Theory‑as‑Identity in Social Science

When academic theories become tied to scholars’ professional identity, they cease functioning primarily as testable models and instead guide selective evidence‑use and rhetorical defense. That dynamic produces durable intellectual monocultures that are resistant to falsification and that leak into policy advocacy. — If social‑science theories are treated as identity markers, public policy will be justified by disciplinary allegiances rather than by convergent evidence, eroding institutional legitimacy and producing brittle reforms.