I am a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. I am conducting two studies. The first study will look at how attitudes on certain social and political issues relate to emotional reactions to certain information. The second study will ask for your opinions and judgments about punishment. Because I am trying to gauge the attitudes of adults in the United States, participation in these studies is limited to those who are 18 and over who are U. S. citizens or permanent residents.
I am doing this research as part of my studies in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. I will be collecting data via the Web from about 1000 people, and will use this information as part of the basis for my Doctoral Thesis. I may also use this information in articles that might be published, as well as in academic presentations. In addition, I will be archiving these data for potential use by other researchers.
Participation should take about 30 minutes total time, and is on a purely voluntary basis. It is important that you participate in both studies and that your participation is done individually, and takes place without interruptions, breaks, or distractions, just at it would if you were participating in studies in a laboratory setting. You will be asked to provide some basic demographic information, read some materials, and answer some questions, giving us your opinions or judgments on various topics, or indicating how you feel. The data that will be analyzed and archived will not include information that could be used to identify you. While no questions will be asked that involve sensitive personal information, and there are no major foreseeable risks involved with your participation, some of the social and political topics presented may evoke strong feelings or emotions, some of which may be unpleasant. Explanations of the purposes of the materials and questions used in both studies will be provided following the second study.
If at any time and for any reason, you would prefer not to answer any questions, please feel free not to. If at any time you would like to stop participating, you are free to do so. You will not be penalized in any way for deciding to stop participation at any time.
While there is no guaranteed payment for your participation, participants will have the option of providing their names and email addresses for entry into a drawing where five cash prizes of $50.00 each will be awarded. Those participants who are students enrolled in courses where instructors have agreed to award course credit for participation in this research can also receive this credit. All names, email addresses, and other contact information will be kept separately from the study data, and no one will be able to link anyone to their responses. Once the prize winners have been selected and notified, the names and email addresses of others will be deleted.
If you have questions, you may contact me at:
David Nichols 2750 Prairie Avenue, #2 Evanston, IL 60201-1483 Phone: (847) 475-0671 Email: nic5@uchicago.edu
If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this research, you can contact the following office at the University of Chicago:
Social & Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board University of Chicago 5835 South Kimbark - Judd 333 Chicago, IL 60637 Phone: (773) 834-7835 Fax: (773) 834-8700 Email: sbsirbwise@listhost.uchicago.edu
Professor Goldstein may be contacted at gold@uchicago.edu.
As previously stated, your participation is completely voluntary, and is greatly appreciated. Although I hope that you will provide a response to every item, you do not have to do so. On each page of items there is a Continue button at the bottom. This is how you proceed to the next page. If you click on this button without completing all items, you will be returned to that page and asked to either complete all the items or to indicate that you left one or more items blank intentionally. Just above the Continue button there will be a circle to check to indicate that you want to move to the next page even if not all items have been completed. Checking this circle and clicking on the Continue button will move you to the next page. Once you have completed a page, please do not use your browser's Back button to return to it.
Please maximize this window and close any programs that might distract you during completion of the studies. Please also turn off any music, television, etc., and do not interact with other people while completing these items.
One final technical note: in order to participate, you must have cookies enabled in your browser, as that is how I will be able to connect your responses on each page to those on other pages. The cookie file created when you click on the button below is not an executable program. It cannot introduce a virus or do anything to harm your computer.
If you are interested in participating in these studies, please indicate this by clicking on the “I agree to participate” button. By clicking this button you are confirming that you are at least 18 years old, a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, and that you are initially committed to completing both studies individually and without breaks, interruptions, or distractions.