Deception

Deception entails the intentional distortion or omission of information in order to cause someone to entertain a false belief. In research settings, deception is commonly employed when it is believed that a full disclosure of the true nature of a study would alter the phenomena under investigation, thereby invalidating the results. For this reason, deception is especially common in research domains such as experimental psychology and cognitive neurosciences. However, the use of deception in research raises a host of ethical issues, as it typically infringes participants’ right to informed consent, autonomy, and trust. Against this background, this entry outlines the main scientific and ethical arguments pertaining to deception in research. The first section introduces the scientific rationale for deception in research settings. Then the second and third sections provide an overview of the main ethical arguments related to the use of deception in research. The fourth section presents two methods that can mitigate the ethical impact of deception in research: debriefing participants at the end of the research and providing them with the option of withdrawing the data from the study. Next, the fifth section clarifies researchers’ ethical obligations to accurately report deception in published research. The entry concludes by exploring the possibility of adopting an alternative paradigm of authorized deception.