The Opportunity Cost of Compulsory Research Participation: Why Psychology Departments Should Abolish Involuntary Partici
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The Opportunity Cost of Compulsory Research Participation: Why Psychology Departments Should Abolish Involuntary Participant Pools Ruth Walker1 Received: 25 February 2020 / Accepted: 4 June 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Psychology departments often require undergraduates to participate in faculty and graduate research as part of their course or face a penalty. Involuntary participant pools (human subject pools) in which students are compulsorily enrolled are objectively coercive. Students have less autonomy than other research participants because they face a costly alternative task or the penalties that accompany failure to meet a course requirement if they choose not to participate. By contrast, other research participants are free to refuse consent without cost or penalty. Some researchers claim that the educational value of participation justifies the requirement. They treat coercion as a cost that can be outweighed by the benefits to students. This paper argues that such an approach is flawed because coercion is not like other costs and that educational value is inherently low relative to personal study or classroom time. The unethical nature of involuntary participation is best demonstrated with an opportunity cost analysis. This shows that students are forced to sacrifice higher value alternatives that they have paid to do and undertake a lower value activity that principally benefits others. Faculty have a conflict of interest as they are the beneficiaries of student coercion in their role as researchers and responsible for student achievement in their role as teachers. Voluntary participant pools can resolve this conflict but at the cost of reducing the supply of participants. A change in departmental research conduct is required to restore the autonomy of students who are competent adults and not legitimate subjects of paternalism when it comes to research participation. Keywords Human subject pools · Coercion · Psychology · Research · Undergraduates
* Ruth Walker [email protected] 1
Philosophy Programme, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
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Introduction Psychology departments in a number of countries, including the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand frequently have human subjects (or participants) pools comprising undergraduate students enrolled in their courses. Some, including the recently developed one at the author’s institution, do not compel students to participate, but in many research participation is required. Students must complete a certain number of hours as participants in faculty and graduate research (Whitley and Kite 2018). In these institutions enrolment in the participant pool is compulsory. Students who fail to complete their set hours are penalized, in some cases by failing the course1 or in others by losing a letter grade (Moyer and Franklin 2011). This requirement to participate sets students apart from other research participants who are never compelled to participate. That can lead one to be concerned
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