It's irrelevant to ask participants for consent in a social experiment where researchers are looking to know what people would candidly do in a situation like this. Consent is great and all, but it's not an absolute value, especially in science. Fake letters and anonymity means that no one was harmed. People are met with a myriad of such ethical/moral decisions on a daily basis, and each will mull over their individual decisions to the degree that their conscience requires. If they made the right decision according to their beliefs, they will not experience cognitive dissonance. And if they do, they will learn from it. And society will learn as well via the experiment's results. Sure, perhaps try to design a better experiment, but also don't spend 1/2 of the video talking about how unethical a relatively harmless experiment is.
I see it differently with regards to the ethics of the experiment. It was an important factor to consider and perhaps led to change in experiment methodology. That possible change alone could be a significant yet unintended consequence of the experiment, and I thought this was worth noting by the video's creator.
It's irrelevant to ask participants for consent in a social experiment where researchers are looking to know what people would candidly do in a situation like this. Consent is great and all, but it's not an absolute value, especially in science. Fake letters and anonymity means that no one was harmed. People are met with a myriad of such ethical/moral decisions on a daily basis, and each will mull over their individual decisions to the degree that their conscience requires. If they made the right decision according to their beliefs, they will not experience cognitive dissonance. And if they do, they will learn from it. And society will learn as well via the experiment's results. Sure, perhaps try to design a better experiment, but also don't spend 1/2 of the video talking about how unethical a relatively harmless experiment is.
I see it differently with regards to the ethics of the experiment. It was an important factor to consider and perhaps led to change in experiment methodology. That possible change alone could be a significant yet unintended consequence of the experiment, and I thought this was worth noting by the video's creator.
You’ve got a solid point! People face tough decisions every day anyway. Just saying, it’s all about learning from those choices, right?
I always ask for people for consent to be asked about consent.