Consumer Acquiescence to Informed Consent: The Influence of Vulnerability, Motive, Trust and Suspicion

Abstract

Gaining informed consent is a legally mandatory requirement for multiple business areas. Reports, most prominently from the medical arena, indicate the incomprehensible content and ambiguity of written informed consent documents. Conflict in determining whether or not a consumer who gives informed consent is truly informed is on the rise. Vulnerability in the relationship and the role of the service representative are critical in the judgments people make about the motivation for the request for consent and the trustworthiness of the service representative. This study proposes a framework to explore influential mediating factors of vulnerability, judgment of service provider motive, trust and suspicion and consumer need to evaluate, and the moderating role of power, locus of control and length of interaction in understanding consumer acquiescence in the face of informed consent.