Personality, sex of participant, and face-to-face interaction affect reading of informed consent forms

Students (N = 183) participated in a study designed to determine if each student read the informed consent form. Approximately 12% of students in the online condition followed the procedure compared with 38% in the laboratory phase. Participants with higher trait worry and those with lower emotion reappraisal were more likely to follow the procedure, while women were more likely to read the form than men. Across conditions, most students do not read informed consent documents, particularly in online formats. These findings of this research support the idea that women tend to be more information-seeking than men in health and research settings and those with higher trait worry tend to read the consent forms to alleviate uncertainty and trust concerns.