In addition to the oversight of the humane treatment of animals during experimentation, each university or research institute's IACUC is also responsible for approving research to be performed on animals, reporting on any preventable animal deaths, and serving as a liaison for animal ethics issues between governing bodies like the APA and colleges.

Experimenter bias is the process by which an informed researcher unconsciously shows preference for one or more groups, based on knowledge outside the experiment. Note that this is not a choice—deliberately favoring one group due to outside knowledge is called fraud, and is definitely an ethics violation. A double blind methodology could rectify this issue.

The principle of informed consent requires that deception only occur when there is no reasonable non-deceptive alternative. Cost may be a factor in making this determination; however, it is rare for deception to be approved due to cost factors alone. This may also be considered when the research has a significantly established or reasonably expected value: academic or medical.

The principle of protection from harm possesses four requirements. First, subjects should be safeguarded from physical and mental harm at all times. Second, debriefing after an experiment should include a therapeutic safeguard if necessary. Third, if danger is present in an experiment, then an ethics board must approve it. Last, any danger present in an experiment must be kept at the minimum required for the experiment to function.

In this infamous study, employees at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois were told ahead of time that they were part of an experiment designed to measure, among other things, worker productivity. Initial results looked very promising; however, subsequent research and investigation revealed that the novelty of being part of an experiment likely caused worker productivity to rise. As a result, this confounded results and inflated (albeit unintentionally) the data. Today, the use of deception or post-experimental debriefing is encouraged if a Hawthorne effect is expected in a research design.

Subjects can be deceived on the absolute true nature of the experiment if these two conditions have been met:

1) It is not feasible to use alternates to deception

2) The potential findings justify the use of deception due to their scientific, educational, or applied value

In order to do ethical research, researchers must obtain informed consent from research participants. Informed consent is sometimes obtained verbally rather than using a written form. Researchers usually need to have their way of obtaining informed consent approved by an institutional review board.

According to the ethic laws for psychological experiments and studies, all participants must be debriefed after the study. 

Using deception in research is covered by the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) ethics code. Standard 8.07 of the code states “psychologists do not deceive prospective participants about research that is reasonably expected to cause physical pain or severe emotional distress.” Dr. R's study involves both deception and physical pain; therefore, her study is unethical.

An "institutional review board" (IRB), also known as an ethical review board (ERB), is a committee that has been formally designated to approve, monitor, and review psychological research involving human subjects. In the United States, IRBs are governed by Title 45 Code of Federal Regulations Part 46.