Can Psychological research on ‘race’ be socially responsible?

Abstract

It is argued that Psychological research on ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ issues presents a number of ethical problems. These relate to the sociopolitical impact of such research, particularly when it purports to find differences of an ‘innate’ character; to the use of naive subjects, particularly children, in research which is aimed at demonstrating their ‘inferiority'; and, within the academic community itself, to the working relationships between researchers who believe in ‘innate’ ‘race’ differences and colleagues belonging to allegedly ‘inferior’ groups – this being particularly significant within a teaching environment. Although the ‘race differences’ question has a long and controversial history, ethical issues relating to the research process itself have received less focused attention. Moreover, replacement of the genetically obsolete concept of ‘race’ with the idea of ‘ethnicity’ does not solve the problem entirely, and the term ‘ethnicity’ is itself unsatisfactory in several respects.