Consider the following experiment, similar to one that was conducted by Smith, Lingle, and Brock (1978). Each participant interacted for an hour with another person who was actually an accomplice. After this interaction, both persons agreed to return one week later for another session with each other. When the real participants returned, they were informed that the person they had met the week before had died. The researchers then measured reactions to the death of the person.
a. Discuss the ethical issues raised by the experiment.
b. Would the experiment violate the guidelines articulated in APA Ethical Standard 8 dealing with research with human participants? In what ways?
c. What alternative methods for studying this problem (reactions to death) might you suggest?
d. Would your reactions to this study be different if the participants had played with an infant and then later been told that the infant had died?