I Can’t Afford to Worry about Risks: Structuring Risk, Emotion, and Stigma among Drug Trial Volunteers

• In Event: 606 - Section on Social Psychology Roundtable Session (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Social Psychology Roundtables (co-sponsored with Section on Sociology of Emotions). Table 01. Subjective Experiences

Abstract

Drawing on a sample of 178 drug trial volunteers, this study examines how structural and psychological forces shape volunteers perceptions of the risks of experimental drug trials. The social conditions of racial and economic inequality in the U.S. influence healthy volunteers’ perceptions of the risks of trials and their decision to participate. Citing few economic alternatives, histories of incarceration, and the comparative risks of neighborhood violence, race and class are interwoven in participants’ views of trials. Along with these structural forces, participants are also motivated to see trials as low-risk in order to manage the stigma attached to their participation as “human guinea pigs.” Following participants’ varied life histories and tolerance for risk, participation in studies also evokes a range of emotions, including fear, terror, and worry, as well as gratitude, relief, and happiness. In this way, the narratives of drug trial volunteers illustrate the distribution of risk and emotion along the dimensions of economic and racial inequality in the U.S. The findings advance the sociological study of risk, emotion, and stigma.

Authors

• Marci D. Cottingham, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Jill A. Fisher, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill