Today, I filled out a political survey for a psychology experiment. A really cute girl was doing it, too. We hit it off and flirted through the surveys, and I asked her out when it was done. Then I found out it was really an attraction experiment and she was in on it. She was acting. FML
I agree, your life sucks (55240) - you totally deserved it (4303)
On 04/03/2009 at 2:40pm - love - by Troy (man) - United States (Indiana)
#5 - you need to take a psych class or two. There are plenty of experiments done on humans influencing their emotions all the time.
OP - don't feel bad. Experiments like this are done all the time. It happens to a lot of guys.
Hey, you're helping them out! There's nothing wrong with that. :]
#11 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:25pm by may_cause_fail
I would have horked on her for that. She can put that in her results. "Today I conducted a human emotions experiment. I led this guy on, he asked me out. I told him this was an act and he horked in my eye."
Look on the bright side: at least you weren't in the control group with the ugly girl.
#13 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:28pm by adelaide_evening
Actually, I don't think these things do happen anymore. I call this a fake. You aren't allowed to mess with a person's emotions during an experiment, and you have to tell them what the experiment is about beforehand. At the very least they would have had to of told him that the experiment was over attraction, not politics.
#17 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:37pm by adelaide_evening
Fail. You will never get a result anywhere close to the real thing if you tell your subjects what you are up to. Studies like this are done all the time, grow up, stop being a china doll. FYL OP, I understand the humiliation.
#79 - On 10/10/2009 at 10:17am by KingHumanity
It's not all that bad. Just remember, this probably happened to a ton of guys.
#18 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:38pm by Silhouette
I think a lot of those are done today. what is up with the replies?
You can't have useful results out of a psychology experiment if you tell all the details to the participants.
17 that makes no sense, if they told him what the experiment was it would be pointless. he willingly signed up for a psychology experiment of course it was going to involve some manipulation.
Deception is all a part of psychology experiments, but harming someone goes against the rules they have to go by.
#21 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:48pm by hydronium
#17 has obviously not taken psych 101 ... or failed... this is a pretty common procedure (that is telling your subjects you're testing one thing when you're actually testing another). I can lend you my text book if you feel a need to verify :)
also #21, deception can lead to harming others, emotionally anyways, it's kinda a hazard of the procedure.
though really I don't think rejection can count as "harm." I mean seriously people, getting rejected isn't the end of the world, I'm sure he won't be scarred for the rest of his life.
OP that does suck though
#22 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:54pm by skiesofgreen
No, I'm in a psychology class right now and have to do tons of experiments. It's not like they have to be like, "Well, we're going to have this attractive girl hit on you, it's part of the experiment." But they would give some cryptic description that would let him know the basis of the experiment without the actual details of what is going on. Things that are detrimental to someone's emotions or anything like that are not allowed.
Ever heard of the Milgram experiment? It's why you you have to at least tell the participants the basis of the experiment without actually giving it away.
#23 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:56pm by adelaide_evening
@17 If you outright told them what the experiment was about there is a more likely hood that they will not give truthful, accurate evidence. By not telling them, its called a blind study. The participant doesn't know what's really being tested so they can't consciously do something that will look better or worse. They even have double blind studies where the experimenter and the patient have no idea what's really being tested. This is because they realized that sometimes the experimenter would do something that would indicate a response, thus skewing the results.
It's a harmless experiment. They couldn't do this experiment without passing an IRB. Being shot down by a confederate hardly amounts to something that would deem this unethical/harmful. There are a lot of things significantly more harmful than this that are approved.
#25 - On 04/03/2009 at 5:58pm by themillsman22
Here is a direct quote from my book: "Participants in any form of research or therapy must be informed, in easy-to-understand language, of any significant factors that could affect their willingness to participate. Physical and emotional risks should be explained, as should the general nature of the project and any therapeutic procedures to be used." ......."It is agreed also that any deception might be involved, it should not cause physical or emotional harm affect someone's willingness to participate in the study."
#26 - On 04/03/2009 at 6:04pm by adelaide_evening
You'd be surprised what they consider "emotional harm". Since everyone responds to situations differently, they have to be extremely careful. Especially at the university level, they can't flat out lie and say "We're going to do an experiment over politics" when it has nothing to do with politics. They have to inform him to the best of their ability.
#27 - On 04/03/2009 at 6:08pm by adelaide_evening
26- That sounds more like a drug trial than a psycology test. The point of a psycology test like that is to see how the mind reacts without thinking about what others think. When you know that you're being monitored, you are more concerned with how you think you are expected to respond than how you honestly feel.
#28 - On 04/03/2009 at 6:10pm by may_cause_fail
#28, it was in reference to deceiving people during experiments, and had nothing to do with drug trials. The teacher also said the same thing during class when talking about the Milgram experiment and why the same thing wouldn't be allowed today.
#30 - On 04/03/2009 at 6:12pm by adelaide_evening
#23 - The Milgram experiment is an entirely different manipulation, and has good reason to be against psychological practice now. However, this study is completely legitimate - a bruised ego is about the worst that the participant may have felt. People do still do these studies - the lab at my university was performing one last year (I'm taking a psychology specialist degree). The "shaking bridge study" also did this manipulation to see how many participants called a female confederate after confusing their fear of heights with arousal at the sight of the woman.
The only thing that the participants *must* be made aware of is that a study may include manipulations that will not harm them psychologically (and lets face it, people ask others out and get rejected all the time without major psychological trauma) but will be revealed after the experiment has been performed - I recently was given a disclaimer that the study I was participating in included graphic violent images and that anyone in counseling should not participate (and the images were indeed disgusting), then strapped to an EEG to watch my brainwaves as I reacted to the images. If you are fairly warned, given the *degree* of potential trauma, then the experiment is legit...
Sorry to the OP, though, being in one of those studies kinda sucks nevertheless.
#31 - On 04/03/2009 at 6:13pm by parachuting
haha #13
Anyone who says experiments are not supposed to mess with human emotions probably has not taken a psych class. One of the main ideas of psychology IS to study emotions, including feelings of attraction.
Obviously they cant tell the guy that the girl is going to hit on him for the experiment, because that would mess up the results. Maybe there was some sort of disclaimer beforehand, but not enough to give away what the study was.
Or, maybe the girl actually thought that the guy was a creep and made up the experiment story as an excuse not to go out with him.
#33 - On 04/03/2009 at 6:29pm by 420hiadventurer
#35, that's totally unnecessary.
Now then.
That sucks, but later you'll look back on it and think "that was pretty funny"
un-ethical much? Id be very pissed off if that happened to me. would have been quite funny if you got her to lie to you, then pointed out all of the sub-conscious signs she gave you, whilst flirting at a near sex pest level of course!
lol. This kind of thing happens all the time, and it's why I never did these studies for extra credit in psychology 101.
And that was two years ago, so it's not some kind of out dated practice.
#43 - On 04/03/2009 at 7:10pm by ohreally123
Ouch.
But I'm not gonna lie, that's one experiment I've always wanted to do. XD Sorry, dude.
#47 - On 04/03/2009 at 7:56pm by Tobias_Grey
that's pretty cold. maybe you should ask her out anyways. or atleast ask her if she was interested in you at all.
#48 - On 04/03/2009 at 8:05pm by JackTheRipper
35 is a douchebag
and Op... dude.. that sucks a lot dude. hey, at least you had the confidence to ask her out in the 1st place
#49 - On 04/03/2009 at 8:10pm by RavensRule97
You asked her o ut that soon ? That's dumb .. You didn't even like know her a day ? ..
#50 - On 04/03/2009 at 8:20pm by HahahaThatsFunny
35 & 44, what was he supposed to think? She was flirting back with him and acting interested, that doesn't make him a loser.
To the OP: that sucks but props to you for being ballsy enough to ask her out; I hate it when guys are too sissy to be straightforward about what they want.
#51 - On 04/03/2009 at 8:24pm by nuga
That's pretty smart dude. She's gonna get a very accurate result for her experiment. haha.
#55 - On 04/03/2009 at 10:27pm by bebepatita
Haha, that sucks :(
I was always on the lookout for whatever the "catch" was when I had to do those experiments for psych. I don't think anyone could have seen this one coming though.
#50, Are you serious? What is wrong with asking someone out immediately?
If they say yes you can be reasonably sure they feel they might be interested in you.
In this case, obviously.
#59 - On 04/04/2009 at 12:25am by drimpossible
well... my psych class teaches that to do experiments like these, patients like yourself have to be unaware of the real motive, otherwise you behave in a dishonest way and mess up what theyre looking for...
so it wasnt really a bitchy thing for her to do, she kind of had to do it... still sucks that it had to happen
Look on the bright side, it sucks but it only sucks for you... =D
=P
Sorry, dude
#61 - On 04/04/2009 at 3:01am by braFTW
#17 and #23, experiments like this still happen all the time, and they are perfectly acceptable. they get through IRB's because: a) There might be no other way to test the construct they're looking at. b) The manipulation is not deemed harmful for the participant--finding out that the girl you're flirting with is actually a confederate is NOTHING compared to what happened in the Milgram experiment.
No, deception is not always a part of research studies, psychology or otherwise, but it is occasionally permissible. To #25, yes the IRB approves studies that it thinks will not unduly affect the research subjects even if some level of deception is allowed. The IRB does it's best but that does not mean that simply because they approved the study you therefore have no legitimacy in feeling violated by the study. If you are really upset about this you can complain both to the RPI (responsible project investigator) ie the person at the head of the whole study, and/or to the IRB itself. You should have received some kind of documentation after you completed the survey that gave you the number of the IRB as well as the RPI. If you didn't receive that it's likely that the study is in violation of IRB protocol but that varies by university. If I felt very uncomfortable with the study and the deception involved I would probably just go to IRB and explain what happened. IRB should be very sensitive to your feelings and concerns because they don't want to be sued. They should be very supportive of you and would be less intimidating to me to go to than the RPI who might be defensive of his/her project and try to dismiss your feelings. You have every right to feel the way that you do and should not be uncomfortable stating to the university that you had some objections to the study. That's what keeps science and research accountable and makes sure that we don't have more Milgrams etc.
#66 - On 04/04/2009 at 1:30pm by rosetintedglassz
Oh man, that's fantastic. Great experiment! I know, deception sucks for the receiving end in psych experiments, but they're sure a heck of a lot of fun to pull off!!
#68 - On 04/04/2009 at 11:58pm by Lovebug_Campbell
There is no way that would pass a university ethics board.
She was just teasing you, she made up that excuse so you'd go away.
#69 You have no idea about psych experiments, clearly. That would pass as long as your proposal made it clear how the participants would be debriefed afterwards.
Deception is pretty common in psych experiments. Don't take it to heart. You were just a good participant. Well done for helping to advance science :)
#70 - On 04/05/2009 at 3:46am by babydoll86
There's an ethics committee that needs to approve any experiment performed on human subjects. I doubt they'd have a major problem with flirtation while taking a survey. If the girl was to go on a few dates with you before spilling the beans, then they'd have a few problems with it.
#71 - On 04/05/2009 at 2:13pm by cthulhu1138
oh man, thats not cool, you needed a smart response though, i would have said "oh, well, then can you get back in to character around 7 tonight?"
Psych experiments are rarely what they tell you they'll be. They're required to fill you in after the fact, but if they're studying, say, how attraction influences your answers to unrelated things, they can't exactly tell you that at the start. You'd fill it out completely differently because you knew that, and the data would be useless.
#74 - On 04/09/2009 at 12:54am by swagmonkey
I'm sorry...but I must say that is a very well done experiment
#75 - On 04/14/2009 at 1:10am by doug_the_bear
That's not really a fair test. Well, if I had been a subject in it, I would have had to be honest at the end anyways. I flirt with any girl. With the cute ones, maybe we'll end up dating. With the moderately cute ones, maybe they'll be interesting and we'll end up being friends. With the ugly ones, it makes them really happy because no one ever flirts with them. Even the ugly ones can become friends, they'll just never end up being dates. :)
You'll find, that works well for almost everyone. Not overly flirtly though. If you're too flirty with the ugly ones, they'll think you're trying to take them out, which probably wasn't the goal. A nice moderate flirting makes everyone around you happy. Well, except maybe their boyfriends or husbands if they're close by. :)
hahaha ohh man i can TELL that you've never been on a date with anyone other than mrs. palmer..
thinking every girl you meet wants to flirt with you - they are probably just being nice cuz you look like a stalker!
absolute positive fail... and ":)"? no, douchebag, no.
#80 - On 11/23/2009 at 3:43pm by whatthefuckcunt
