Deception Is Necessary In Research

Deception; most people think that deception is only useful for lying. However deception is a controversial aspect of some research. Research has advanced humanity to the modern age. But how much,if any,should deception be used in the name of science? This was one of the questions raised from the ethically infamous psychology experiment, called the Milgram experiment conducted in 1961 at Yale University by psychologist Stanley Milgram. I say deception should be allowed in experiments, as long as it is deemed ethical. The experiment was designed to see if people would commit morally questionable acts just because someone with authority asked them to. The first deceptive part of the experiment was the experiment description itself. The volunteers were told that they would be experimenting how punishment affects memory, not about their willingness to commit acts that are morally questionable. The experiment involved three people. “the experimenter”, a volunteer, and an actor pretending to be another volunteer. Both “volunteers” were given a slip of paper which both read

If the subjects had known they were being studied on the orders to shock the learner, then they would have subconsciously reacted differently. In one article “The Role of Deception” published by the Wall Street Journal, it states “Often researchers use deception when they want to study behavior that people can't or won't honestly engage in if they know why they are being studied such as to learn whether they use illegal drugs.” By using deception in this way does not hurt anyone, and researchers only use deception when absolutely necessary. If a subject knows they are being watched or know what the researchers are watching for their reactions would not be genuine and therefore compromise the experiment. This is the reason why deception is a crucial part of experiments that studies that are based on