Discuss some of the ethical issues in recruiting and selecting research participants.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Using volunteers in research has been advocated as a technique to avoid coercion in participation. However, subtle coercion may still exist through inducements offered to volunteers (Kimmel, 1996). While offering inducements (e.g., money) increases participation rates, ethical issues are raised when participants feel they cannot afford to pass up the incentive. To determine if inducements are excessive and, thus, coercive, Diener and Crandall (1979) advised offering the incentive to potential participants for studies involving a varying amount of risk, and, if they acknowledge that they would participate even when there is considerable risk involved, the inducement is too strong.
Subtle coercion may also exist when a supervisor “strongly recommends” that all employees participate in the research in question. This is particularly a concern when studying populations that have been discriminated against (e.g., African Americans exposed to discrimination in hiring practices) or exploited (e.g., women subjected to sexual harassment). Particularly in dealing with these populations, researchers must be careful to avoid false advertising of what their study realistically can do, and not unnecessarily raise the expectations of participants regarding the purported benefits of the research results. It is also beneficial actively to seek minorities to assist with research (as assistants or coinvestigators) to help identify issues of concern to particular minority groups (Gil & Bob, 1999).