What is 'About You'?
'About You' is the section for managing your pre-screening questions. Researchers generally need a specific group of people for their studies so they apply pre-screening. For example, they may need Spanish residents, between the age of 18 and 75, who follow a vegetarian diet.
Your answers to these questions are the pre-screening. They make sure that the studies you receive are right for you and that you're right for the study.
You don't need to answer all the questions if you don't want to, and most personal questions have a 'Rather not say' option. Feel free to use it!
How do I update an answer?
If you need to update your answers or you have accidentally provided incorrect information, you can follow these steps to change your answers:
- Go to your 'About You' page
- Select the category you need, such as 'Work'
- Find the question you need to update. Hover over your current answer and a 'Delete' box will pop up. Click this to get rid of your answer
- The whole question and answer will disappear straight away, then reappear in a few days
- When the question has reappeared, go back in and answer with the new correct response
Privacy concerns
We appreciate you're giving us a lot of information about yourself, but we'd like to assure you your data is safe. When you join a study, you enter your Prolific ID and you might answer some basic demographic questions. This information does not identify you in any way.
We allow selected researchers, approved by Prolific, to collect personal data / personally identifiable information (PII) in their studies. You can read more about this here: Personal information in studies.
If a study is collecting personal data, this will be made clear to you in the study detail page before you consent to take part. It will also include information about what personal data you will be asked to provide. This will allow you to make an informed choice about whether you wish to participate in the study.
The majority of researchers aren't allowed to ask for any personally identifiable information (PII). They may ask you questions that are similar to questions in the 'About You', just to confirm the information.
You can read more about we protect your data in Practices, Security and Privacy.
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