Words, words, words: participants do not read consent forms in communication research

ABSTRACT

Informed consent is an essential part of conducting human subjects research; but its utility is dependent on participants actually reading the consent forms provided. This research conducted secondary analysis of data (N = 1,283) to assess how long participants spent on the consent forms. Participants spent an average of 35.4 seconds on consent documents: not a nonsignficant amount of time (i.e., different from 0 seconds), but insufficient to read or even skim consent forms. Women spent slightly less time on consent forms. Neither the length nor readability of a consent form predicted time spent reading, and neither readability nor gender moderated the relationship between word count and time spent reading. Results suggest participants in communication studies do not spend enough time on a consent document to be able to read it, and therefore modern practices of informed consent do not ensure informed participation in research.

KEYWORDS:

• Research ethics
• consent
• word count
• reading level
• institutional review boards

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author notes

Data used in this work are publicly available: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Z4BY3

Open scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Data. The data are openly accessible at https://10.17605/OSF.IO/Z4BY3

Notes

1. It is worth noting the irony of IRB determining a study “exempt,” as such a categorization would mean the research should not have needed to have been submitted to or overseen by IRB.

2. The reading level of the consent documents in the present research (Flesch-Kincaid grade level: M = 13.53 grade, SD  = 1.82) was actually higher than that of consent documents in medical/clinical trials (M_readability = 11.6 grade; Larson et al., 2015), t(1282) = 38.03, p < .001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daria Parfenova

Daria Parfenova (M.S., Illinois State University) is a researcher and data analyst based in California. Her research interests include computer-mediated communication and communication technologies. In particular, she is interested in application of new technology (e.g., AI, avatars) in public relations and brand communication.

Alina Niftulaeva

Alina Niftulaeva (Illinois State University) is a master’s student in the College of Arts & Sciences at Illinois State University. Her research interests include the intersection of journalism, computer-mediated communication, feminist and critical theories.

Caleb T. Carr

Caleb T. Carr (PhD, Michigan State University) is a Professor of Communication who researches how computer-mediated communication affects communicative processes, including how social media are used for organizational uncertainty reduction and to create and maintain identity online.