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Category: Project

Description: As Vazire (2017) states, “When our scientific institutions allow, or worse, encourage, our desire for eminence or impact to rule the roost, scientific rigor will suffer.” (p. 6). Furthermore, as Zuckerman (1992) writes concerning prizes and their role in science, “They also reinforce competitiveness , encourage “sharp elbows”, heighten disappointment and envy, encourage excessive claims to individual credit for essentially collaborative work and, on occasion, claims to credit for work done entirely by others.” (p. 228). It can therefore be seen as unhelpful that many Psychological Science organizations feel the need to hand out awards to individuals. If, and that may be a big if, there are scientifically useful and/or valid reasons to hand out awards (cf. Zuckerman, 1992), perhaps explicitly handing out awards to papers instead of people would serve the same purpose, and would be more in line with scientific values and principles.