Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism in detecting facial emotional expressions

You are being invited to take part in a research project into understanding the influence of one’s personality (e.g., narcissism) in the ability to understand others’ emotions involved in their facial expressions. Before you decide if you want to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read the information on this page carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Ask me if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information. Take time to decide whether or not you wish to take part. I hope that this sheet will answer any questions you have about the study.

  1. What is the purpose of the study? The purpose of this study is to find out how an individual’s personality influences one’s ability to understand others’ emotions involved in their facial expressions. The study will also investigate whether the relevant psychological qualities (e.g., one’s sensitivity to reward and punishment) linked to one’s personality explain the reason why individuals’ ability in detecting others’ facial emotions vary.

  2. Why have I been chosen? You are being asked to take part because the survey invite has been sent to wide online research participants across the UK, and you are believed suitable for participation. To be eligible for the study, you need to be 18 or above and have not been diagnosed with any mental or personality disorder.

  3. Do I have to take part? You do not have to take part in this study. It is your free choice to decide whether to participate or not. If you decide to take part, you will need to complete a consent, where you are be asked to confirm your eligibility (i.e., aged 18 or above, has not been diagnosed any mental or personality disorder). If, during your participation, you change your mind, you can withdraw freely. If, on completion of the study (i.e., a survey and a brief online facial recognition task), just email me your decision and anonymised participant ID (i.e., last two letters of surname + last two digits of mobile number), and I will delete your participation data immediately and permanently.

  4. What will happen to me if I take part? This is an online study via Experimentum. If you take part, you will need to provide a consent before starting. Once completed the consent, you will be asked to complete some multiple-choice questions about what you think about yourself. You do not have to answer any question that you do not want to. This will take about approximately 7-8 minutes. After that, you will be asked to complete a facial recognition task where you need to identify whether a displayed facial expression is happy or anger, and if the displayed expression is fake or genuine. This will take approximately 4-5 minutes. Lastly, you will be asked some questions about your agreement on some personality qualities you may or may not demonstrate. This will take approximately 7-8 minutes. Overall, you may expect spending about 20 minutes on completing this study.

  5. Will the information that I give you in this study be kept confidential? I will keep all the data on the University password-protected server (i.e., OneDrive). You do not need to provide your name and will use an anonymised participation ID instead (i.e., last two letters of surname + last two digits of mobile number). This unique participation ID will not be recognised by anyone else other than yourself. No individual data will be analysed and presented in the research project. As such, you participation will be kept confidential.

  6. What will happen to the results of this study I will analyse the data I collect from participants, and present this in the dissertation which I am writing for my qualification, i.e., Psychology (Conversion), MSc. I will also present the same set of data in potential peer-reviewed publications. Data on the Experimentum will be delete permanently after completion of the project. The anonymised data will be kept sagely on the University password-protected server (i.e., OneDrive) for up to seven years on completion of data collection in accordance with the University data retention policy.

  7. Who has reviewed the study? This study has been reviewed and agreed by the School of Education Ethics Forum, University of Glasgow.

  8. Who can I contact for further Information? If you have any questions about this study, you can ask me, Shuge Zhang (2507377Z@glasgow.ac.uk), or my supervisor, Dr Joanna Wincenciak (Joanna.wincenciak@glasgow.ac.uk), or the Ethics officer for the School of Education, Paul.Lynch@glasgow.ac.uk

Thank you for reading this.

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