You are being invited to take part in a 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 psychological predictors, specifically disgust sensitivity, generalised anxiety and neuroticism, contributing to the manifestation of trypophobia.
2. What will I have to do?
You will be asked to log on to the online software Experimentum as a guest, through which you will access the study. To begin, you will be asked to record your age and gender identity. This will be followed by four short questionnaires, assessing trypophobia, and your tendencies to be sensitive to disgust, anxiety and neuroticism. Firstly, you will complete three questionnaires in a randomised order. You will be asked to complete a questionnaire that will assess how disgusting you find certain concepts, relating to pathogen, moral or sexual disgust. Another questionnaire will ask you a series of questions about your tendencies to experience negative emotions, such as depression and anxiety, while the final questionnaire will ask you specific questions about feeling anxious. Finally, you will be presented with two trypophobic images (e.g., a lotus head) and a questionnaire about trypophobia, which will measure how the images make you feel. 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 over the age of 18 is invited to participate in this study.
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 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 will happen to the results of the research study?
Anonymous results of this study will be presented in two student research dissertation’s 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.
7. Who can I contact if I want more information?
If you would like any additional information relating to the study, please contact the student researchers or the project’s supervisor (details above).
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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