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What's in a Lie? How Researchers Judge the Justifiability of Deception
Kamiel Verbeke1, Tomasz Krawczyk2, Dieter Baeyens3
1PhD student in bioethics at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law at KU Leuven in Belgium; After the writing of this manuscript, he joined the European Research Council as an Ethics Officer.
Ethics & Human Research
|May 7, 2025
Summary
Researchers need clearer ethical guidelines for using deception in studies. This research identifies key characteristics of deceptive methods and their social context to improve ethical assessments for research involving deception.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Research Ethics
- Social Sciences
Background:
- Current research ethics guidance offers limited support for assessing the justifiability of deceptive studies.
- Existing guidance lacks precise descriptions of ethically relevant characteristics specific to deceptive research methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and describe ethically relevant characteristics of deceptive research methods.
- To inform the development of improved ethical guidance for researchers and ethics reviewers regarding deception.
Main Methods:
- Conducted interviews with 24 diverse researchers who utilize deception in their studies.
- Analyzed interview data to identify characteristics of deceptive acts, participant belief formation, and deception-induced experiences.
- Examined the ethical relevance of the social context, including deceiver-participant relationships and community factors.
Main Results:
- Researchers identified key characteristics of deceptive acts (e.g., false information, flexibility) and their impact on participants.
- Participant belief formation (credibility, suspicion) and deception-induced experiences (consent validity, negative value) were highlighted as ethically relevant.
- The social context, including the researcher-participant relationship and community, significantly influences the ethical justifiability of deception.
Conclusions:
- A more nuanced understanding of deception in research requires considering specific methodological, experiential, and contextual characteristics.
- This study provides a framework for a more coherent and precise assessment of the ethical justifiability of deceptive research practices.
- Findings can guide the creation of more effective and practical ethical review standards for studies involving deception.
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