Laud humphreys research ethics guidelines

Without telling people that he was studying them, Laud Humphreys (1975) observed hundreds of homosexual acts among men in St. Louis, Missouri. Humphreys’s study produced very important results.

The men involved in this tearoom trade, as it is called, came from all walks of life, and many were married and living otherwise straight lives.

Laud humphreys research ethics guidelines

Humphreys made it clear that he did not engage in homosexual acts himself, but played the role of the ‘‘watch queen,’’ or lookout, warning his informants when someone approached the restroom. This deception and unobtrusive observation, however, did not cause the storm of criticism that accompanied the first publication of Humphreys’s work in 1970.

That was caused by Humphreys having taken his research a step further.

He jotted down the license plate numbers of the men who used the restroom for quick, impersonal sex and got their names and addresses from motor vehicle records. He waited a year after doing his observational wo