ABCDE of Deception: A Relational Research Ethics Proposal

Various research ethics frameworks and guidelines assist researchers and research ethics committees (RECs) with ensuring ethically justified deception of participants. However, there remain challenges with balancing context-sensitivity and consistency: when applying ethics requirements during REC review; when handling ethics issues that only surface during the study; and when distributing the responsibility for these two tasks between researcher and REC. To support rigorous contextualization and responsibility allocation, we propose a relational research ethics framework, the "ABCDE of deception." By modifying prevalent ethics requirements and proposing corresponding implementation strategies, grounded in a social model of the researcher-participant interaction, it aligns REC review at study level with ethical decision-making during researcher-participant interactions. Specifically, the ABCDE of deception covers five modified requirements and corresponding implementation strategies: Attune, a situated and interpersonal researcher-participant analogue of ethics deliberation; Be as truthful as possible, which integrates truthfulness and deception in light of informational and methodological needs; Cap harms and wrongs, to identify risks and allocate the responsibility for their handling; Diligent safeguarding, to tackle identified risks; and Ensure equality, a practicable approach to identify and address (potential) social inequalities in deceptive studies. With the ABCDE of deception, we propose a tool for RECs and researchers engaging with deceptive studies, along with several avenues for the framework's future elaboration.