1. Ethics
Prof Tanya Stott

2. What is research?
A systematic investigation of natural, social and/or metaphysical phenomena aimed at the development of, or contribution to, knowledge

3. What is research ethics?
“Trust me, I’m a scientist”

4. What is research ethics
“Trust me, I’m a scientist’ is not a good enough answer”

5. What is research ethics?
Research ethics = applying moral principles to conduct research in such a manner that the interests of human participants/animals, communities/collectives, environments and society are protected

6. Principles for research involving human participants
autonomy(research should respect the autonomy, rights and dignity of research participants)
beneficence(research should make a positive contribution towards the welfare of people)
non-maleficence(research should not cause harm to the research participant(s) in particular or to people in general)
justice(the benefits and risks of research should be fairly distributed among people)
(Unisa, Policy on Research Ethics, Part 2, 2014; Amdur & Bankert, 2011)

7. Ethics vs integrity
Research ethics is research behaviour viewed from the perspective of moral principles, and research integrity is research behaviour viewed from the perspective of professional standards

8. Case study 1 Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures

9. Case Study 2 Havasupai DNA Diabetes Study
High incidence of Type 2 diabetes in tribe
Approximately 100 tribe members gave blood samples to “study the causes of behavioural/medical disorders”
Consent form was simple since English was a second language and few tribe members finished high school.

10. Case Study 2
By chance it was discovered that their blood samples, who have deep spiritual meanings, were used to study schizophrenia, alcoholism, incest and theories of the tribe’s geographical origins that contradict their traditional stories

11. Case study 3
Facebook 2012
Emotional contagion is a well-known psychological phenomenon in which individuals transfer positive and negative moods and emotions to others; it may involve verbal messages, behavioural actions and/or social responses

12. Case study 3
Approximately users’ news feeds were manipulated without their consent

13. Case study 3
The study was legal according to Facebook's rules, but was it ethical?
Should the researchers have obtained prior consent from all potential research participants? Would retrospective consent have been acceptable for the project that clearly depended on participant non-awareness during the experiment