The National Science Foundation too often shortchanges American taxpayers by funding low-value, low-priority social science projects.
Here are some doozies: the veiling-fashion industry in Turkey, Viking textiles in Iceland, the “social impacts” of tourism in the northern tip of Norway, legal careers in transition following law school, and whether hunger causes couples to fight (using the number of pins stuck in voodoo dolls as a measure of aggressive feelings).
In a world in which research funding is a zero-sum game, the foundation's Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) has shown that it lacks sufficient integrity and professional judgment to be trusted.