Justifying Deception in Social Science Research

The use of deceptive techniques is common in social science research. It is argued that the use of such techniques is incompatible with the standard of informed consent, which is widely employed in the ethical evaluation of research involving human subjects. A number of proposals to justify the use of deceptions in social science research are examined, in the face of its apparent incompatibility with the standard of informed consent, and found to be inadequate. An alternative method of justification is outlined, which enables some deceived participants in social science research to rationally and autonomously choose to participate in that research. The alternative method of justification appeals to the idea of indirect consent , which is introduced. It is argued that research subjects who receive reliable testimony regarding research procedures can sometimes be placed in a position to rationally and autonomously consent indirectly to participation in experiments and studies, even if these involve significant deceptions.     

Alcohol, sexual arousal, and intentions to use condoms in young men: applying alcohol myopia theory to risky sexual behavior.

Data from 7 studies were aggregated to examine how reported sexual arousal and alcohol intoxication interact to affect attitudes and intentions toward engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse in college-age men (N = 358). When participants were in a sober or placebo condition, their self-reports of sexual arousal had no effect on their responses. When participants were intoxicated, however, those who felt sexually aroused reported more favorable attitudes, thoughts, and intentions toward having unprotected sex than did those who did not feel aroused. These findings support alcohol myopia theory (C. M. Steele & R. A. Josephs, 1990), which states that alcohol intoxication restricts attentional capacity so that people are highly influenced by the most salient cues in their environment. It is suggested that sexual arousal is a powerful internal cue that interacts with alcohol intoxication to enhance attitudes and intentions toward risky sexual behaviors.     

Identifying barriers to help-seeking: a qualitative analysis of students' preparedness to seek help from tutors

A qualitative study based on the first-hand accounts of students in higher education was conducted Participants were encouraged to explain, in their own terms, their own help-seeking behaviour. The focus for their explanations was 'help-seeking from academic staff'. The aim of the study was to construct a culturally sensitive account of barriers to help-seeking in a student population. The discussion focuses on how studies of this kind might complement and extend what is already known about help-seeking m the extant literature.     

Memory systems in the rat: effects of reward probability,context, and congruency between working and reference memory

The interaction of working and reference memory was studied in rats on an eight-arm radial maze. In two experiments, rats were trained to perform working memory and reference memory tasks. On working memory trials, they were allowed to enter four randomly chosen arms for reward in a study phase and then had to choose the unentered arms for reward in a test phase. On reference memory trials, they had to learn to visit the same four arms on the maze on every trial for reward. Retention was tested on working memory trials in which the interval between the study and test phase was 15 s, 15 min, or 30 min. At each retention interval, tests were performed in which the correct WM arms were either congruent or incongruent with the correct RM arms. Both experiments showed that congruency interacted with retention interval, yielding more forgetting at 30 min on incongruent trials than on congruent trials. The effect of reference memory strength on the congruency effect was examined in Experiment 1, and the effect of associating different contexts with working and reference memory on the congruency effect was studied in Experiment 2.     

Examining Ethicality Judgements of Theft Behavior: The Role of Moral Relativism

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether situational factors predict ethicality judgments of theft behavior, and whether the effect of situational factors is moderated by moral relativism.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained across two laboratory experiments using undergraduate business students attending a Canadian university (n = 372). Student participants viewed a videotaped vignette of an employee informed that he had been caught stealing sales commission. In the vignettes, we manipulated two situational factors: whether or not (a) the theft has monetary consequences for the organization, and (b) similar theft is commonplace within the organization.

Findings

In Experiment 1, both situational factors interacted with moral relativism in the prediction of ratings of unethical conduct. In Experiment 2, using a within-participant research design, we achieved an interaction between the organizational consequences manipulation and moral relativism, although we obtained a considerably stronger effect size for the interaction compared to the first experiment.

Implications

We discuss implications of our findings and suggest avenues for future research. In particular, we consider the possibility that managers may not share a common frame-of-reference when considering the ethicality of theft. This could affect whether and the extent to which theft behavior is reprimanded.

Originality/Value

Our study contributes to research on employee theft, and also adds incrementally to our understanding of how both situational factors and moral relativism jointly influence perceptions of theft behavior.