ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the most common experience of people undertaking interviews and surveys in health research and, in that context, the most common way in which health research may become unethical. When social science research conventions move in to delicate situations uncritically, or with little circumspection, ethical questions then arise. Since a lot of health research asks a lot of questions about our bodies or mental health, a lot of that health research is socially delicate. The 'delicate' in the context of health research refers to a situation which maximises the conditions under which a person might give offence, embarrassment or shame to another. The interview is the creation of an unnatural social situation, introduced by a researcher, for the purpose of polite interrogation. Health and safety research in workplaces and homes commonly uses, as a stock category, aspects of material culture such as people's personal items, clothing and accessories, motor cars and housing.
