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[Instructor] Hello, folks.

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Welcome to this week's lecture,

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which is on the ethics of social science.

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So we'll be learning about
some of the key issues

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around doing ethical research

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so that you are able to both recognize,

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and most importantly,

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conduct social science research

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within ethical boundaries and norms.

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In this class, we are going to look at

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the ethics behind social science research.

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So we'll look at the key
factors that we should look at

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to assure that the work
that we are doing is ethical

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and learn a bit about
some past controversies,

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which have led to the need
for these sorts of measures,

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and look a little bit at the IRB,

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the Institutional Review Board,

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which is the organization
at UVM which helps to ensure

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that all the research that
is done is done ethically.

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There are many reasons why it is important

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that the research that we do is ethical.

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So here is a list of issues
that we have to keep in mind

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when we conduct social science research,

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and I will go through each one.

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A cornerstone of ethical research

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is voluntary participation.

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That means that you cannot force somebody

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to be a part of a
research study or project.

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You cannot coerce them.

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So if I were to say to you,

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I am requiring you to be a
research subject in a project

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that doesn't have anything
to do with this class,

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and if you don't, you're
going to get a failing grade,

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that would be coercion.

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I'm not allowed to do that.

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Of course, I'm just
saying this as an example,

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and I would lose my job, I
think, if I were to do that.

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Part of voluntary participation as well

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is that it's important
that your objects know

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how the research will be used
and any benefits that they

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or society at large may gain.

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The next principle that we
should mention is no harm.

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So we do not want to harm
our research subject.

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And a lot of the motivation was
because of past experiments,

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such as experiments where the Nazis

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did experiments on prisoners.

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And even though medical knowledge

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may have been advanced by this,

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it was done in a
horrifically unethical way.

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There's also the famous
Tuskegee syphilis study,

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where African-American men were told

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that they were getting a
treatment for syphilis,

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which is a sexually transmitted disease.

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And in truth,

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these patients were not getting

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any effective treatment at all,

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and this was done so that
researchers could study

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the development of the
disease as it progressed

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from when someone gets
it, all the way through.

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And again, even though medical science

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may have been advanced by this,

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the ends don't justify the the means

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that both of these are rightly seen

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as being horrible violations.

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And I encourage you to
learn more about them.

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Now, the kind of work that
I do as a social scientist

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and the kind of work that we will do

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and learn how to do in class
are certainly not that extreme.

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However, there can be
a potential to do harm

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in social science research,

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and we especially wanna make sure

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that we do not embarrass the subject,

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that we do not endanger their job,

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their marriage, their
finances, their friendship,

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really even their reputation,

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nor do we want to harm
them psychologically.

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And if any deception is used,

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then it is very important that
we debrief them afterwards.

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And as an aside,

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I have never used deception
in any of my work,

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nor will we use any deception
in our classwork here.

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The absolute cornerstone
of ethical research

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is informed consent,

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where the subject has a really
good idea of the benefits

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of the study, how they
may personally benefit,

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how society may benefit, how
the research will be used,

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as well as any possible
risk that they might face.

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And oftentimes, we have the subject sign,

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or give verbal consent signing a statement

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where they give their
expressed permission to do so.

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And as we go through,

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I'm going to give you examples of these,

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which then you will
use to gain the consent

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of the research subjects as
we go through our project.

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Sometimes we are able to tell our subjects

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that their responses will be anonymous.

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So anonymous means neither the researcher

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nor the readers know who did or said what.

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So a mail survey or an online survey

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that doesn't track their IP address,

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we don't know who said what.

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This can be a bit hard,

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and then we cannot track
who has responded or not.

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But it's a good way to ensure
that nobody's responses

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will come back to harm them in some way,

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that if they say something on a survey

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that may be controversial, that
we don't know who said that,

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and therefore it can't be tracked to them.

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A slightly lower bar is confidentiality.

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And this would be the case
more like in an interview,

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that if you're interviewing someone,

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the researcher will know who said what.

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But what you do is make sure

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that you do not attribute any
statement to any individual.

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This requires a training in ethics,

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which you will be doing for this class.

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It often involves
removing identifying info.

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So when you have notes or transcripts,

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you have an interview,

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that you don't have the individual's name

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or any way that those
statements could be traced back.

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And make sure that you know the difference

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between confidentiality and anonymity,

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and be able to give an example of this.

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The next issue is deception.

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So sometimes this is
done in a lab experiment,

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how they may respond to some stimulus.

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So for example, I might
say in class, again,

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this is a purely hypothetical example,

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not anything I would actually do,

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that you have to stand up on your desk

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and recite a poem in order
to earn homework points

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for that day,

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while I'm not actually going to give

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or deny any homework points,

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I just wanna see if you will do it.

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And if you do this, again, we
will not do it in this class.

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I have never used deception,

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nor can I imagine a time
when I would, but if you do,

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you really have to debrief
them and tell them like,

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look, I really am not going to take away

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or give homework points here.

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I just wanted to see how you would react

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to my asking about this.

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This is a humorous example
of some of the elements

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of informed consent that we may face.

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So this is a clip from
a Vermont-made film,

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called "A Man with a Plan".

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And it's about a Vermont
dairy farmer who runs

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for the House of Representative,

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a man named Fred Tuttle.

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And in this scene, the sort
of henchman of the incumbent

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who's running against Fred comes and he's,

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this henchman is trying
to get dirt on Fred

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and find out bad things that
will then embarrass Fred

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and harm his candidacy.

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And it's a really funny film.

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I encourage you, if you ever
get a chance, to see it.

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But if this is a researcher,

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what are some of the elements
and where does this person,

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this henchman violates
standards of ethical research?

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And we'll discuss those in class.

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Part of ethical research also has to do

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with analysis and reporting.

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So an ethical researcher will be honest

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when they are reporting out
what they did, any shortcomings,

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they have to list out
what are the limitations.

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These are often placed in the very end

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of a research paper,

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being honest about what we
found out and what we didn't,

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how far we can extrapolate,
and things like that.

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And report on accidents,
even fortuitous ones.

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So if you find something
out completely by accident,

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it's good to be clear and honest

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that we were really not
intending to learn this,

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but through the course of the project,

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we learned this new thing.

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And based on what we know now,

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it is a very important
result of the research.

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All major universities, all
colleges or universities,

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especially those that receive
any sort of federal funding,

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must have an Institutional Review Board.

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So this is a board of
faculty members and experts

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that review research protocols.

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So for example, in my work,

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I've done this for this class

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and any other research project,

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I have to tell them in
advance what I'm going to do,

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what the purpose is,
what the benefits are,

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what the risks are to my subjects.

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I have to show them
the research questions,

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like the interview guide or the survey

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to tell them how I'm
going to recruit subjects,

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and then have them approve it.

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And you will be actually doing a tutorial

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and sort of gaining a certification.

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And you'll learn about that
more at the end of this lecture.

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The point of these
institutional review boards

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is to guarantee that the rights

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and interests of the subject.

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It's to minimize risks.

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Now, many economic and
social science studies

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are so-called exempt,

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in which it's seen that
the bar is very low,

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that the risks are very minimal.

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So when we're asking students
about their experience

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to think of some past
examples with UVM dining,

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their attitudes about sustainability,

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their experiences with remote
or other learning modalities,

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really, there isn't a great risk there.

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And these tend to be more
sort of quickly approved

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and with a little bit more leeway.

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And we will use a consent
process for our class.

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So far, what we've been talking about

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are pretty straightforward,
well-established,

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almost no-brainer factors
about ethical research,

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but there are many cases
where you might mend up

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in some sort of unethical quandary,

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specifically that you find
out, probably inadvertently,

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about something that one
of your subjects is doing

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that may be something between
illegal and unethical,

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such as maybe they are not
abiding by good food safety regs.

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They are corrupt.

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They might be embezzling.

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You might find out trade secrets

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that the other businesses would
really like to know about.

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You may witness examples of animal cruelty

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or things like that where you see things

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that you really think are wrong.

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So how would you handle these?

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I don't have a right or
wrong answer in mind.

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And what happens if you turn
around and turn them in,

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or what happens if you look the other way?

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Again, I'm not looking for a
specific right or wrong answer,

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but as a social scientist,

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you may face these kinds of issues.

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And we'll discuss them
in more length in class.

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So this is what we talked
about, about ethical issues,

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and I look forward to talking
to you more about it in class.