Chapter 4, Problem 7E

Suppose you are planning a research study in which you intend to manipulate the participants’ moods: that is, you plan to create a group of happy people and a group of sad people. For example, one group will spend the first 10 minutes of the experiment listening to upbeat, happy music, and the other group will listen to funeral dirges.

a. Do you consider the manipulation of people’s moods to be an ethical violation of the principle of no harm? Explain why or why not.

b. Would you tell your participants about the mood manipulation as part of the informed consent process before they begin the study? Explain why or why not.

c. Assuming that you decided to use deception and not tell your participants that their moods are being manipulated, how would you justify this procedure to an IRB? What could you do to minimize the negative effects of manipulating people’s moods (especially the negative mood group)?