Code of Ethics of the American Anthropological Association

Ethics in Social Science

What are the ethical issues that anthropologists and other social scientists should consider when conducting research with people?

Ethics can be a consideration of right and wrong in regards to the motives that a person acts out of as well as the actual behaviors that these individuals display. For example, a person could have good intentions but still act unethically or a person could have unethical intentions but never act them out. Most anthropologists have pure intentions and respect the people that they are studying. However, many early attempts to study isolated tribes with pure intentions had many unforeseen consequences such as the spread of disease. Furthermore, there were also claims that during the mid-twentieth century some anthropologists were using their profession as an avenue to collect information about various communities only to have this information be used against an enemy in times of war. Although both of these cases represent entirely different ethical violations, an official code of ethics did not emerge until much later.

Conducting research with a human sample requires great care. One of the most fundamental ethical considerations should be to do no harm to the people involved in the research. However, this can be easier said than done since many harmful events are unintended; such as the spread of disease. Thus much preparation must be done to ensure that the physical and/or mental well-being of the sample is being preserved at all times. Researchers also have different obligations they must maintain such as the right to preserve privacy and dignity of the subjects which most likely includes some kind of informed consent.

Why would a code of ethics be important for social scientists?

A code of ethics is important for social scientists because they generally focus on people and use many individuals for research. While a physicist might be free to destroy the particles they are working on, social scientist do not have the same kind of leeway with their subjects. They must avoid harming the people they interact with in any way either mentally or physically. Thus having a detailed code of ethics prepared can be a valuable asset. By preparing such a code of ethics beforehand, this ensures that it is well thought out and relevant to many underlying ethical issues that one might face by working in the field.