Psychology Deception - Acceptable In The 80s

Apparently some 30-50% of psychology experiments published in top journals use deception (Hertwig and Ortmann, 2001). Why?

One reason for deceiving subjects is that it enables experimenters to create interesting situations. For example, we might want to see how people react in an emergency. Another reason is that it allows experimenters to hide the real purpose of the experiment from subjects. For example, we might want to stop people just giving the politically correct answers instead of what they really think (Nick Wilkinson, 2008).

However, the use of deception is frowned upon by economists.

The main problem is that people aren't stupid. Word gets round. Only the naive would enter a psychology experiment without the expectation of deception on the part of the experimenter. This has knock-on effects on behaviour. If you suspect you're being deceived you may just behave differently thus defeating the whole point of the experiment in the first place.

Thus there are few examples of deception in the world of experimental economics. This should mean that our results stay reliable, even if in the short term we are more limited in what we can do. In an ideal world deception would never ever be used in any experiment, but sadly there is little incentive for everyone to act for the greater good (cf. the free-rider problem).

Fully aware of the irony, I am going to end this post by saying that guruhogg has never knowingly used deception.

Recommended listening:
Acceptable In The 80s by Calvin Harris