Towards understanding the implications of social role manipulation in online tasks

This paper provides an initial discussion of the ethical issues arising when people are asked to assume a role and, from the perspective of that role, asked to carry out an online task. We identify the following considerations: (a) People’s responses when playing a role can reveal personal information about themselves. (b) When people are asked to review the contributions of others who have a particular role, their behavior might indicate how they feel about these roles in their own life. (c) It is difficult to explain to people what they reveal about themselves when reporting their perception of the views of others. (d) People’s own view might change when they play a certain role for an extended period of time.