Sometimes I wonder if researchers are too conflict-averse temperamentally to effectively police themselves. I remember grad school being suffused with below-the-surface grudges, innuendo, and shunning. Those aren't healthy ways to resolve conflicts, but they seemed like the path of least resistance for people who fear the raising of voices.
Is that really temperament? I always thought of that as learned behavior necessary to survive in an academic context, where one's fate is for years in the hands of various authorities who can cause you a great deal of harm.
