Informed consent
Thank you for your interest in taking part in this study, conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge investigating people’s spontaneous requests made to God. People of all religions and faith traditions are welcomed to take part, as well as people who do not currently believe in God. You are eligible to participate if you have made at least one request to God during your adult life and can remember the experience.
In this study you will be asked to answer some questions about requests that you have made to God in the past, regardless of your current belief in God. You will also be asked some general questions about your attitudes, beliefs, and experiences with religious concepts. This questionnaire may take anywhere between 25-45 minutes to complete; it would be advisable to plan about 40 minutes to fill out the questionnaire as you will not be able to return to it at a later time. You are free to withdraw from the study at any time without question or penalty by closing the browser window.
Although you are free to withdraw at any point, it would be most helpful to the researchers if you were able to complete the survey in its entirety, as we will not be able to use any data that are incomplete. You will not be able to return to past portions of the questionnaire once you have moved on from a page, so be sure your complete the questions as they are presented to you.
Results from this study will be written up in a Ph.D. thesis, in journals, and presented at conferences. Results are normally presented in terms of groups of individuals. If any individual data were presented, the data would be totally anonymous, without any means of identifying the individuals involved. This study complies with the Data Protection Act 1998 and has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge.
Upon completion of the questionnaire you will have the opportunity to enter into a prize draw for one of twenty Amazon vouchers for either £10 or US$15. If you wish to enter into the prize draw, please indicate your email address at the end of the study. Winners will be contacted via email after the study is complete.
If you have any other queries regarding the study, please email Bonnie Poon Zahl at bpz21@cam.ac.uk.
Thank you for taking the time to participate; your help is greatly appreciated.