Publishing doubts about models can conflict with protecting one’s business interests

Evidence

Rubinstein believed (but could not prove) that the SEC was wrong, and that the pressure of futures selling by portfolio insurers had been critical. He told the SEC, but did not publish his concerns: “for the first time in my career I had a conflict of interests… I wasn’t sure about it and I didn’t want to stick my neck out and do a thing that would have hurt the business.” — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 815

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the performativity thesis — the model’s inventor had private doubts but suppressed them, so the model’s authority in the market was partly maintained by self-censorship. Relevant to a performativity analysis. — connects to: Commercial conflicts of interest in science threaten public trust in research — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 857; Brand protection against one’s double is a paralyzing paradox — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 463
• SEED: Angle: the economics of self-censorship among model-builders whose livelihood depends on the market believing their models. What other academic-practitioner figures face this conflict?

Broader Connections

• Commercial conflicts of interest in science threaten public trust in research #expands (0.82) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 857
• Brand protection against one’s double is a paralyzing paradox #exemplifies (0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 463