Unobtrusive Research and Ethics

This week we learned about unobtrusive research. In this type of research the subjects do not know anyone is watching them. According to the guidelines of ethics in research there must be a voluntary participation. So one could conclude that unobtrusive research is unethical right?

Although unobtrusive research might not follow one of the guidelines to ethics in research that does not necessarily make unobtrusive research as a whole unethical. For instance, when performing the assignment this week we had to figure out which door to the School of Communications was used most. One of the ways I figured it out was observing people as they walked in an out of the doors. I was hidden and the subjects did not see me nor know that they were being watched. Some might argue that performing that research was unethical because the subjects were unaware hence an invasion of privacy but I do not think most of the people would mind being part of a study of opening up a door therefore I do not feel I violated any type of ethics.

However, there are some cases in which I feel the ethical boundary is pushed a little. Studies that are done to research a sensitive subject like racism and there is a hidden camera recording people about how they feel about the issue might be crossing the line of ethics. Unlike the door study the participants might not be fully OK with them being secretly taped for a study on racism.

So I do not think unobtrusive research is unethical but there is a fine line and when it is crossed there is a  violation of ethics in research. But, what is the alternative? If researchers need to know how people feel about racism, is there another way to find out an accurate answer not using unobtrusive research?