Prolific’s Participant Wellbeing Report: Our commitment to ethical standards
By Eszter Boldog - Product Manager at Prolific
At Prolific, we deeply value the people in our participant pool. They're the heartbeat of the world-changing research made possible through our platform. Our mission is bold and clear: to revolutionize how the world learns about people, so people can revolutionize the world.
As part of this mission, participant welfare is not an afterthought—it's a priority. That's why we're proud to launch our first Participant Wellbeing Report, which you can download now for free.
Download the Prolific Participant Wellbeing Report
Understanding impact through the lens of wellbeing
This new report is one of the steps we've taken to understand and improve the wellbeing of those who contribute their time and insights on Prolific. Our participants take part in a diverse range of research on the Prolific platform - what effect does that have on their wellbeing?
Employing the SWEMWBS scale—a streamlined measure for mental wellness—as our compass, we found that engagement on the Prolific platform has a neutral effect on participants' mental health. Our research also helped us to define an approach—as well as concrete actions—that ensure participant wellbeing on Prolific is maintained in the future.
Our compassionate and pragmatic approach
Our Participant Wellbeing Report demonstrates the importance of our people-centric approach, and the commitments we make to our participants:
- Respect: Recognizing the people behind each survey response, we ensure all Prolific research participants are treated and rewarded fairly.
- Monitoring: We regularly check in on participant wellbeing. Not just as a metric, but as a guide to enhance their research experience continuously.
- Ethical rigor: From ensuring fair compensation to providing clear guidelines and conflict mediation, our commitment to upholding ethical standards shapes the entire participant experience.
When research thrives on ethical groundwork, everyone benefits—the data is richer, the insights are sharper, and the world is wiser.
Actions that make a difference
The report explores four key actions in more detail, reflecting our intention to champion ethical participation in online research:
- Advocating for fair compensation
- Seamless task design to minimize frustration
- Transparency with content guidelines and warnings
- Unbiased support and mediation
Championing these ethical practices means our goals are ambitious, but achievable. Each step towards better participant support bolsters the integrity of the research that takes place on Prolific.
Ready to be part of the change?
Our first Participant Wellbeing Report demonstrates our commitment to participant wellbeing. We see it as a manifesto for compassionate and ethical research! When research participants are thriving, so is the research they empower—a symbiotic relationship that underpins our ambition to enable world-changing research.
Find out more by downloading our Participant Wellbeing Report
