20 YEARS OF DECEPTION RESEARCH - A DECLINE IN SUBJECTS TRUST

Early critical reaction to the practice of deceiving research subjects suggested that its continued use would lead to a negative view of the discipline and distrust by future subjects. In spite of these concerns and the constraints imposed by ethical codes, deception has remained a popular research strategy. The study reported in this article compared data from the Psychological Research Survey (PRS) at the beginning of the academic year in 1970 and the responses of students surveyed at a comparable time in 1989. Scores on the PRS from the recent samples were found to be similar to scores from 20 years ago. After participating in a number of experiments, subjects sampled in 1990 were accepting of arguments justifying the use of deception; however, they reported a somewhat more negative attitude toward psychological research than in the 1989 sample, regardless of whether they had been exposed to deception.