FAQs

Yes. In early 2002 participants were all involved in the process of making final edits to episodes of The Experiment. This was a requirement of our ethical contract, and was also designed to ensure that the programmes and our scientific analysis of events in the study were faithful to participants’ experience and hence had phenomenological validity.

Four years after the study we also endeavoured to contact all participants and professionals involved in the study (members of the ethics committee and the clinical psychologists) in order to re-establish their thoughts about their experiences.

Many had changed address, but we were able to contact nearly two-thirds of the participants and all but one of the professionals. As well as providing very detailed and very insightful reflections on the science and ethics of the study (and the TV broadcasts), they also completed an extensive questionnaire that measured their views on these and other issues. 

Responses to key questions were as follows:

	Participants	Professionals
I am glad I participated in the study	6.9	6.7
I think this was a worthwhile scientific study	6.8	6.5
I am still stressed as a result of participating in     the study	1.3	1.0
Scientists should be banned from conducting     studies like this	1.2	1.0

Note: Responses on 7-point scales where 1 = do not agree at all, 7 = agree completely