ABSTRACT
The author’s view of covertness (Homan 1980) is a position that he continues to defend (Homan 1992a:113-19; Homan forthcoming). It is recognized to be unethical but, he has maintained, it has been in many ways the more moral. For example, an overt investigator may commence an interview by reminding the respondent that participation is voluntary and then go on so to sequence questions and develop rapport as to break down the defences of the interviewee. Again, they may ask interviewees to report transactions with third parties whose consent was not sought but who become the effective subjects of the research. A covert observer may well have a more genuine regard for the privacy and dignity of participants. It is therefore possible that those who in certain respects contravene the ethical codes honour the higher moral principles which they are designed to safeguard. So in his writings on research ethics the author of this chapter has claimed to occupy the moral high ground and assign ‘ethics’—as distinct from ‘morality’—to the low ground (Homan 1992a:119-26, 178-83; 1992b).
