EVEN biologists and physicists, who tend to look down their noses at the
social sciences, agree that psychologists might be onto something when they
suggest that role models are important in shaping social behaviour. Advertisers
certainly agree. That’s why they’ll kill to get famous sports or movie stars to
use their products. Even politicians have got the message, although their ideas
of what should be considered a role model sometimes defy rational
understanding.
But the role model concept doesn’t appear to have taken hold at the National
Academy of Sciences. The academy—a government-chartered, independent,
self-regulating collection of America’s top…
