Sponsor delays unfavorable sports drink results
- Kind
- Ethical dilemma
Prompt
You are an undergraduate research assistant in a university lab studying whether a popular sports drink improves endurance in amateur runners. The company that makes the drink is paying for the study. The results show that runners did no better with the drink than with water. Your supervisor tells the team he will submit the results for publication, but only after the company has reviewed the paper, which the funding contract allows and which could take up to a year. Meanwhile, the company has launched an advertising campaign claiming that the drink boosts endurance. 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 MMI station tests how you respond to a conflict of interest in research when the public is being misled and you're the most junior person in the lab. Name who's affected: people buying the drink on a claim your data doesn't support, the runners who volunteered, your supervisor, the university and the sponsor. Acknowledge what you don't know, such as exactly what the funding contract allows and whether the university has a research integrity office. Lay out your options, from raising the concern with your supervisor to taking it to that office, and weigh how well each protects the public without breaking agreements you're bound by. Land on a clear first step and say what you'd do if it failed. When someone proposes a shortcut around proper channels, explain why the route matters even when the goal is right.
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