7.37 Deceiving subjects. Students sign up to be subjects in a psychology experiment. When they arrive, they are placed in a room and assigned a task. During the task, the subject hears a loud thud from an adjacent room and then a piercing cry for help. Some subjects are placed in a room by themselves. Others are placed in a room with “confederates” who have been instructed by the researcher to look up upon hearing the cry, then return to their task. The treatments being compared are whether the subject is alone in the room or in the room with confederates. Will the subject ignore the cry for help?

The students had agreed to take part in an unspecified study, and the true nature of the experiment is explained to them afterward. Do you think this study is ethically okay?