5.1.

I am unlikely to participate in phone surveys since they rarely can be scheduled and resultingly call when
I am not available to chat.

There are a few things I consider before attempting or completing a survey. Surveys that don’t
communicate the length, the time commitment needed, or the sponsor and/or rationale are usually
skipped. I also dislike surveys that continually ask the same questions numerous times—while I
understand the rationale for it, my answers do begin to become less accurate and thoughtful.

A study by Robb et al. (2017) found that inclusion in a large prize draw was not as strong a motivator as
a small, immediate financial incentive. I tend to also skip surveys that enter you into a contest or raffle
since I have never once won from any and no longer buy into the idea.

References

Robb, K. A., Gatting, L., & Wardle, J. (2017). What impact do questionnaire length and monetary
incentives have on mailed health psychology survey response?. British journal of health
psychology, 22(4), 671–685. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12239

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You made some great points on survey wording and I wanted to expand a little on the topic.

When I helped develop surveys for INGO projects, we were careful to keep questions neutral and “hide”
what would be the socially more desirable answer. For example, a question that asks men, “Do you have
a higher income than your partner?” might make some respondents answer untruthfully due to
outdated social expectations about men being “breadwinners”. It would be more effective to ask two
neutral questions instead: “What is your personal income?” and “What is your partner’s income?”.

Another example of the importance of survey phrasing is a research study completed by Edwards et al.
(2014), in which the researchers sought to reinforce findings from prior studies on how the word “rape”
influences how respondents answer questions. The researchers found that mere wording could alter
results drastically, with 13.6% of male respondents saying they would rape a woman in a consequence-
free scenario and 31.7% saying they would force a woman to have intercourse in the same situation.
Although the meaning of the question remained the same, there was a 20 percent difference in the
responses.

By keeping the language used neutral, particularly with controversial or uncomfortable topics,
researchers are more likely to get honest and accurate results.

(197 words)

References
Edwards, S. R., Bradshaw, K. A., & Hinsz, V. B. (2014). Denying rape but endorsing forceful intercourse:
Exploring differences among responders. Violence and Gender, 1(4), 188–193.
https://doi.org/10.1089/vio.2014.0022

5.2.3

On one hand, human challenge trials have a dark history, such as Nazi Germany’s experimentation on
prisoners and the Willowbrook experiments in the United States. In the Willowbrook experiment,
children with mental disabilities were infected with hepatitis without informed parental consent
(Metzger et al., 2019). The ethical violations were indefensible, despite the importance of the research
discoveries.

On the other hand, human challenge trials have obvious benefits over natural infection studies, since
they eliminate confounding factors like “different viral strains … uncertain timing of exposure, and
patient heterogeneity” (Rapeport et al., 2021, para. 4), allowing researchers to understand the early
infection responses. With new, dangerous diseases, the better the understanding, the better the
response and vaccine development.

With recent human challenges, ethical considerations and requirements are much more demanding
than before. Only low-risk, consenting participants are selected, with the choice to withdraw at any
point in the study (para. 15). Like Khrystyna, I do wonder about the long-term effects, since COVID-19 is
such a new disease with no data on future complications. However, I cannot think of an alternative
solution that has similar benefits.

Can anyone think of alternatives to human challenge trials?

(198 words)

References

Metzger, W. G., Ehni, H. J., Kremsner, P. G., & Mordmüller, B. G. (2019). Experimental
infections in humans—historical and ethical reflections. Tropical Medicine &
International Health, 24(12), 1384–1390. https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.13320

Rapeport, G., Smith, E., Gilbert, A., Catchpole, A., McShane, H., & Chiu, C. (2021). SARS-
COV-2 human challenge studies — establishing the model during an evolving pandemic.
New England Journal of Medicine, 385(11), 961–964.
https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2106970