The study is a case of deception research. Deception research is a type of research in which the researchers are lying to / hiding information from their subjec

The study is a case of deception research. Deception research is a type of research in which the researchers are lying to / hiding information from their subjects - the mails purported to come from individual citizens, and did not mention that this was an academic study. Other fields (e.g., psychology) have long since recognised inherent problems with the ethical aspects of deception research (in a very tiny nutshell: you harm your subjects' agency). Therefore, guidelines and protocols have been established (e.g., by the APA). Roughly, those boil down to: - don't do deception research unless no alternative method exists AND the outcome will have significant value - inform the participants as soon as possible about the deception. In this case, both IRB and researchers failed to recognise this as deception research. That is in itself a serious issue.