WEEK 4

LL Post:

Paying people to participate in studies can be an effective way to generate interest in your study and get a high number of participates, however there are draw backs to this method. Those offering compensation may get only a particular demographic (college students, lower income persons, etc) which make the study less generalizable. There are also instances when it can be seen as predatory behavior, for instance when it involves vulnerable members of society in which autonomy maybe questionable, such as children, the elderly, and the mentally ill (Pandya & Desai, 2013). In these situations when a person cannot make the autonomous discission for themselves offering compensation could encourage caregivers act outside of the participates best interest.

In the instances of surveys and other research in which a person performs cognitive task that do not affect their day to day life it appears appropriate to offer compensation for the participates time. This then calls into question the compensation of those earlier participates of the double blind Covid 19 vaccine. Is it ethical to offer these people compensation that does not include long term care for the unknown side effects? Unfortunately, accurate statistics on the demographics of those who have been involved in each stage of the trials has yet to be published. I think it is likely that we will see the ethics of this discussion coming into question once they are, or in the coming year.

Reference

Pandya, M., & Desai, C. (2013). Compensation in clinical research: The debate continues. Perspectives in clinical research, 4(1), 70–74. https://doi.org/10.4103/2229-3485.106394

JP POST

I don't think there is anything wrong with offering payment to conduct a research study because the participants are being paid for their time and feedback.  I think a substantial payment for a desired outcome has the possibility of having a negative impact on the study because of the possibility of the participants providing false data to confirm a hypothesis. However, I do think it is appropriate to pay research participants if the payment is to reimburse travel or cost of living expenses, if the study is going to be longer than a day and there are no accommodations made available to the participants. I also think it is ok if the payments are not substantial enough to sway the research. I think it would be unethical to offer payment for research if the motive to do so is to entice or coerce participants to conduct the study or if you offer payment to get a desired or biased result.