Conducting ethical misinformation research: Deception, dialogue, and debriefing

Abstract

Misinformation research can present many ethical challenges to researchers. These challenges are not insurmountable, but recent research suggests that as a field, we should be adopting and reporting stronger ethical practices. In this review, we consider the three D's of ethical misinformation research; the need to balance deception with informed consent, the value of maintaining an open dialogue with research participants to gather their insights and perspectives, and perhaps most importantly, the essential requirement for effective post-experimental debriefing. We make some specific and straightforward recommendations for misinformation researchers to increase the visibility of their ethical practices and outline the benefits for individual researchers and for the field.