The Trump Administration Is Done With Social Science
The National Science Foundation division that covers social, behavioral, and economic sciences is in the crosshairs.
TL;DR
- The Trump administration plans to cut the NSF budget in half and eliminate the SBE division, a move that requires congressional approval.
- The administration views hard sciences as key to future dominance, dismissing social sciences as 'ideologically-driven'.
- NSF's SBE division funds major social science surveys that are crucial for understanding economic mobility, domestic life, and voting behavior.
- Funding cuts have already impacted doctoral research in fields like archaeology and anthropology, and grants for science and technology studies have been stalled.
- Despite historical criticism and past proposed cuts, social science research has demonstrated concrete benefits, such as improving kidney-donor matching and retirement savings nudges.
- Some conservative analysts and hard-science organizations argue that social science research is vital for informed policymaking and understanding fundamental human interactions, even in technology-driven fields.