor's attempts to establish an image of competence. In this study, a confederate attempted to sell raffle tickets to targets after promoting himself by amazing his targets with his extraordinary calculating skills (high competence), making a fool of himself by exhibiting calculating skills falling far short of pretensions (low competence), or making no impression at all. Amazing targets was achieved by communicating with the experimenter using a concealed communications device. It was found that amazement increased compliance substantially over foolishness and making no impression, while foolishness yielded the same degree of compliance as making no impression. Thus, the utility of self-promotion in influencing others, as predicted by impression management theory, received empirical support.     

Effect on Restaurant Tipping of a Helpful Message Written on the Back of Customers' Checks

Research has shown that servers can increase their tip percentages by writing "Thank you" or by drawing a happy face on the backs of customers' checks. In the current study, a third approach of this type was tested. An experiment was conducted in which a female server either did or did not write a helpful message about an upcoming dinner special on the backs of checks before delivering them to customers. It was predicted that adding the helpful message would increase tip percentages because of reciprocity, in which customers would tend to respond to the server's "tip" with an increased tip of their own. Results were consistent with this prediction: Mean tip percentages increased from about 17% to 20%.