> As far as IRB violations go, this seems pretty tame to me
Making this many people upset would be universally considered very bad and much more severe than any common "IRB violation"...
However, this isn't an IRB violation. The IRB seems to have explicitly given the researchers permission to this, viewing the value of the research to be worth the harm caused by the study. I suspect that the IRB and university may get in more hot water from this than the research team.
Maybe the IRB/university will try to shift responsibility to the team and claim that the team did not properly describe what they were doing, but I figure the IRB/university can't totally wash their hands clean
Yeah the IRB is concerned about things like medical research. You are absolutely allowed to lie to psych research participants if you get approval and merely lying to research subjects is considered a minor risk factor.
Making this many people upset would be universally considered very bad and much more severe than any common "IRB violation"...
However, this isn't an IRB violation. The IRB seems to have explicitly given the researchers permission to this, viewing the value of the research to be worth the harm caused by the study. I suspect that the IRB and university may get in more hot water from this than the research team.
Maybe the IRB/university will try to shift responsibility to the team and claim that the team did not properly describe what they were doing, but I figure the IRB/university can't totally wash their hands clean