The Basics of Social Research

Chapter Three.  The Ethics and Politics of Social Research

TWO ETHICAL CONTROVERSIES

Trouble in the Tearoom
Observing Human Obedience
 
Laud Humphreys raised an ethical controversy in his study of homosexual behavior in public toilets.  While the very subject matter was likely to raise some eyebrows, some of Humphreys's research techniques were a particular focus of concern.

Stanley Milgram set out to study authoritarian submissiveness, similar to the orientation that made the Nazi atrocities possible.  However, Milgram's technique raised a different set of ethical objections.