Is It Possible to Be an Ethicist without Being Mean to People?

I was surprised to see your trashing of a recent paper in Psych Science, and even more surprised to discover that you didn’t contact the authors of the paper before you publically leveled charges of sloppiness and stupidity (if not dishonesty) against them. It is really quite shameful. I was glad to see that they posted a thoughtful and temperate response on their website, though sad that it won’t be read by all the people who first saw your attack. Some of your points were good, some were sophomoric, and it is hard to understand why you wouldn’t have shared your complaints with the authors so that they could help you distinguish between the two. That’s something scientists do when their goal is to learn the truth rather than to entertain readers. You hurt the feelings and reputations of some nice young people. I hope you’re proud.