MetaFilter posts tagged with ethics and research

Facts, Opinions, Tools, Advice, and Connections

netbros — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:40:10 -0800

The Canadian Journalism Project (CJP) and its websites, J-Source.ca (English) and ProjetJ.ca (French), provides a source for news, research, commentary, advice, discussion and resources about the achievement of, and challenges to, excellence in Canadian journalism.

Studies In Getting Smacked

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:24:28 -0800

Three psychology experiments that raise ethics questions because of the danger they posed to the research assistants. (via) The Reaction to Rape by American Male Bystanders: "The present study simulated a rape in a realistic natural setting. The topography of the location ensured that the subjects, men walking to their adjacent parked cars, had but one of the following three options: to walk away, to intervene directly, or to intervene indirectly by summoning a police officer. Intervention was more frequent by groups of bystanders than by individual bystanders and was overwhelmingly of the direct kind." Personal space invasions in the lavatory: Suggestive evidence for arousal.: "A field experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that personal space invasions produce arousal as measured by delay of onset and duration of men’s urination. Men using a three-urinal lavatory at a Midwestern university were subjects. According to a previously determined schedule of random assignment a confederate either, stood at the urinal directly adjacent to the subject, stood one urinal away, or was absent from the lavatory. An observer with a periscope was concealed in a toilet stall and recorded measures of urination." The stare as a stimulus to flight in human subjects: "An experimenter, reading a motor scooter, arranged to arrive first at a red traffic light. When a car drew along side, the experimenter turned to stare directly at the driver until the traffic signal turned green."

We've Replaced The Patient's Blood With PolyHeme. Let's See If They Notice.

scrump — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:54:31 -0800

The blood substitute PolyHeme has been previously discussed on MetaFilter, but new evidence shows that PolyHeme actually raises the chances of death by nearly 30%. PolyHeme was notable mostly for the reaction to its clinical trials, which, controversially, did not require patient consent.

Link works? Check. Dupe? No, maybe. Best of Web? ..suure

Gyan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:14:45 -0800

The Checklist - "If a new drug were as effective at saving lives as Peter Pronovost’s checklist, there would be a nationwide marketing campaign urging doctors to use it" [single page]

The Tearoom Trade and the Breastplate of Righteousness

jonp72 — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 07:55:28 -0800

Laud Humphreys was studying to be an Episcopal priest in the mid-1950s when he learned, shortly after his father's death, that his father, Oklahoma State Representative Ira D. Humphreys, took trips to New Orleans to have sex with other men. After being dismissed as an Episcopal priest in the 1960s, Laud Humphreys then enrolled as a sociology grad student where he completed a dissertation about men who had sex with other men in public bathrooms in St. Louis, which Humphreys researched by agreeing to serve as a "watch queen", looking out for the police. After writing down the license plate numbers of the men having sex, Humphreys traced the men's addresses and contacted them in disguise, claiming to be collecting data for a public health survey. The research, which was condemned as unethical for its use of covert methods, was published in 1970 as Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places. According to a summary of the Tearoom Trade, "Humphreys' findings destroy many stereotypes. Fifty-four percent of his subjects were married and living with their wives, and superficial analysis would suggest that they were exemplary citizens who had exemplary marriages. Thirty-eight percent of Humphreys' subjects clearly were neither bisexual nor homosexual. They were men whose marriages were marked with tension; most of the 38 percent were Catholic or their wives were, and since the birth of their last child conjugal relations had been rare. Their alternative source of sex had to be quick, inexpensive, and impersonal. It could not entail any kind of involvement that would threaten their already shaky marriage and jeopardize their most important asset - their standing as father of their children. They wanted only some form of orgasm-producing action that was less lonely than masturbation and less involving than a love relationship." Based on his revelation about his father's trips to New Orleans and what he learned at St. Louis "tearooms," Laud Humphreys concluded that many of the men he observed put on a "breastplate of righteousness" (an allusion to Ephesians 6:10-18) by displaying socially and politically conservative views in public to shift attention away from their private sexual behavior.

Coming soon to a cinema near you

Gyan — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:40:34 -0800

The Human Speechome Project - "A baby is to be monitored by a network of microphones and video cameras for 14 hours a day, 365 days a year, in an effort to unravel the seemingly miraculous process by which children acquire language.". Selected video clips. Paper (PDF, 750KB). To test hypotheses of how children learn, Prof Deb Roy's team at MIT will develop machine learning systems that “step into the shoes” of his son by processing the sights and sounds of three years of life at home. Total storage required: 1.4 petabytes.

Stem Cells - Rumor vs. Reality

daksya — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 23:04:08 -0800

Stem cell pioneer does a reality check

The Real Deal on Stem Cells

Gyan — Sun, 24 Oct 2004 14:31:21 -0800

Stem Cells: Science, Ethics and Politics at the Crossroads

Stem Cell Research

skallas — Mon, 31 May 2004 10:17:05 -0800

The False Controversy of Stem Cell Research. Kinsley: In fact, thinking it through is a moral obligation, especially if you are on the side of the argument that wants to stop or slow this research. It's not complicated. An embryo used in stem-cell research (and fertility treatments) is three to five days past conception. It consists of a few dozen cells that together are too small to be seen without a microscope. It has no consciousness, no self-awareness, no ability to feel love or pain. The smallest insect is far more human in every respect except potential.

Steven Den Beste — Sat, 17 Feb 2001 18:02:29 -0800

Bill Joy thinks the world will end unless we stop doing certain kinds of research right now. I think Bill Joy is full of crap, but he has valid points. (More inside)

Steven Den Beste — Sun, 22 Oct 2000 02:48:03 -0800

Lots of posts lately about the election, about other strange things, (and especially about my favorite subject to not read: Nader) and we haven't had a knock-down drag-out argument about ethics for a while. So I thought I'd start one about this. Using up humans to collect medical data is unquestionably immoral and those who do it should be hung, if not put to death by torture. The question is whether those of us who had nothing to do with the collection of that data and have not done anything immoral become immoral by using data collected that way in order to save lives. I'm going to make three posts below, so be patient.