Achim Edelmann, James Moody and Ryan Light authored "When Scientists Take a Stand on Contentious Issues: Disparate Foundations of Scientists' Policy Positions on Contentious Biomedical Research" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).
According to the study of 378 scientists who signed petitions either supporting or opposing “gain-of-function” research, where potentially pandemic pathogens are intentionally produced for study, the probability of a scientist supporting such research decreased if collaborators signed the opposing petition, while scientists who supported gain-of-function typically specialized in directly related fields such as virology and immunology, suggesting that different social processes drive support and opposition.
Department of Sociology