Investigating attitudes towards individuals with addictive disorders.

Student researcher: Maria Lochhead (2523980L@student.gla.ac.uk)

Supervisor: Dr Eugene Dawydiak (eugene.dawydiak@glasgow.ac.uk)

Invitation You are being invited to take part in an online research study. It is important for you to understand why the research is being conducted and what it will involve. Please read the following information carefully and take time to decide whether or not you wish to take part.

1. What is the purpose of the study? The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes towards addictive disorders.

2. What will participation involve? You will be asked to log on to the online software Experimentum, created by the University of Glasgow’s School of Psychology, as a guest, and record your age and gender identity. You will then be asked to fill out a series of short questionnaires. You will be presented with a vignette of an individual who has an addictive disorder and asked to answer a questionnaire based on your attitudes towards them. This questionnaire will be repeated for 3 different disorders: alcohol use disorder, opioid use disorder and gambling disorder. Then, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire that will assess how disgusting you find certain concepts (these concepts will relate to either pathogen, moral or sexual disgust). We anticipate that participation will last no longer than 20 minutes. We hope that you will find taking part in our research to be a worthwhile activity. Your views and experiences are highly valuable to us.

3. Why have I been chosen? Anyone aged 18 and above is welcome to participate.

4. 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 will be asked to provide consent online. However, 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.

5. Will my taking part in this study be kept confidential? Participation is entirely anonymous, and you will only be asked to provide information on your age and gender identity. Because we won’t be able to identify your answers, there is no chance 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.

6. What are the possible disadvantages of taking part?

There are no anticipated disadvantages in taking part. However, if you feel that you may be unduly affected by either the items related to substance use disorders, or the items related to pathogen, moral or sexual disgust, please discontinue participation in this study.

7. What will happen to the results of the research study? 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. Data will be gathered using GDPR compliant software and stored on a secure server. Data may be made publicly available in an online database for re-analysis by other 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.

8. Who can I contact if I want more information? If you would like any additional information relating to the study, please contact the researcher (Maria Lochhead, 2523980L@student.gla.ac.uk) or the project supervisor (Dr Eugene Dawydiak, eugene.dawydiak@glasgow.ac.uk)

Ethical review This study was reviewed by the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences ethical review board at The University of Glasgow.

Complaints If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the University Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter. Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotectionofficer@glasgow.ac.uk. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://www.ico.org.uk.

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