ABSTRACT
“What would happen if someone ran one of these experiments in the United States?” This was the question I posed to this volume’s contributors towards the end of our conference in 2013. The origin of the question deserves some explanation. Many of our discussions focused on experiments being conducted in the developing world. Experimental research there might be described as a “Wild West” right now, where scholars have broad flexibility in the studies they run and how they run them for several reasons. IRBs have generously approved studies that seem inappropriate: committing traffic crimes, soliciting and paying bribes, and violating electoral laws. Researchers’ budgets often go further in the developing world, making scholars much more powerful actors than they would be in the United States. Inequalities between researchers and subjects can breed deference and prevent subjects from speaking up about inappropriate interventions. If scholars are not deeply knowledgeable about the contexts of their experiments, they may be more likely to dehumanize their subjects. Scientific research requires some detached and dispassionate perspective, but one cost of that may be less empathy.
