Informed Consent

The process by which a participant in research, medical treatment, or commercial data collection agrees to participation after receiving adequate information about procedures, risks, data use, and rights — including the right to withdraw. “Informed” requires comprehension, not merely exposure; “consent” must be voluntary and uncoerced. The distinction between genuine informed consent and a signed waiver is central to research ethics.

Established through the Nuremberg Code (1947) and Declaration of Helsinki (1964), the principle has expanded from clinical medicine to behavioral research and, increasingly, to commercial data collection. In neuromarketing, critics argue that consent forms focus on legal protection rather than participant comprehension — creating a structural gap between formal consent (signature obtained) and substantive consent (participant understands how neural data will be used, stored, and shared).