Public perceptions on using novel digital data sources and collection methods |
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| Coordinator 1 | Dr Frederic Gerdon (Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim) |
| Coordinator 2 | Dr Ruben Bach (Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim) |
| Coordinator 3 | Professor Christoph Kern (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, University of Mannheim, University of Maryland) |
| Coordinator 4 | Ms Daria Szafran (Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim) |
Public perceptions on data sources and collection methods are a valuable resource to learn about potential novel or unexpected ethical issues pertaining to researchers’ data uses. These perceptions are all the more relevant for novel (digital) sources and methods for which ethical standards might need to be developed or adapted in response to rapid technical advances. Such relatively novel sources or methods include, among others, smartphone sensor data, GPS data, data collected from APIs, data donations from social media, and web scraping data. A particular challenge are data collection methods that seek to substitute or “augment” data from human respondents with outputs generated with large language models (LLMs). Potential problems that individuals may perceive with these and other data sources and methods particularly include concerns about privacy and data security, but also, among others, about equity and validity.
To enhance ethical reflections of how we researchers work with novel data sources, ethical frameworks and empirical findings on public perceptions will be essential. Such knowledge and reflection not only might lead to improvements in consent rates among study participants and data quality, but also assist in maintaining trust in social science in the long run.
Thus, in this session, we aim to gather researchers who investigate public perceptions on novel data collection sources and methods as outlined above. We welcome submissions that broadly deal with any of the following or closely related topics:
• Surveys (proposed, ongoing, or completed) on public perceptions (or attitudes, preferences, selective participation, etc.) relating to novel data sources and collection methods
• Conceptualizations and operationalizations of perception-related constructs, such as “acceptance”, “perceived legitimacy”, etc.
• Outlines or frameworks of respondent-related ethical challenges of specific data sources and methods
• Empirical applications using novel data sources and methods that involved the consideration of public perceptions