Attitudes of researchers toward deception in communication research

Eighty communication researchers representing twenty‐six universities responded to a questionnaire designed to assess attitudes toward deception‐related practices in conducting communication research. Nearly seven out of ten of the respondents perceived misleading and/or misinforming human subjects as an acceptable research strategy when accompanied by debriefing. The majority of the respondents favored research review boards and informed consent procedures and indicated familiarity with the APA standards for ethical research involving human subjects.