Some sociologists think that researchers should be able to mislead subjects to get unbiased results as long as the subjects aren’t getting hurt. If they can’t deceive them, the subjects are likely to perceive the purpose of the research and shape their behavior, leading to invalid results. For example, twelve female college freshmen and twelve male college freshmen are brought into a room to get their opinions about football. They discuss football. The sociologists really aren’t interested in their opinions about football. What they are doing is analyzing flirting behavior: the women’s and men’s facial expressions, their body language, and their words. If these subjects were told the real purpose of the research, it would change their behavior. What is your opinion? Why?