Mitigated Speech

Every case of scientific misconduct involves a powerful scientist and dishonest or disgruntled underlings. In the case of Silvia Bulfone-Paus, two rogue post docs were assigned the blame for fraud. In the Baltimore Case a disgruntled post doc outed her P.I. Speaking truth to power is never easy, even when the powerful are scientists. They expect certain outcomes. If the truth differs from the expected outcome, you have a choice. Do you stick with the truth or do you tell the leader what they want to hear?

Telling the truth will require mitigated speech. You have to decide how to tell the powerful scientist something they don't want to hear. In a recent post I talked about a situation where the CEO of a biotechnology company would tell the white lab coat scientists what they were suppose to do in order to find drug delivering molecules. Point A, (do this) did not lead to point B (and you will have a drug delivering molecule). What was doable was point A. We could make a peptide library. Point B was scientific analysis of point A. To this date, no one has said to the leaders of the biotech company, "this isn't going to work".

The first question that really needed to be addressed was the logic behind the drug delivering holy grail research. The leadership had decided how the holy grail would be found. A peptide or protein would bind to certain cellular proteins and the binding would lead to all sorts of wonderful effects. But how did they know? We hadn't found the molecules that bind yet. Do you ask questions or do you do what you can and hope that things will work out? How do you deal with the research when you find a molecule that binds to it's intended target but the desired effect does not happen?

The term 'mitigated speech' was recently popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers. He defines mitigated speech as "any attempt to downplay or sugarcoat the meaning of what is being said". He continues with reference to Fischer and Orasanu, to describe 6 degrees of mitigation with which we make suggestions to authority:

1. Command – “Strategy X is going to be implemented”

2. Team Obligation Statement – “We need to try strategy X”

3. Team Suggestion – “Why don’t we try strategy X?”

4. Query – “Do you think strategy X would help us in this situation?”

5. Preference – “Perhaps we should take a look at one of these Y alternatives”

6. Hint – “I wonder if we could run into any roadblocks on our current course”

Gladwell brings up the concept in the context of how crews relate to each other in the cockpit of a commercial airliner, graphically illustrating the degree to which mitigated speech can be detrimental in high risk situations which require clear communication. Gladwell also talks about different cultures and how they use mitigated speech.

What then can we make of the culture of science? It has been shown to be, at times, the art of deception. It is self correcting, but those who possess power work against the self correcting, as exhibited in the Baltimore Case. It pits the P.I. against the underlings, the office versus the lab. There is no way to correct a superior when they are wrong, other than to hope they are open to such a discussion. When a paper needs to be retracted everyone, scientists and journal editors, are embarrassed. They mitigate the need for the retraction or worse, they brush it under the rug.

A new way of communicating science is needed, Does mitigated speech stifle innovation?