'So stupid!' Prof. shares government threat to halt scientific studies mentioning 'women'

President Donald Trump's administration reportedly threatened to halt grants for scientific studies that mention words like "female," "women," "systemic" or "trauma."

Darby Saxbe, a professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California, shared a leaked list of words that could cause scientific studies to be flagged by the National Science Foundation.

"This is a crisis for academic freedom & science," Saxbe wrote. "These keywords could show up in the text of ANY grant involving human participants. If you say you're going to study men and women, you get flagged. If you say you're going to control for socioeconomic status - totally standard practice - you get flagged. Disability? Flagged."

"The word 'systemic' is on the banned list, so if I study systemic inflammation & health, flagged. If I study political science, flagged. If I study trauma, flagged. Keep in mind that the largest mental health provider in the country is the Veteran's Administration, but we can't study trauma now?" she continued. " If I study anxiety via threat-biased attention, the word 'biased' gets me flagged. You can't design a study of humans without using at least one of the terms on the banned list, which means that biomedical, brain, social science research is now on ice in the USA."

"This is what makes them so stupid. Clearly, they only have an elementary school education. Good grief. Why use words at all?"

Although a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump's federal grant funding freeze, the NSF was continuing to flag scientific studies, according to reports.

Read the partial list of words below.

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

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— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:26 PM

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— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:28 PM

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— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:28 PM

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— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:28 PM

Decision tree that has been sent to Program Officers at NSF

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— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM

These keywords could show up in the text of ANY grant involving human participants. If you say you're going to study men and women, you get flagged. If you say you're going to control for socioeconomic status - totally standard practice - you get flagged. Disability? Flagged.
— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM

The word "systemic" is on the banned list, so if I study systemic inflammation & health, flagged. If I study political science, flagged. If I study trauma, flagged. Keep in mind that the largest mental health provider in the country is the Veteran's Administration, but we can't study trauma now?
— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:33 PM

If I study anxiety via threat-biased attention, the word "biased" gets me flagged. You can't design a study of humans without using at least one of the terms on the banned list, which means that biomedical, brain, social science research is now on ice in the USA
— Darby Saxbe (@darbysaxbe.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 8:34 PM

This is what makes them so stupid. Clearly, they only have an elementary school education. Good grief. Why use words at all?
— Mel (@melsdogs.bsky.social) February 4, 2025 at 7:15 AM