Removing inconvenient data before a thesis defense
- Topic
- Research ethics
- Kind
- Ethical dilemma
Prompt
You are an undergraduate research assistant in a psychology lab. A graduate student you work with is finishing a study on whether writing down three things you are grateful for improves a person's mood. When all 80 participants are included, the exercise shows no effect. He has removed 6 participants whose answers he describes as careless, and without them the result becomes strong enough to publish. He did not set any rule for removing participants before collecting the data, and you ran two of those six sessions yourself and remember both people taking the task seriously. His thesis defense is in five weeks, and a job offer depends on his finishing. What would you do?
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After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Professionalism and integrity
- Ethical reasoning
- Critical thinking
How to approach this question
This research ethics station tests whether you'll speak up about scientific integrity when the person involved is your senior, his career is at stake, and you're the junior member of the lab. Name the facts that matter: no rule for removing participants was set in advance, and you personally saw two of the removed participants take the task seriously. Show fairness to the graduate student by asking him first how he decided who was careless, before assuming bad intent. Weigh raising it with him, going to the principal investigator, and taking it further, and say what you'd do. Name who is harmed by a misleading result, such as other researchers and readers who rely on it. When the station has a senior person dismiss your concern, explain how you'd decide whether and where to go next.
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