It is the conventional wisdom in the biological and physical sciences, and within research agencies, that the social sciences are, well, 'soft', and lacking in methodological rigour. That's why it is arresting that the US National Science Foundation's prestigious Alan T. Waterman award for young scientists has gone this year to Dalton Conley, a sociologist at New York University (see page 1024). Conley specializes in the detailed study of economic outcomes among underprivileged groups, and says he avoids research on attitudes because they can't be measured accurately. Research agencies in the United States and elsewhere need to support more social scientists like him, because their work can potentially make a valuable contribution to the study of important societal problems.
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