I'm very torn on these kinds of studies. In my field we see a lot of studies looking at gender and racial disparities in healthcare offered (e.g. what kinds of

I'm very torn on these kinds of studies. In my field we see a lot of studies looking at gender and racial disparities in healthcare offered (e.g. what kinds of _______ therapy are prescribed to various racial groups). While such disparities are probably important in some cases, the "why" is generally not addressed in the study outcome, and rather the results are open to all sorts of interpretations based on our biases. And then of course any disparities, properly normalized for alternative factors (or not), have to be corrected. Very messy science. It's also easy and politically expedient science - these days we're obsessed with inequality, and if you just comb around you're bound to find some statistically significant disparities and that gets everyone's attention. If researchers were trying to investigate population-level thoughtcrime, this is what it might look like.