Is it right for sociologists to misrepresent themselves or not identify themselves when they do research?

This is not an ethical practice for any researcher working
with human subjects.

When sociologists do research on human
subjects, they must obtain the informed consent of those subjects.  In order to do this,
they certainly must not misrepresent themselves.  They cannot even simply fail to
identify themselves as sociological researchers.  They must identify themselves and
inform their subjects as to the purposes of the research that is being
done.

A sociologist who does not identify him or herself to
research subjects cannot possibly obtain their informed consent.  Failure to obtain
informed consent is a major breach of research ethics.