Tuesday, August 6, 2013

UNM, NYU: Miller's Fatshaming Tweet Wasn't Research

Two IRBs have concluded that Geoffrey Miller's June tweet about "obese PhD applicants" was not human subjects research.

A UNM statement explains,

Miller at first claimed his tweet was part of a research project, but investigations by the Institutional Review Board at New York University where he was a visiting professor, and the IRB at UNM where he is a tenured professor, concluded that was not correct.

The statement also lists the terms of a censure by the university.

For background, see Trolling Isn't Human Subjects Research and Michelle Meyer: Miller Interacted, Intervened

2 comments:

Kevin Parson said...

Honestly, does anyone really believe that this tweet was part of a research project?

Zachary M. Schrag said...

I doubt it, but Miller's claim raised some mildly interesting issues about the definitional boundaries of human subjects research.