Doctoral Dissertation Research: Legitimation Networks in Fringe and Normal Sciences

个人或群体的合法性在决定其在任何政治、社会或经济制度中的资源份额方面是重要的。个人或群体越合法，他们对社会资源的潜在份额就越大。以前的研究集中在合法性对不同类型的社会单位和结果的影响上。相反，这个项目考察了群体获得和维持合法性的机制。我们的理论提出，合法性的提高程度是基于群体内部关系的高度团结，以及群体从外部获得的“认可关系”的高发生率。我们将通过访谈和问卷调查收集社会计量学数据来测试这一理论，问卷调查的对象是两个学术领域的成员，超心理学和人类认知和感知心理学。我们已经从几乎所有领先的超心理学家那里收集了数据。在这个项目中，我们将从领先的人类认知和感知心理学家那里收集可比较的数据，并将使用这两个数据集来测试我们的理论。

The legitimacy of persons or groups is important in determining their share of resources in any political, social or economic system. The more legitimate the person or group, the greater their potential share of society's resources. Previous research has focused on the consequences of legitimacy for different sorts of social units and outcomes. This project instead examines the mechanisms by which groups attain and maintain legitimacy. Our theory proposes that legitimacy is heightened to the degree that there is both high solidarity, based on intra-group ties, and a high incidence of `endorsement ties` received by the group from outside. We will test this theory using sociometric data gathered through interviews and questionnaires administered to members of two academic fields, parapsychology and the psychology of human cognition and perception. We have already collected data from nearly all of the leading parapsychologists. In this project we will gather comparable data from leading psychologists of human cognition and perception and will use the two data sets to test our theory.