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

Words, words, words: participants do not read consent forms in communication research
Research Article
Daria Parfenova, Alina Niftulaeva, Caleb T. Carr
Communication Research Reports, 22 July 2024
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.