The reward system of science assigns credit for scientific achievement. There is evidence that credit attribution in science is imperfect. For example, Rosalind Franklin is often said not to have received the credit she deserved for the discovery of the DNA structure, and it is often also implied that this is so because of gender bias. Beyond well-known – and highly controversial – historical episodes, there is little systematic evidence tackling the question head-on of how biased credit attribution really is in science. In order to fill this gap in our knowledge, and building on the approach of “experimental philosophy”, which has formed in the past twenty years or so, I conducted a survey experiment involving more than 1,000 physicists. Beyond gender bias, the study also probes bias for certain types of contribution (theoretical vs. experimental) and whether gender bias and type of contribution bias may interact. 

Coffee/tea, cake and fruit will be served at 13:15.