Ethics and Experiments ─ Problems and Solutions for Social Scientists and Policy Professionals

For most of the discipline's history, discussions about professional ethics had nothing to do with human subjects. Professional ethics involved integrity in the classroom, fair tenure and promotion rule, and the careful avoidance of plagiarism. As most of this work was observational, there was little need for attention to how this research might directly affect the subjects of our work. The dramatic growth in the use of experiments in social science, especially overseas, is generating unexpected ethical controversies. These controversies are unlike anything encountered in other disciplines, because of the unique position of social science and the policy-orientation of much of our research. Many scholars and policy practitioners are concerned and are uncertain how to proceed in the face of new challenges, but have nowhere to turn for guidance. Given controversy over a particular practice or context, is there some easy way to mitigate risk and eliminate the issue? Can we conduct the research and side-step the issue? Do we even need to worry about the issue?

In this book, a leading team of internationally distinguished political science scholars present the first examination of the practical and ethical challenges in social science and policy research, focusing specifically on experiments with human subjects. Contributors explore the arguments, and weigh in with diverse opinions that echo the diversity in the discipline.

• Part 1 examines contextual challenges provided by experiments conducted overseas - questions of culture, religion, security, and poverty.

• Part 2 examines questions of legal constraints on research, focusing on questions of foreign review of international experiments.

• Part 3 moves to issues of field experiments. Authors in this section tackle the critical issues in field experiments, including deception and consent, impact on elections and careers, the boundaries of the public officials' exemption, and the use of partner organizations to avoid Institutional Review Body (IRB) review.

• Part 4 examines possible strategies for moving the field forward.

Ethics and Experiments is an invaluable resource for policy practitioners, political scientists, economists, human subjects and ethics professionals, as well as a tool for graduate training.

Scott Desposato is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Zurich, and a Harvard Academy Fellow. His research interests include American and Comparative elections, institutions, voting behavior, and methodology. He has been conducting experiments for almost ten years on voting behavior and public opinion in Brazil, China, and the United States. He is the only US-based scholar to complete an ethical review of an experiment in Brazil. His research has been published in the American Political Science Review,American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, and many others.