12 L Ghandour, R. Yasmine, F. El-Kak GIVING CONSENT WITHOUT GETTING INFORMED:A CROSS-CULTURAL ISSUE IN RESEARCH ETHICS LILIAN GHANDOUR, ROLA YASMINE, AND FAYSAL EL-KAK American University of Beirut, Lebanon ABSTRACT: INFORMED CONSENT FORMS (ICFS) maintain the integrity of research ethics and preserve participants' rights. Using cross-sectional online sur- vey data on sexuality and sexual practices of private university students from Lebanon, this paper ques- tions whether participants thoroughly read iCFs, and whether time taken to read ICFs is associated with data completeness. A total of 2,534 surveys were com- pleted; a median time of 18.66 seconds was taken to read the 815-word ICF; 65% of participants consented within the first 30 seconds and 90% in less than the minimum predicted time (2.7 minutes). Our data indicates potential participant neglect of ICFs, raising the question of whether participants who endorse an informed consent form are truly informed of the study objectives and their rights. KEY WORDS: informed consent, research ethics, IRB, online study, Lebanon Received: March 8, 2013; revised June 29, 2013 I NFORMED CONSENT ENSURES THAT PARTICIPANTS are informed of the research study and its procedures, any potential risks or benefits, as well as their rights, role, and overall contribution (Crow et al., 2006; Nagy Hesse-Biber Se Leavy, 2009). Securing genuinely informed consent becomes particularly important when investigat- ing "sensitive" topics (e.g., drug use, sexual practices) and/ or "vulnerable" populations (e.g., students) (Nagy Hesse- Biber & Leavy, 2009). In litigious Western societies, research participants often do not read or merely skim through consent doc- uments for various reasons, whether it is because they trust the investigators/ institution, are rushed for time, or just become tired of reading and signing forms that are often incomprehensible to laypeople. Failure to read consent documents occurs irrespective of whether informed consent is obtained online or offline (Varnhagen et al., 2005). In one study, 50% of the par- ticipants took less than 53 seconds to consent, 93% consenting in less than the minimum predicted reading time (Desch et al., 2011). Despite the plethora of survey research conducted among university youth, the latter . is the only study, to our knowledge, that has quantita- tively estimated the time taken by university students to review the online ICF before participation. However, with the worldwide increased usé of online surveys, the issue of signing informed consent forms without truly being informed warrants further investigation. For instance, are research participants more likely to read ICFs when the topic is rather sensitive or is a social tiaboo? Are educated university youth from non-West- ern cultures likely to behave differently? Previous studies have shown ¡strong links between information provided in an ICF and study outcomes. One study, for instance, showed that providing too much detail about the research topic in an ICF may compro- mise baseline knowledge of participants and subse- quently the outcomes of behavioral interventions (Stephenson et al., 2010). Another highlighted the importance of assuring confidentiality in an ICF, a strong predictor of increased willingness to respond to sensitive questions (Singer, 1978). However, no study has yet explored the possible infiuence of carefully reviewing ICFs on completeness of the response data that partici- pants provide, keeping in mind that incomplete responses can severely jeopardize response quality and validity of study findings. We examined the time taken to read an online ICF and its association with response quality among an educated sample of university students who took part in the first online survey of youth sexual values and practices in Lebanon, an Arab country at the crossroads between Eastern and Western cultures. The specific questions include: (1) What is the median time taken to read the online ICF? (2) Does time taken to read the consent doc- ument vary by students' sociodemographics? and (3) Is data completeness related to time taken to read the ICF? Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, VOL. 8, No. 3, PP. 12-21. PRINT ISSN 1556-2646. ONLINE ISSN 1556-2654. © 2013 BY JOAN SIEBER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE DIRECT ALL REQUESTS FOR PERMISSIONS TO PHOTOCOPY OR REPRODUCE ARTICLE CONTENT THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS'S RIGHTS AND. PERMISSIONS WEBSITE, HTTP://WWW.UCPRESSJOURNALS.COM/REPRINT1NFO.ASP. DOI: 10.1525/jer.2013.8.3.12