ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews behavioral scientists’ ethical responsibilities to science as an institution and to society as a whole. This discussion first addresses the problem of mistakes and errors in research, questionable research practices, and scientific misconduct. The chapter then turns to ethical issues in scientific writing, including authorship credit, duplicate publication, plagiarism, and text recycling. The proper use of behavioral science research results is explained; researchers should avoid using psychological knowledge to exploit people and should not apply results of research that are based on inadequately tested theories or overgeneralized research results. The role of societal mentors, who provide a neutral and balanced overview of a research topic, is contrasted with the role of social activists, who use scientific knowledge to advocate for a particular course of action. The chapter concludes with a review of the social costs and benefits of conducting and reporting research.
