You are being invited to participate in a research study titled, “Experiencing Indian classical dance,” conducted under the supervision of Professor Gerald C. Cupchik at the Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough. Please read the information below before deciding whether you will participate.
Participation and Withdrawal
Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary and you are free to choose whether to be a part of it or not. You have the right to withdraw from it at any time during or immediately after the study. If you choose to request that your data be withdrawn from the dataset, all data provided up to that point will be securely destroyed. However, withdrawing before completion of the study will result in a loss of compensation (i.e., course credit). In order to participate in the study, you must be at least 18 years of age, have normal to corrected vision and fluency in English. We also kindly request that you do not discuss this study with anyone else for at least two months after completion of the study to prevent bias in future participants’ responses and to maintain confidentiality.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to understand how spectators experience the Indian classical dance form called Bharatanatyam. If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to watch 1-minute clips of Bharatanatyam dance performances and complete online questions. We will ask about your mood over the last two weeks, religious background, knowledge of Indian dance forms (such as Bharatanatyam), and your experience while watching the dance performances. The study will take you approximately 25 minutes to complete.
Potential Risks and Discomforts
There are no significant risks associated with participation in this study. All the data will be kept anonymous and confidential when stored and analyzed.
Potential Benefits
Some benefits that you may expect from this study are: (a) a chance to view Indian classical dance performances, (b) an opportunity to contribute to psychological research, and (c) anonymously share your personal experiences.
Compensation
SONA credit of 0.5 will be awarded to students at UTSC who complete the survey. We thank the Indian students for participating.
Confidentiality
All of the data collected for this study will remain confidential. Your student number and any other identifying information are deleted from your responses before analysis, so the collected data will not be traceable to you. Student number is collected only to assign credit for participating in this study.
Demographic information is only being collected to filter out or associate how group memberships affect results; they will not be used to identify any participants in the data.
Investigator
If you have any questions or concerns about this research or its results, you are welcome to contact the research supervisor, Professor Gerald C. Cupchik, at gerald.cupchik@utoronto.ca or 416-287-7467.
Rights as a Research Participant
The research study you are participating in may be reviewed for quality assurance to make sure that the required laws and guidelines are followed. If chosen, representatives of the Human Research Ethics Program (HREP) may access study-related data and/or consent materials as part of the review. All information accessed by the HREP will be upheld to the same level of confidentiality that has been stated by the research team.
You can retain a copy of this consent form for your future reference. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your rights as a research participant, please contact the Research Oversight and Compliance Office at ethics.review@utoronto.ca or 416-946-3273.