The scientists and students working with the Media Effects and Processes Division carry out numerous empirical studies with human participants. Ethical aspects are of utmost important whenever human participants are involved and must be considered at all stages of the research process. Benefits and potential detrimental effects of the research have to be weighed against each other. The research unit is committed to the ethical guidelines of the European Commission and conducts its research in accordance with the statements set out in that document.

European Commission (2018). Ethics in Social Science and Humanities.

For research involving data from social media, we refer to the following paper:

Heise, N., & Schmidt, J.-H. (2014). Ethik der Onlineforschung. In M. Welker, M. Taddicken, J.-H. Schmidt, N. Jackob (Hrsg.), Handbuch Online-Forschung.Sozialwissenschaftliche Datengewinnung und -auswertung in digitalen Netzen (S. 519-539) .Köln: Herbert von Halem.