Every year, thousands of studies and experiments are conducted on humans by universities and research centers across the nation. The experiments span the gamut from pharmaceutical trials for potential new cancer drugs to basic psychiological studies testing human reflex speeds. The one thing that all the experiments have in common is their relations to an ominously named group called the Institute Review Board (IRB). Wikipedia defines the IRB as such:
Institutional review board/independent ethics committee (IRB/IEC) (also known as ethical review board) is an appropriately constituted group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects. In accordance with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and HHS regulations, an IRB has the authority to approve, require modifications in (to secure approval), or disapprove research. An IRB performs critical oversight functions for research conducted on human subjects that are scientific, ethical, and regulatory.
….
The ultimate goal of the IRB is to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects involved in studies, including but not limited to:
- Full disclosure of potential risks in studies
- Provisions made for forseeable risks
- Ensure that subject participation is purely voluntary
It is in fact the last point above that I believe NYU’s psychology department has fully violated. In it’s “The Advanced Psychology Student’s Guide to Fulfilling the Research Participation Requirement through Participation in Studies“, it says:
One requirement of your advanced course in psychology is that you fulfill a Research Requirement by either taking part as a subject in 2 hours of psychology studies, with the option of doing 1 more hour for extra credit, or preparing a written critique as described in the Research Requirement Selection Form. This guide has been prepared to give you all the information you need to fulfill the research requirement by participation in studies. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY! If you have changed your mind and would prefer to choose the literature and critique option, please contact your instructor. You must choose either participation or a literature search; credit from both may not be combined to fulfill the Research Participation Requirement.
….
I believe that this is the quintessential ethical outrage that the IRBs were instituted to prevent. The NYU psychology department is clearly using its position of power to coerce students into their experiments. One might argue that there is a choice given to students, either be part of an experiment or prepare a written critique. However, the existence of such a choice does not make it any more voluntary. In fact, I strongly believe that even this supposed choice is unethnical, as it essentially excuses students from a homework assignment in exchange for doing favors for the department.
The most telling part of the story can be found in the text itself. A cursory reading of the text will show the department’s clear preference towards students taking part in a study over the submission of a written critique, with extra credit being available only for those students who choose to be subjects of experiments.
As a researcher and a staunch privacy advocate, I find NYU’s behavior in this matter absolutely reprehensible. I have since sent this page to NYU’s IRB and will update with any response that I receive.
