‘Are You Insane?’ New President of American Psychological Association Provokes Criticism

The new president of the American Psychological Association has been accused by fellow psychologists of promoting activism over science. Candice Nicole Hargons, a tenured associate professor at Emory University, was elected Sunday as the APA’s 2028 president. She will take over the organization, which represents more than 190,000 researchers, clinicians, educators and students, on January 1, 2028. Her election is drawing scrutiny from critics who see her research and presidential platform as part of a shift within psychology toward activism.Ms. Hargons has stated that the profession’s “common enemy” is “systemic intersectional oppression,” has rejected the traditional scientific ideal of objectivity, and wants to pair psychologists with social media influencers to help shape the online conversation about mental health.Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University, tells the Sun that Ms. Hargons’ election reflects a battle within the organization.“The APA is struggling to maintain its already shaky reputation as a science organization with a membership that continues to push for political activism,” Mr. Ferguson tells the Sun. He says the election highlights how the organization plans to “stay the course” on progressive politics.“Are you insane?” psychologist J.D. Haltigan wrote on X in response to the APA announcement.Some of Ms. Hargons’ most striking positions come not from old research but from the platform she submitted to APA members this year.“Our common enemy is systemic intersectional oppression,” Ms. Hargons wrote, saying psychologists should use their science and skills to identify and work toward eradicating such systems. She described liberation as a guiding value and said she wants the APA to help build what comes after psychologists “dismantle oppressive systems.”Asked by the APA how she defines scientific integrity, Ms.Hargons wrote that she “reject[s] the positivist paradigm’s assertion of objectivity.”“True integrity means being accountably subjective,” she said, arguing that scientists should be transparent about who they are and what they find rather than present what she called “manufactured certainty.”One of the initiatives she has proposed as president is a “Psychologist x Influencer Fellowship,” which would pair researchers and practitioners with digital creators to translate scientific findings into “viral, life-changing content.” Ms. Hargons says the program would combat misinformation and allow psychologists to “influence the digital narrative.”Her academic work reflects many of the same themes.Ms. Hargons was the lead author of a study titled “‘White People Stress Me Out All the Time’: Black Students Define Racial Trauma,” based on interviews with 26 black college students. The research used what the authors described as a “constructivist-interpretivist paradigm” and black feminist qualitative framework. The title came from a participant, rather than Ms. Hargons herself.She also co-authored a paper proposing a model of “whiteness as a source of trauma for Black people,” which described whiteness as “the impetus for racism.” The model included concepts such as “White standardization,” “White emotions” and “White privilege.”Other scholarship has focused on sexual liberation, kink and BDSM, and nonbinary black people. Ms. Hargons has used the alternative spelling “womxn” in some research involving nonbinary black participants, though she uses the conventional word “women” elsewhere in her work.The APA presidency gives Ms. Hargons a sizable platform, but not unilateral authority over the organization.The president is elected by APA members and chairs both its Board of Directors and its Council of Representatives. Presidents also have a budget for presidential initiatives, provided those projects fit the association’s strategic plan and receive Board approval. The Council, however, has sole authority to set APA policy and appropriate its annual income.Ms. Hargons would also not be the first APA president to bring activism to psychology at the center of the office. In 2023, then-president Thema Bryant urged psychologists to “embrace decolonial psychology” and called for “dismantling systems of oppression and promoting liberation.” Current president Wendi Williams entered office this year promoting “radical wellness” and describing psychologists as operating within “intersecting systems of power and oppression.”The organization has faced far more serious leadership controversies in the past.An independent investigation released in 2015 found an “ongoing pattern of collusion” between a small group of APA representatives and Defense Department officials over ethical guidance governing psychologists involved in national-security interrogations. APA apologized after the review, saying the conduct may have enabled abusive interrogation practices.Ms. Hargons’s election therefore raises a different question for the organization: how far an association that presents itself as an authority on psychological science should go in explicitly embracing social and political change as part of its scientific mission.Ms. Hargons argues the two are intertwined.“Psychology holds the key to solving society’s most enduring challenges,” she told APA members during her campaign.

‘Are You Insane?’ New President of American Psychological Association Provokes Criticism

‘Are You Insane?’ New President of American Psychological Association Provokes Criticism

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