The rule I was taught was to answer the question of whether the participant left the session with an understanding that could produce harm to the participant. Extreme example: I tell the participant that he had ingested kool-aid when he had received kool-aid plus alcohol (or the reverse condition). In such a case, the participant needed to be informed of the deception.
This concern was to be balanced against harming the scientific integrity of the study by informing the participant of the hypothesis, which could then be passed along to other future participants— rendering the study a scientific waste of time. The latter concern is legitimate. A long time ago, we used to post notices of experiments on a common cork board. I would send research methods students to listen to the conversations of people as they decided whether to sign up for an experiment. There was lots of discussion in front of the cork board as people related whether the study was “fun” and what was the goal of the study. Ken --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Professor Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu <http://www.psych.appstate.edu/> Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > On Oct 8, 2017, at 3:07 PM, Miguel Roig <[email protected]> wrote: > > I was about to convey something similar before I saw Karl's post. Admittedly, > this is a mild form of deception (would anyone really object to participating > in the study because they were told that the study was of memory rather than > of attention or vice versa?). The fact is that very often researchers do not > reveal their hypotheses to potential subjects and although such situations > are not considered deception, I sometimes wonder whether there are cases in > which Ss feel mildly misled because they did not get this one piece of > information. Anyway, if the deception is confined to the study title and not > to how the study is presented to potential Ss as part of the consent process, > then I wonder if you might want to come up with a neutral title thereby > avoiding the minor deception that would occur with the misleading title. > > Miguel > ________________________________________ > From: Wuensch, Karl Louis [[email protected]] > Sent: Sunday, October 8, 2017 2:56 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: RE: [tips] to deceive or not to deceive > > One of my grad students deceived subjects by telling them that the > research was designed to investigate the physiology of taking online quizzes. > In fact, the research involved relating physiology to cheating on such > quizzes. Because of such deception, our IRB informed us that not only did we > need to reveal such deception during the debriefing but also allow subjects > to withdraw their data from the study if they wished to do so. > > > Cheers, > [Karl L. Wuensch]<http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/klw.htm> > From: Carol DeVolder [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2017 1:19 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: [tips] to deceive or not to deceive > > > > Good afternoon, TIPSters. I have a question regarding IRBs and informed > consent. My students submitted their proposal and created a "working title" > for their study that doesn't reveal their real intent (they are looking at > memory rather than attention). To disclose the true nature of the study to > participants would nullify the results by creating demand characteristics. > Does this qualify as deception? Is there some rule somewhere (either an APA > or an NIH OHSR rule or code) that addresses this specifically? > Thanks, > Carol > > > -- > Carol DeVolder, Ph.D. > Professor of Psychology > St. Ambrose University > 518 West Locust Street > Davenport, Iowa 52803 > 563-333-6482<tel:(563)%20333-6482> > > > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13060.c78b93d4d09ef6235e9d494b3534420e&n=T&l=tips&o=51497 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-51497-13060.c78b93d4d09ef6235e9d494b35344...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-51497-13060.c78b93d4d09ef6235e9d494b35344...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. > > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=1632838.7e62b84813297f170a6fc240dab8c12d&n=T&l=tips&o=51498 > > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > > or send a blank email to > leave-51498-1632838.7e62b84813297f170a6fc240dab8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-51498-1632838.7e62b84813297f170a6fc240dab8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13524.94845a3ed9806f1cef14973830dd8c39&n=T&l=tips&o=51499 > or send a blank email to > leave-51499-13524.94845a3ed9806f1cef14973830dd8...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<image001.jpg> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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