Mass Communication Research
Research Ethics
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Ethics and the Research Process
Kerlinger and Lee (2000) note ethics should be presented before the research plan and design are discussed in order to design an ethically sound study. They find research ethics as behavior that should be followed through the entire  investigation process.

Infamous Research

  • In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service experimented on 399 poor, semiliterate, African American males who had contracted syphilis. Among other things, the Tuskegee study examined the effects of syphilis on untreated individuals — researchers told afflicted subjects that they were being treated when in fact they were not. Symptoms were measured and recorded periodically, and autopsies were performed after each death.

    Though victims could have been treated with penicillin available as early as the 1940s, some survivors didn't find out they weren't being properly treated until 1972, 40 years after the study began. At the time of disclosure, the study was still in progress.

  • Fallout from atmospheric atomic bomb tests in the late 1940s settled into the desert, exposing the crew, staff, and actors to radioactive sand during filming of the movie The Conqueror. Those exposed developed cancer and died from cancer-related illness, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Dick Powell.

  • In 1963, social psychologist Stanley Milgram recruited participants for a "learning" experiment. Milgram was curious if people would inflict harm on other humans because they were "under orders." Subjects were told to administer electric shocks of increasing intensity to "learners" for incorrect responses on a memorization task.

    The learner called from an adjoining room begging the subject to stop the shocks. Yet subjects continued to administer the shocks when the experimenter said, "Please continue" or "You have no choice, you must go on." (At the end of the experiment, subjects were introduced to the "learner" to show that no shocks were actually given).

    Milgram found the subject less likely to deliver the full series of shocks if the "learner" was in closer proximity. But even when the subject sat directly next to the "learner," 35% of the subjects delivered the maximum shocks when told to forceably push the "learner's" hand down on the shock device.

    It should be noted that some unethical research has yielded fruitful  results, e.g. Edward Jenner injected a child with a weaker form of the smallbox virus without asking permission, but in doing so developed a smallpox vaccine.
    • According to Wimmer and Dominick (2000), unethical research comes from pressure on researchers to cut corners while trying to publish an article, gain prestige or impress other colleagues. They note four reasons why researchers should be ethical:
    1. It's the right thing to do.

    2. Personal knowledge of acting in a morally appropriate manner.

    3. Important to shield respondents from unethical research practices.

    4. Unethical research practices tarnish the profession, and may result in negative public opinion.

    Ethical Theories
    • Deontological or rule-based theories — Immanuel Kant's philosophical variation on the Golden Rule: do not treat people as means through whom we can achieve our ends.

    • Teleological or balancing theories — John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism, i.e. goods that may come from an action are balanced against possible harms.

    • Relativistic theories — David Hume's rejection of absolutes of any kind, i.e. values are determined not by general principles but by individual cases, each growing out of customs and conventional behavior.

    Kerlinger and Lee (2000) note when a researcher studies human behavior, subjects are put at risk through coercion, deception, violation of privacy, breaches of confidentiality, stress, social injury, and failure to obtain informed consent. In general, you should treat participants fairly, and show them consideration and respect. Wimmer and Dominick (2000) find four ethical principles:
    1. autonomy — researcher should respect rights, values, and decisions of other people.

    2. nonmaleficence — it's wrong to intentionally inflict harm.

    3. beneficence — obligation to remove existing harms and confer benefits on others.

    4. justice — people equal in relevant respects should be treated equally.

    Ethical Dilemmas

    1. Voluntary Participation and Informed Consent —

      Individuals are entitled to decline to participate in any research project, or to terminate participation at any time. Voluntary participation is not a pressing issue in telephone or mail surveys. Why?

      For respondents to understand the significance of their participation, the American Psychological Association's Code of Conduct (see  www.apa.org/ethics/code.html) suggests:

      • Researchers should use language understandable to participants to obtain consent.

      • Researchers should tell participants they can withdraw from the research.

      • Researchers should inform participants of the important things that might affect their decision (such as discomfort and loss of confidentiality).

      • If participation in a research project is a course requirement or an opportunity for extra credit, students should be given a choice of alternative activities.

      • Prior consent must be obtained if participants will be filmed, taped, or recorded in any form unless the research involves natural observation in public places.

    2. Concealment and Deception — Found in experimental research, concealment  means withholding of certain information from subjects; deception  means deliberately providing false information.

      As the book notes, it's one thing to falsify the origin of a newspaper article, quite another to tell the subject the experiment is testing latent suicidal tendencies. The APA's 1992 statement of principals states:

      • Deception should not be used unless it is justified by the study's scientific value and other non-deceptive techniques are not feasible.

      • Subjects should never be deceived about factors that might have an impact on their informed consent.

      • If deception is used, subjects should be debriefed as soon as possible.

    3. Protection of Privacy — Field researchers use public places to observe people without their knowledge. To minimize ethical problems, privacy should be violated only to the minimum degree needed to gather data.

      Survey respondents have a right to know if their privacy will be maintained and who will have access to the provided information. Privacy can be guaranteed by assuring anonymity  or confidentiality.

    4. Federal Regulations — Federal regulations require a subject's informed consent before participating, though the following research is exempt:

      • studies using existing public data

      • research in educational settings about new instructional techniques

      • research involving the use of anonymous education tests

      • survey, interview and observational research in public places, provided the subjects are not identified and sensitive information is not collected.

      In addition, institutional review boards safeguard the rights of human subjects, sometimes moreso than the federal guidelines. For example, UT has human subjects regulations that must be followed before contacting potential participants. Learn about UT's operation at www.ra.utk.edu/ora/sections/compliances/humsub/toc.html.

    5. Data Analysis and Reporting — Researchers have a moral and ethical obligation to refrain from tampering with data. Similarly, researchers are expected to carefully process the data to guard against needless errors that might affect the results.

      Researchers should NEVER plagiarize or conceal information that might influence the interpretation of their findings. Researchers have an ethical obligation to share their findings and methods with other researchers. There is also an ethical obligation to draw conclusions consistent with the data, rather than distort conclusions to fit a theory or personal point of view.

    6. Publication Process — Articles should be submitted to only one journal at a time. A related ethical problem is publishing identical or highly similar articles based on the same data set.

    7. Professional Codes — One professional code by an association involved in mass media research is that of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.
    If you don't understand something in this Web note, please e-mail Dr. Sitton.

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    ©M. Mark Miller & Ronald W. Sitton 2009
    Revised 092811 — http://www.uamont.edu/FacultyWeb/sitton/crz/mrea/ethics.html