Diverse Research

In the debate about multiculturalism, new research sheds light on its benefits (or lack thereof):

But now a considerable amount of solid evidence about multiculturalism is in, and it suggests that far from something positive, it is a corroding and corrupting influence on just about everything that it comes in contact with, from social capital, trust, and community spirit to altruism, volunteering, friendship and even happiness.

That's the startling conclusion from Harvard's Robert Putnam...

Of course Putnam is in an awkward situation:

As a champion of multicultural diversity, Putnam finds his results disturbing and he has been reluctant to publish them. The only place to find them is in a speech reprinted in the academic journal Scandinavian Political Studies. And even there the data is not provided, only summarized. Putnam told the Financial Times that he "had delayed publishing his results until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity."

Nothing like doing research expecting to find something wonderful but instead finding something awful. However, if one was truly an objective researcher, would one delay publishing one's results?