Socially sensitive research refers to any study that potentially has social consequences for the participants and other individuals who they represent. For example, conducting research on gender differences is likely to affect men and/or women. If, for example, it was found that women show greater understanding of people’s emotions it might mean that men were less likely to be employed as nurses.
Given the above, you might think that such socially sensitive research should simply be avoided. However, doing that would mean that most psychological research would have to be avoided. As discussed in the article by Julie Hulme, psychology is about people’s lives, so inevitably it deals with topics that are likely to be sensitive for someone.
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