socialcomputinglab[at]uw.edu
We hope to determine how the internet facilitates the on- and off-boarding of extreme beliefs, the role of online recovery communities, and challenges to the recovery process. We aim to improve the recovery process by yielding insights to help identify sources of radicalization, promote strategies for recovery, and help technologists and platforms design mitigating solutions.
This study will include interviews with social media users who are former conspiracy theory believers. We will recruit users from online recovery communities and through referrals. The interviews will last around 60 minutes and will be recorded with user consent through online audio or messaging platforms. The participant will be anonymous and can elect to pause or stop recording at any time. Participation is completely voluntary. At any time participants may elect to withdraw from the study.
Through analyzing and aggregating participant interviews, we will uncover insights about technology and social media design that could aid the process of recovery or disengagement from conspiratorial thinking.
Potential risks to participants include exposure of conspiratorial beliefs and of participation in conspiratorial online communities. Additionally, recording of the interview provides a risk of tying personally identifiable voice information to the data a participant provides. We will manage these risks by using a unique identifier to protect personally identifiable usernames. Audio recordings will also be stored locally on a secure computer and deleted once transcribed.
We will be asking participants about their engagement with former conspiracy beliefs, which may cause them distress. This level of risk would be similar to any other discussion of their former conspiracy beliefs. We will manage these risks by letting participants know that they do not need to disclose information they find distressing.
To ensure user privacy, we will allow participants to electronically sign consent forms with their username. We will not verify user identity. Participant usernames will be kept confidential and anonymized through the use of unique identifiers before distributing data outside of the research team. If you disclose the intent to harm yourself or others we are required to report. We will keep personally identifiable information and responses private to the extent allowed by law. Research at the University of Washington is sometimes reviewed to ensure that it is being conducted safely and legally. Your records could be subject to examination if our study is selected, however the reviewers will keep the information confidential.