ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCHING MEDIA VIOLENCE EFFECTS Ethical issues that arise from researching poten tial effects of violent media on audiences parallel the ethical issues that arise from researching other social phenomena. The study of violent m effects necessarily involves human participants who answer survey questions, contribute to focus groups, respond to in-depth interviews, participate in labo- ratory or field experiments, and so on. The interests of participants presumably are balanced with the interests of the res Scholars who conduct this research are asked by review mechanisms such as institutional review boards (RBs) to set aside their ambitions and prejudices in favor of participants safety and the priority of science Trust in the processes of scientific research and acceptance of research evidence is based, in part, on assurances that research is conducted and reported ethically. According to the European Commission on Research and Innovation, the public holds research and science in high regard. This trust is believed to be important to the process of disseminating knowl edge and acting on that knowledge in discourse and public policy. In the United States, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI oversees research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIHD, The ORI receives few allegations of misconduct each year. Of more than 25,000 grants, it initiates fewer than 50 investigations, and about one-third of these result in a misconduct finding. In the field of media violence effects research, claims of ethics violations are infrequent. Subtle characteristics of research in a field with equivocal findings may lead some critics to make claims that researchers' intentions, accuracy, and bias result not from misconduct but rather from exuberance and impassioned debate. Nevertheless, it is worth reflect ing on the traditions of ethical regulation of social research and reviewing the principles and regula tions that determine ethics in social research, includ- ing media effects research.