University of Kent survey

[MillicentFaucet]

I really don't want to believe that the people who signed off this research knew how it was going to be presented on MN. I grabbed enough info to have a dig about, I really hope that the psychology dept of Kent University didn't intentionally seek to paint the many thousands of MN users as bigots.
But it appears that the deleting of everything to do with it suggests the people responsible are aware of unethical it is.

I noticed some American spelling amongst the questions too. I am guessing the 'God' question was actually wanting to ask 'Are you a right-wing bible-belt Christian fundamentalist with millions of dollars ?'

But stepping back from the dubious aims of this 'research'. Surely any serious research institute investigating any group would require the researchers to gain a good understanding of the aims and beliefs of that group? To read and understand their materials and perspective? And to do this way before approaching that group? It is such a failure of basic research that this obviously did not happen.

I can categorically say that any complaint about this survey will carry a lot more weight if it is made by someone external to the University, preferably by someone who saw it, anyone who has screenshots, anyone who tried to participate, etc. The more information you can give about it and the more people who write in, the better.
If you go to research.kent.ac.uk/ris-research-policy-support/ethics/
The 3rd line down gives you the name of the person to address your concerns to. She absolutely will take any complaint seriously. Ask her to refer your complaint to the Chair of the Research Ethics Committee. If it’s the same person it was year, the Chair happens to be from the Psychology Dept and her research interests include response biases and questionnaire design. So she will be well placed to form a judgment about it.
Good luck and keep us posted!

Gcmiddle check your inbox, I've sent you the links so you can read it for yourself. Prepare to be gob smacked

Here is the last page. I've deleted the names of the researchers but you can see their aim is to assess 'intentions to engage in collective action against the rights of transgender women'

Has there ever been any collective action against the rights of transgender women?

any complaint about this survey will carry a lot more weight if it is made by someone external

If I'd seen it I would complain.

@FindTheTruth

any complaint about this survey will carry a lot more weight if it is made by someone external

If I'd seen it I would complain.

I can pm the links to the cached versions of the survey and deleted thread if you wish.

Managed to miss this yesterday. What an utter waste of time all round. I like taking part in research but when I click on a link to a survey and find it's been so poorly constructed that I can't answer the questions in any meaningful or truthful way I give up. Garbage in, garbage out.

Could it have had postdocs' names on the survey because they are supervising an undergraduate dissertation project? That would be marginally less shocking, but still unacceptable.

Clymene, did you mean to post a link? There isn't one in your post.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Managed to miss this yesterday. What an utter waste of time all round. I like taking part in research but when I click on a link to a survey and find it's been so poorly constructed that I can't answer the questions in any meaningful or truthful way I give up. Garbage in, garbage out.

Could it have had postdocs' names on the survey because they are supervising an undergraduate dissertation project? That would be marginally less shocking, but still unacceptable.

Clymene, did you mean to post a link? There isn't one in your post.

I posted a photo of the last page. Can you see if? I'm on an iPad on the app and I know images don't always show if you're on the website

Here are a few examples of the shockingly poor statements they want respondents to give their opinions on:

'People that don't menstruate or don't have a cervix should be able to identify as women'.

'God's laws about abortion, pornography and marriage must be strictly followed before it's too late'

No, I can't see it either on my laptop or my phone (website on both, I didn't get on with the app). Have refreshed a few times and still not there.

I wonder if this was the one I tried to complete and found so poor that I gave up. Seems like that was a few weeks ago. Are these things multiplying? I think there are quite a lot of year 12 EPQs on gender.

Oh I can’t see it on the website either @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g. Annoying!

Try this

I missed this but would be very interested to see the questions they asked. In psychology it's good practice to use pre-existing validated scales where possible, sometimes modified slightly to fit a particular research topic, so it might be that they have appropriated some existing psychological scale for group identification or some such and not given enough attention to the appropriateness of those scales in the context which they are using them. However, this sort of thing should absolutely be flagged to the Research Ethics Committee as it does sound biased in its approach and naive of the potential harm and distress they could cause to their participants.

Thanks, @Clymene. That final page is infuriating so probably just as well I didn't see the whole thing!

kentpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1XnLPTy1j1yh4lU

Oh that won't work, here's the final page

Can someone PM me the details. Happy to write in to complain

Surely this is a joke?

'People that don't menstruate or don't have a cervix should be able to identify as women'.

So a women who has had a hysterectomy? Or do they mean men?

you'd think someone who identifies as an expert in conspiracy beliefs wouldn't create a survey to confirm their own conspiracy beliefs

Both of the names in that screenshot are easily found (but I won't link to them) both have pronouns in their Twitter bios, one is interested in "socially situated language processing".

This is interesting.

www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/11426/socially-situated-effects-of-social-and-cultural-context-on-language-processing-and-learning

I did like the "would you freak out if.." question

Did they mean would you be concerned , worried , frightened ?)

Or perhaps they meant would you start disco dancing ... freak out , c'est chic

@Lovelyricepudding

'People that don't menstruate or don't have a cervix should be able to identify as women'.

So a women who has had a hysterectomy? Or do they mean men?

I think they mean men. Presumably they are unaware of what a total hysterectomy entails although you would have thought someone would have spotted that before they sent their survey out.

And Mikey's interests don't seem to have broadened beyond conspiracy theories looking at his Twitter so I'm not sure I buy his protestations.

They basically think the women on here are bigoted right wing and thick.

Pity they didn't bother reading the board before posting their ill-informed poorly scoped research effort

@Lovelyricepudding

'People that don't menstruate or don't have a cervix should be able to identify as women'.

So a women who has had a hysterectomy? Or do they mean men?

Actually I missed the 'or'. So should post-menopausal women be able to identify as women? If you answer 'yes' because it is offensive to suggest otherwise do they take it to mean you are happy for men to do so? And if you answer no then will they claim some sort of gotchya?

A lot of the other questions were similar.