IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/nvzt8_v1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Ethics of Field Experiments in Authoritarian Contexts: A Comment on Cantoni, Yang, Yuchtman and Zhang (2019)

Author

Listed:
  • Landgrave, Michelangelo Geovanny

    (University of Colorado - Boulder)

Abstract

This article is a comment on Cantoni et al. (2019) and subsequent research conducted as part of the “Demand for Democracy” project. In the aforementioned article, researchers report a field experiment where Hong Kong research subjects are nudged to participate in a protest against the People’s Republic of China using an informational treatment. I argue that the field experiment is unethical because, in addition to being deceptive, it was conducted in an authoritarian context where research subjects can be punished for protesting and because research subjects have no practical recourse for any harm suffered as part of the experiment. The Demand for Democracy experiment is not only unethical, but is illustrative of a larger systemic problem with conducting experiments in authoritarian contexts. I propose that field experiments in authoritarian contexts be banned, or that the experimental community should at minimum adopt safeguards to protect research subjects.

Suggested Citation

  • Landgrave, Michelangelo Geovanny, 2023. "The Ethics of Field Experiments in Authoritarian Contexts: A Comment on Cantoni, Yang, Yuchtman and Zhang (2019)," OSF Preprints nvzt8_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:nvzt8_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/nvzt8_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/645cf2b160fc5d0f82ca1bfa/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/nvzt8_v1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:nvzt8_v1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.