Overview

What if psychology isn’t as liberal as we think? Psychology is often seen as a progressive discipline — a champion of social justice, diversity, and liberal values. But this provocative book challenges that assumption. It argues that psychology, from its historical entanglements with eugenics and colonialism to its modern-day focus on individualism, has long served to reinforce the status quo. Even as many psychologists identify as politically liberal, the field’s methods, theories, and institutions often promote a worldview that downplays inequality, pathologizes dissent, and resists structural change. Psychology’s emphasis on personal responsibility, resilience, and self-help frequently aligns more closely with conservative ideals than with progressive ones. This book explores how the myth of a “liberal bias” in psychology has been weaponised in today’s culture wars — and how it distracts from the field’s real political blind spots. It asks: what would it mean for psychology to truly live up to its promise of promoting human welfare? Accessible, deeply researched, and sharply argued, Psychology’s Quiet Conservatism is essential reading for anyone interested in how science shapes society — and how society shapes science.

Full Product Details

Author:   Brian M. Hughes
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9783032077233

ISBN 10:   3032077230
Pages:   372
Publication Date:   22 October 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Part I The Myth of Liberal Bias in Psychology.- 1. Universities Under Fire.- 2. Psychology at the Centre of Cancel Culture.- 3. The Claim of Liberal Bias in Psychology.- 4. The Problem with Claims about Psychology’s ‘Liberal Bias’.- 5. Culture War Psychology: Why the Liberal Bias Myth Persists, and Why it is Damaging.- 6. Liberal Bias in Psychology: An Intellectual Mirage.- Part II Conservative Psychology, Past and Present.- 7. Legacy Conservatism.- 8. What the Standard History of Psychology Usually Ignores.- 9. Psychology’s Roots in Theology.- 10. Psychology’s Roots in Class Conflict.- 11. Psychology’s Roots in Eugenics.- 12. Psychology’s Conservative Paradigms.- 13. From Conservative Past to Neoliberal Present.- Part III Psychology, Capitalism, and Human Welfare.- 14. Hierarchies and Hysteria.- 15. The Contrivance of Capitalist Minds.- 16. Capitalist Psychology.- 17. The Capitalist Denial of Illness.- 18. ‘Personality Is Bad For You’.- 19. The Psychologising of the Sick.- 20. Unidentified Psychic Objects.- 21. Pathology and Protectionism.- Part IV Modernity and Declinism.- 22. Generation Snowflake.- 23. Depoliticising Youth Anxiety.- 24. Biological Reductionism Revisited.- Part V The Coddling of Conservative Minds.- 25. How Psychology Reinforces (and thus Perpetuates) Social Conservatism.- 26. Example #1: By Standing Up Against Safetyism.- 27. Example #2: By Pathologising Dissent.- 28. Example #3: By Labelling Deviance.- 29. Example #4: By Stigmatising Negativity.- 30. Example #5: By ‘Othering’ Ethnic Minorities.- 31. Example #6: By Policing Gender Identity.- 32. Example #7: By Perpetuating Traditional Gender Stereotypes.- 33. Example #8: By Exceptionalising Humanity.- Part VI Psychology’s Whiteness Problem.- 34. Weird Science.- 35. Structural Racism in Psychology.- 36. Mechanisms of Whiteness.- 37. Silence as Supremacy.- Part VII Academic Exceptionalism and Psychology’s Blind Eye.- 38. Internalising the War on ‘Woke’.- 39. Good Science, Bad Science, Pseudoscience.- 40. Exceptionalism in Psychology.- Part VIII Beyond ‘Liberal Bias’: Four Paths to a Well-Adjusted Psychology.- 41. Rights and Responsibilities.- 42. Path #1: Effortful Diversity.- 43. Path #2: Constructive Action in Education and Academia.- 44. Path #3: Constructive Action in the Public Square.- 45. Path #4: De-privileging Psychology.

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Author Information

Brian M. Hughes is Professor of Psychology at the University of Galway, Ireland. A leading expert in stress, health, and the public understanding of science, he is a prominent commentator and advocate for evidence-based policy. His books include A Conceptual History of Psychology (2022), The Psychology of Brexit (2019), and Psychology in Crisis (2018).

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