But most investigators do care about the results; that's why they do the research in the first place. And that's why, on a regular, sometimes daily, basis your everyday working scientist comes up against the conflict between her desire to achieve a certain result and her obligation to uncover the truth. That conflict is an important part of the scientist's inner world. It influences every feature of the research endeavor from the research question selected to research design, methods of measurement, and the statistics applied in data analysis.
An array of motives far too vast to enumerate lie beneath the desire to find one "truth" rather than another. Among the most powerful and ungovernable stands desire for recognition. But less troublesome ones are also at play. A "positive" result can bring a grant, the gratitude of your supervisor, a poster at the Federation meeting and with it another crack at ...
