Cross-Disciplinary Lessons for Improving Informed Consent Procedures in Research, with Derek J. Robey, Hannah Baron, Sebastian Karcher, Dessi Kirilova, John Baumann, Rebecca Campbell, Scott Desposato, Roma Dhamanaskar, James DuBois, Jimena Hurtado, Michelle Meyer, Evan Perrault, Mary Politi, and Teresa Swartz Pre-print. Informed consent shouldn’t be reduced to a checkbox. Treating consent as an ongoing, participant‑centered process of engagement that is clearer, tailored to research context, and transparent about data, can strengthen ethical research and trust across both biomedical and social science disciplines, as they learn from each other.
Consider the Source: Individual Variation in Reporting Electoral Violence, with Leonardo Arriola, Arsène Brice Bado, Allison Grossman, and Aila M. Matanock Pre-Analysis Plan. The lack of locally sourced data remains an obstacle to improving knowledge about election violence around the world. Researchers continue to largely rely on secondhand forms of data, whether sourced from media reports or election monitors. But the uncertain accuracy and validity of such data sources raises critical questions about our understanding of fundamental dynamics relating to the victims and perpetrators of election violence. In this paper, we present a theoretical framework for assessing the likelihood that differently situated individuals report on violent events they have witnessed or experienced firsthand. Drawing on an original survey conducted across 289 urban and rural locations in the run-up to Côte d’Ivoire’s 2020 presidential elections, we show that there is no significant difference in reporting between citizens and leaders despite social status distinctions. Instead, we find that key demographic factors consistently affect the likelihood of reporting: while women and rural residents are less likely to report violence, we find little systematic difference in reporting based on partisanship or ethnic identity. We show that violence reporting is correlated with exposure to other forms of conflict, namely, ethnic, religious, or land. We further show that there are few or small differences in the likelihood of reporting across forms of violence (i.e., property damage, killings, physical assaults, verbal threats). The findings presented here contribute to emerging discussions focused on improving data-collection methodologies for election violence and potential policy interventions aimed at reducing the outbreak of such violence.