Invitation to participate
You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please read the following information carefully and take time to decide whether or not you wish to take part.
What is the purpose of the study?
The purpose of this study is to explore whether/how different accounts for why a person is obese impact the activation of our Behavioural Immune System. Along with that, it also aims to explore whether/how that activation (or lack thereof) impacts attitudes towards obese individuals.
Do I have to take part?
No, you can choose whether or not you would like to take part in this research. If you do decide to take part, you remain free to withdraw from the study up until you click the final "submit" button. You must be over the age of 18 to take part in this study.
Will my taking part in this study be kept confidential?
No personally-identifying information will be gathered during the survey and, as such, your taking part in this study will be entirely confidential. Please note, however, that because we won’t be able to identify your answers, there is no possibility of retracting your data once you click the final “submit” button. If you wish to withdraw from the study, you must discontinue before completing the study.
What will participation involve?
To participate in this experiment, you will first need to log in to the online software Experimentum, created by the University of Glasgow’s School of Psychology, as a guest. To do so, you will have been asked to provide your age and gender identity. Once on the platform, you will then be asked to read a vignette regarding a person with obesity. Then, you will be asked to answer a series of questions regarding your attitudes towards them. Finally, you will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire on disgust sensitivity, items within which relate to pathogen, moral and sexual disgust. We anticipate that participation will take no longer than 10 minutes. We hope that you will find taking part in our research to be a worthwhile activity. We consider your views and experiences to be extremely valuable to us.
What are the possible disadvantages or risks of taking part in the study?
There are no anticipated disadvantages in taking part. However, if you feel that you may be unduly affected by any of the items, please discontinue your participation.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
Your data is entirely anonymous and unidentifiable and will be gathered using GDPR compliant software. It will be stored on a secure server. Data, without any personal identifying information, may be made publicly available in an online database for re-analysis by other researchers. Anonymous results of this study will be presented in a student research dissertation and may also be presented at conferences or published in journals, books, or the popular media. If you would like a summary of the results, this can be made available to you upon request from the researchers. All data and results will be anonymous, kept confidential, and securely stored at all times. All data collected will be kept on a password-protected computer with an encrypted hard drive for the duration of the project.
Contact information
If you would like additional information relating to the study, please contact the researcher or the project’s supervisor.
Student researcher: Stefan Yanovski (2394683y@student.gla.ac.uk)
Supervisor: Dr. Eugene Dawydiak (eugene.dawydiak@glasgow.ac.uk)
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