Wyatt Rogoff
Pronouns: he/him
Research Mentor(s): Margaret Meyer
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology / LSA
Program:
Authors: Margaret Meyer, Emma Goodman
Session: Session 4: 1:40 pm – 2:30 pm
Poster: 94
Abstract
Consent and compliance are well-established topics in the field of social psychology. However, much of the literature focuses on the request (Guadagno et al, 2013), or the situation (Hassanova & Rzayev, 2013). Recent research has begun to shift the focus of consent to the experience of the consentee (Summers & Bohns, 2019). We combine the focus of this literature and explore how providing consent is perceived by third-party viewers and then contrast these perceptions with ratings from actual consentees. Using transcripts and videos from an in-lab consent task, participants in our study (expected N = 100) watched, read, and listened to people provide their consent to handing over their unlocked phone to an experimenter. Participants then rated the consentees response on a variety of domains (e.g., politeness, directness, and voluntariness). We then compared these perceptions against the actual experiences of consent from the in-lab participants. We hypothesize that those who are perceived as less willing to consent by third-party viewers will show more hesitance in their answers: hedging, offering excuses, and using indirect language. We also hypothesize that hesitant participants will be perceived as less polite than enthusiastic participants. Additionally, we explore whether third-party viewers can predict the voluntariness of a person’s consent, and if this differs based on the medium the consent interaction is presented in. These findings will allow us to understand what cues in our responses to consent requests indicate our true preferences about the request. Moreover, this work allows us to understand the difference between perceptions of voluntariness and actual experiences of voluntariness when examining a consent request. These findings will have broad applications in the law, but also in the broader context of consent scenarios and requests.
