Do you think that it’s air you are breathing?

The movie “The Matrix” from 1999, is most famously known for it’s philosophical viewpoint built on Rene Descartes idea about, what if nothing is actually real, and that our mind is being controlled by someone? The following clip is from the matrix, and if you have not seen it it can only be recommended very strongly.

However this clips is interesting for another reason, while Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) tests Neo (Keanu Reeves), he is keeping parts of the test secret for Neo at the beginning of the training testing session, this omission of information is called deception.

Deception is when a researcher is generally seen as a researcher hiding the true reason behind the study for a participant, however it is technically any information the participant is not aware about during the experiment. The use of deception can be useful, most famously do we have Milgram’s study of obedience, in which he did not tell people that he was actually measuring obedience, rather than memory he claimed it was.

The main issue with using deception in research, is the violation of the integrity part of the APA guide lines, due to the participant agreeing to something else than what they actually agreed to, you can argue that the informed consent they gave was for another study, so in reality the researcher has technically experimented with another human being, without that persons knowledge. This is in theory a violation, not only of the ethical code of conduct by the APA, but also of the human rights, as you are performing an experiment on another human being that they did not agree to.

However does deception really carry such big risks? A study by Smith and Richardson (1983) looked into how participants was affected by deception, when they had participated in a study, and even though it potentially is quite serious, they found that people didn’t really minded being deceived, in fact because the debriefing of participants is so detailed, people who had been deceived expressed a higher level of joy about having participated, as the debriefing is a lot more detailed, which makes the participants feel more educated.

Nowadays, most examples of deception is found in medical testing whenever a placebo is involved, to test if drugs have an effect, or if it does nothing, especially because of the use of drugs, just thinking they have taken a drug, might change the behaviour of a participant, even if he/she just had a placebo. To avoid this and other ethical problems deception can cause Miller, Wendler and Swartzman (2005) came up with an idea they call “Authorized deception”. This idea is to inform participants about the deception, by telling every participant that there is a 50/50 chance of either having the drug or a placebo. Thus giving the participants the necessary knowledge about the experiment to truthfully sign the informed consent. Further research by Martin and Katz (2009) found that using this method when testing participants and drugs, is a valid way of doing it, as it has no influence on the actual placebo effects in participants, and because of this it is one of the safest ways to tell participants the truth about the study, without ruining it.

Although the use of deception can be justified in some cases, and that it seemingly does not actually harm participants, researchers still need to be weary when using it, because the use of deception does not only affect participants, but also the researchers own history.  Which might affect his results in the long term, if participants knows the researcher has a habit of using deception, this will create mistrust to the researcher, and might also cause participants to behave differently. Furthermore if deception is used too wildly, it may damage the whole discipline of psychology, as participants are lured into experiments under false beliefs.

So in conclusion, the use of deception in research can be quite useful to study real life situations, as participants are not aware what is actually measured, this will decrease thehawthorneeffect. The method of authorized deception is currently the most ethical “right” way to conduct experiments, as participants actually agree to possibly being deceived. The use of deception should also be limited by researchers, as to keep their own integrity towards other people and the scientific society as a whole, as it is never nice being deceived by another human being.

References:
Smith, Stevens S.;Richardson, Deborah (1983): Amelioration of deception and harm in psychological research: The important role of debriefing.

Miller FG, Wendler D, Swartzman LC (2005) : Deception in Research on the Placebo Effect

Martin, L.,  katz, J. (2009): Inclusion of authorized deception in the informed consent process does not affect the magnitude of the placebo effect for experimentally induced pain