Developing Trust

You are asking participants to help you in your research. You have worked to make this a win-win situation, and the participants know that the research is happening because you want it to happen. You control who is enrolled and who is not. Participants do not volunteer for research supervised by someone they do not trust. There are things that can be done to help develop a trusting relationship. The first is to avoid things that can undermine trust. The use of highly medical or legal language does not make a subject feel that you care about his or her ability to understand the research. Instead, it suggests that you care more about protecting yourself and the institution than about protecting the participant. You do not want to come across to the participant as if you are reading the Miranda rights to a suspect. Any hint of evasiveness or dishonesty is toxic to a relationship of trust. What you can do to develop trust starts with respecting the participant. Treat participants as intelligent & autonomous. This is a fundamental principle of ethical research.

During the Informed Consent process, a PI/RTM may meet with a potential participant who is somewhat suspicious and asks questions that you may not be accostumed to answering. The video clip below offers examples of how to respectfully respond to the potential participant:

Click on the picture above to view the video.