Some time ago, I served on the IRB for a university. It was a good experience - the training was a bit dull - but the content of the proposals & the exposure they offered to the broader university were priceless.
The IRB taught me many lessons.
I learned just how little common sense some faculty had & how socially savvy others were. The breadth of social IQ across faculty is pretty amazing (I’ll save those stories for another day).
I also learned that attitudes towards participants varied widely - with psychologists having no compunction about requiring participation for course credit (that alternative class assignment stuff is horse pucky) to healthcare professionals punctiliously dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s (and paying well for an hour of your time).
The most important lessons were obvious - be nice to your participants, don’t ask them to do things that you would not ask a family member, & pay fair compensation.
There was one lesson that I didn’t think about.
That treating participants well brings joy and satisfaction.
I learned this lesson today as my team launched an online experiment.
We paid a pretty good price when we launched the hit using an online panel service.
As the inevitable flood of comments & queries about failed screening checks streamed into my inbox - I messaged the student about the comments.
(I paraphrase)
Me: ‘We seem to be getting a lot of comments’
Student: ‘we have tough screening questions’
Me: ‘No problem.’
Student: ‘I am answering them as they come in. Some of these people need the money. They always thank me for the quick response. It’s important.’
Me: 'Thank you!’
I was curious about the participants’ comments - so I looked. No fatal flaws surfaced.
Notably, every comment was responded to within three minutes. Every response was direct to the question.
I paused to reflect on that moment & that student.
Because he understood participants & their motivations, he constructed a process that demonstrated respect and satisfied him.
By doing the right thing, the right way, he took the tedious task of troubleshooting & brought joy to the work.
As an IRB member, I never considered that helping people do research the right way might bring them satisfaction - we were trained to think about risk and compliance.
As a faculty advisor, I used that training to instill a bit of fear into students & make them comply with human subject requirements.
Perhaps, it’s time to pivot from fear & compliance as a motivation to teaching satisfaction & joy in doing things well as it pertains to working with human subjects.
Doing so could build a constructive mindset - that shifts attitudes toward participants and motivate people to adhere to best practices for ethical research.
And bring more joy to our work.
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