A poverty organization in Los Angeles is testing the intervention of cash handouts to women on welfare.Though they may produce robust sociological data,randomized field experiments such as this one carry serious ethical concerns.What is one likely ethical concern of such a project?
A)The intervention may not work.
B)If cash handouts for one group of women will increase,cash handouts for another group will decrease from their previous levels.
C)The study participants may spend their money too quickly.
D)Researchers may be arbitrarily denying some people of a known benefit.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Randomized field experiments involve randomly assigning participants to either a control group or an experimental group. In this case, the experimental group would receive cash handouts while the control group would not. This means that some people who are in need of financial assistance and may benefit from the handouts will be arbitrarily denied the opportunity to receive them, which raises ethical concerns.

A Poverty Organization in Los Angeles Is Testing the Intervention