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Margaret Mead and behavioral scientists in World War II: Problems in responsibility, truth, and effectiveness
Author(s) -
Mabee Carleton
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(198701)23:1<3::aid-jhbs2300230102>3.0.co;2-u
Subject(s) - world war ii , psychological science , public opinion , behavioural sciences , psychology , environmental ethics , political science , social psychology , sociology , law , social science , philosophy , politics
In World War II, Margaret Mead and her behavioral science colleagues actively applied their science to the American war effort on issues such as morale, food habits, psychological warfare, and the evacuation of Japanese‐Americans from the West Coast. Mead's participation or lack of participation in these activities, and her varying enthusiasms and misgivings about them, raise fundamental issues about the responsibility of behavioral scientists to warn the public against dangerous policies, as well as the ethics of behavioral scientists participating in deceitful psychological warfare and the extent of their effectiveness in contributing to public policymaking.