The politics of willful ignorance have corrupted leading scientific institutions in the West. For years, it has been an open secret that prestigious journals often reject papers that offend prevailing political orthodoxies - especially when they deal with controversial aspects of human biology and behavior - no matter how scientifically sound the work may be. The leading journal Nature Human Behaviour recently formally recognized this practice in an editorial effectively announcing that it would not publish studies that show the wrong kinds of differences between human groups. This censorship hinders the progress of research into genetics and the influence of genes on human traits.