Ethical Concerns of Paying Cash to Vulnerable Participants: The Qualitative Researchers’ Views

Authors

Adrianna Surmiak Dr, Uniwersytet WarszawskiFollow

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to discuss the ethical issues related to financial payments. The article compares the concerns and experiences of researchers who did not pay the participants with the concerns and experiences of researchers who paid the participants. It draws on in-depth interviews with Polish social researchers who conducted qualitative research with vulnerable participants. The paper indicates that researchers who did not pay the participants believed that financial payment reduces the researcher’s relationship with informants to an economic transaction. For this reason, they had more ethical concerns about paying than researchers who did pay. My interviewees suggest that in some cases financial payment may cause discomfort to the researcher or informants, compromise the anonymity of participants, and cause the additional risk of harm. By analysing various concerns related to financial payment, the article may contribute to raising researchers’ awareness of possible risks related to cash payment and, as a consequence, can help them to make their own informed decisions, especially as there are few guidelines in this area.

Keywords

Cash Payment, Qualitative Social Research, In-depth interviews, Vulnerable Participants, Research Ethics

Author Bio(s)

Adrianna Surmiak is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Sociology of Morality and General Axiology at the University of Warsaw in Poland. She holds an MA in sociology and a PhD in cultural anthropology. Her main research interests include qualitative research ethics, methodology and sex working. Please direct correspondence to adriannasurmiak@gmail.com.

Acknowledgements

Funding for this research was provided by a grant from the National Science Centre, Poland (2016/20/S/HS6/00435).

Publication Date

12-21-2020

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4441

Recommended APA Citation

Surmiak, A. (2020). Ethical Concerns of Paying Cash to Vulnerable Participants: The Qualitative Researchers’ Views. The Qualitative Report, 25(12), 4461-4481. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4441