Ethics (wrap up)

Class 3

Social Contributions of Deception Research

(A Very Small Sample)

Social Issue

Do people stand up for beliefs, even if others disagree?

Will people resist immoral authority?

Do people see their own prejudices?

IQ race-based, per The Bell Curve?

Group conflict require history of tension?

Can group conflict be resolved?

Related Research

People compliant to consensus (Asch)

People comply with authority, even at peril to others (Milgram)

Often not (Gaertner & Dovidio)

Racial deficits affected by stereotype threat (Steele and Aronson).

Group conflict can be created quickly, based on minimal diffs. (Sharif).

Yes, focus on common goals (Sharif)

Social Contributions of Deception Research

(A Very Small Sample)

Social Issue

Do people stand up for beliefs, even if others disagree?

Will people resist immoral authority?

Do people see their own prejudices?

IQ race-based, per The Bell Curve?

Group conflict require history of tension?

Can group conflict be resolved?

Related Research

People compliant to consensus (Asch)

People comply with authority, even at peril to others (Milgram)

Often not (Gaertner & Dovidio)

Racial deficits affected by stereotype threat (Steele and Aronson).

Group conflict can be created quickly, based on minimal diffs. (Sharif).

Yes, focus on common goals (Sharif)

Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. (2006). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-

psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307-1310.

Self-Affirmation Reverses Racial Achievement Gap: A Deception Study

Ethics Unrelated to Methods or Procedures

Intellectual property: Who owns an idea?

Fraud: p = .056; Overselling

Authorship: Order, power-assertion, conformity

Reviewing manuscripts, grants: How many, well, fairly?

Departmental citizenship: Teaching, committees, etc.

Subject pools: Forced labor? Distribution of R pts.

Socially disruptive findings

Dutch University Sacks Social Psychologist Over Faked Databy Martin Enserink, Science Insider, 7 September 2011

Diederik StapelTilburg U., HollandEditor: Psych Sci., PSPB

Coping with Chaos: How Disordered Contexts Promote Stereotyping and DiscriminationDiederik A. Stapel1,* and Siegwart Lindenber Science 8 April 2011: Vol. 332 no. 6026 pp. 251-253

As to the whistleblowers, [Dean] Eijlander told the television interviewer that "I have a lot of respect for them, because they found it very difficult."

Science Charging Blindly

“Singularity 1” – Artificial intelligence, "Moore's Law"

“Singularity 2”– Health care and (im)mortality

Should there be limits on science? What kind? Set by whom?

Exponential change is catastrophic.

Meet Albert, Your New Friend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkpWCu1k0ZI

Die Gedanken Sind FrieThoughts are free, who can guess them?They fly by like nocturnal shadows.No man can know them, no hunter can shoot themwith powder and lead: Thoughts are free!

I think what I want, and what delights me,still always reticent, and as it is suitable.My wish and desire, no one can deny meand so it will always be: Thoughts are free!

And if I am thrown into the darkest dungeon,all these are futile works,because my thoughts tear all gatesand walls apart: Thoughts are free!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHuSktaQRuE

Mind Mapping—and Trapping?

IDEA GENERATION

Develop Your Research Skills

1. Follow the leaders

2. Learn technology

3. Grazing: Wandering through the lit

4. Read/explore inside and outside your domain

Early Art Photography

Edward Weston, ca. 1930

Willard Van Dyke, ca. 1930s

Willard Van Dyke, 1938

The Plow That Broke the Plains1937

The River, 1938 The City, 1939

Grazing: Making Scents of Francis Galton

1822-1911

Research Leads Outside of Psychology: Literature, e.g. 

 You would be surprised if

you listen to the number of times a day people tell you something will last a lifetime or tell you something killed them, or tell you they are dead. “I was simply dead” they say, “He killed me,” “I am dying,” which I never noticed before but now begun to notice more and more.   Mark Harris, Bang the Drum Slowly, 1953

RAF, Surprise, and Handedness

RAF pilots line up for photo.Just before picture taken, shot fired behind them.Photo shows nearly all pilots look over left shoulder,

except for L-handed pilots.Relevance (to pilots, and to psychologists)?

Do handedness and response to threat interact? Why?

Know Yourself1. Tastes and preferences

2. Self-observation: Wertheimer, Frankl, Lewin, Kip Williams

3. Generate many ideas

4. Maintain idea journal

5. Develop secondary research linea. Different topicb. Different techniquesc. Different mentor/collaborators

6. Cultivate internal “good cop/bad cop”

7. Let ideas percolate

8. Articulate ideas

Idea Journal

June 30, 2000 Feedback as a function of race and ideology I. Idea is that feedback bias might be jointly affected by race of writer (W or B) and by the essay topic. If writer writes about topic that is "pro Black" (i.e., MLK) would feedback supplier be more wary of dispensing critical feedback? Feedback as a function of race and ideology II. Would feedback be jointly affected by writer race and whether essay agreed/disagreed with feedback suppliers' own beliefs and opinions?

Articulate Ideas

Graphically: draw a picture, table, graph

Discussions with friends

Presentations

Write “concept paper”

Engage Phenomena

1. Explore data “errors”, outliers, exceptions

Does everyone conform in Milgram study?Why does disclosure NOT help some people?

2. Track controversies: Where there’s smoke, there’s an experiment.

Cognitive dissonance or self-perception?Why does Cog. Diss rely on embarrassment?

3. Capitalize on naturally occurring phenomena

Earthquakes and Wars (Pennebaker & Harber, 1992)New Jersey attacked by Martians (Cantril, 1938)

4. Observe daily events, and ask "who", "how", "why"

5. Construct domain maps

DOMAIN MAPPING AND IDEA GENERATION

Writing Quality

WB BW BB

Good     

Poor Harber, 1998   

Feedback Supplier Recipient

Engage in Intellectual Community

1. Maintain social/professional connections

a. Conferences

b. Professional Associations

c. Journals/newsletter

2. Be aware of situational/social constraints on creativity.

Anti-Creativity LettersR. Nisbett, 1990

To stifle creativity: 1.Have no friendships, or life, outside of field.

2. Associate with the “sneerers”—the recreationally critical.

3.Never read outside of discipline.

4.Never read the classics in psych.

5. Chase all the current trends

6. Go to a place that values criticism above all else, e.g., Yale circa mid-1950s.

7. Work in isolation; believe that all ideas must be “grand ideas.”

Anti-Creativity Letters

8. Avoid learning the nuts and bolts from senior researcher.

9. Fan feelings of inadequacy, esp. around intelligence. Let this enforce isolation. Ironically, couple this with

arrogance— too smart to do anything but genius work.

10. Diminish respect for own field, i.e., psych < physics.

11. Avoid research you are genuinely interested in, and go for “safe bets” that don’t matter to you.

12. Obsess over the social relevance, applied value of work.