(Un)informed Consent: To What Degree are Research Participants ‘Informed’ by Common Consent Procedures in Psychology under EU Data Protection Law?

(Un)informed Consent: To What Degree are Research Participants ‘Informed’ by Common Consent Procedures in Psychology under EU Data Protection Law?
Malte Elsonab, Dara Hallinanc, Annika Külpmanna, Franziska Boehmc
PsychArchives, 31 May 2021
Open Access
Abstract
There is reason to believe that consent forms may routinely do not fulfill the requirements for consent outlined in EU data protection law. Where this is the case, the legitimacy of the conduct of research may be undermined and could result in restrictions on the subsequent conduct of research, obligations to delete data, or obligations to limit the sharing of psychological research data. However, so far, there are no empirical data to support the proposition that compliance may not be the norm. We propose a study design in which we draw a random sample of psychological research reports and systematically compare the research practices (i.e., reported data collection procedures, sharing practices) with the details provided in the respective participant information and consent form and compare each of these with the legal requirements outlined in EU data protection law.