Follow-up Analysis of Use of Forewarning and Deception in Psychological Experiments
The present study examined students' reactions to a psychological experiment involving deception and forewarning. A 2 × 2 factorial design consisted of two levels of deception (deception present versus deception absent) and two levels of forewarning (presence of deception suggested versus presence of deception absent). 48 subjects participated in a two-person Prisoner's Dilemma cooperation game, 12 in each experimental condition. The present study showed (a) deceived subjects performed more competitively than did nondeceived subjects, (b) forewarned subjects recalled the forewarning, and (c) only deceived subjects rated the experiment as worthless, were annoyed with the experiment, and would not recommend the experiment to a friend. It was concluded that it is possible to inform subjects that deceptions are sometimes used in experiments without necessarily eliminating the possibility that the subjects can subsequently be deceived.