Mason says the report's measures are not well validated
Lilliana MasonProfessor of political science at Johns Hopkins University
Mason says she would recommend rejecting the paper in peer review. She questions whether its scale measures authoritarianism rather than alignment with the Democratic Party.
“If I were to be a peer reviewer for this paper, I would recommend that it be rejected. I just don't believe that it's written in good faith and the measures are not well validated,”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Does the HHS report support linking gender-affirming guidance to authoritarianism and violence justification?
An HHS report released on August 26, 2026 reported correlations in an online survey between agreement with five selected gender-affirmation statements, left-wing-authoritarianism scores, and stated justification for specified political-violence scenarios. HHS says the study did not measure violent behavior or intent and cannot establish causation. Critics dispute whether its measures and framing support broader conclusions about gender-affirming guidance.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
NPR examines the report's measurement choices and commissioning process and includes responses from its authors.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
NPR asks Mason about the study's definitions and measures of political violence and authoritarianism.
After the quotation
The report's authors defend their methodology and the distinction between association and causation.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to the HHS report's claim linking gender-affirmation support with authoritarianism and violence, the speaker criticizes its methods, framing or use.
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More from this case
Read the full caseWright and coauthors defend study with stated limits
“Our measures assessed endorsed justification for violence, not actually engaging in violence.”Read statement
Webberley challenges the report's use in healthcare policy
“This is not how evidence-based research works, and it is not how policy affecting trans people's healthcare should be made.”Read statement
Shanker criticizes the commissioning process for the HHS report
“That's vastly different from how this administration seems to already have the answers for the reports they're publishing before they start. And they're partnering with politically-aligned researchers and think tanks to develop reports that meet a political conclusion rather than a scientific one,”Read statement
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The Dispute Index. "Mason says the report's measures are not well validated". First published: 2026-10-25. Last updated: 2026-10-25. https://disputeindex.com/events/6770-mason-says-she-would-recommend-rejecting-the-paper