Sex Differences in Willingness to Participate in Clinical Trials with a Chance of Experiencing Side Effects

The current study conducted a scenario experiment with 399 Japanese participants to examine the willingness to participate in clinical trials. In the scenario, participants could receive one year’s worth of living expenses as a reward by participating in a clinical trial, but there was a chance of experiencing side effects (10% or 90%). The results showed that prediction 1) men would be more likely than women to participate in a clinical trial and prediction 2) both men and women would be more likely to participate in a clinical trial under low-risk conditions than under high-risk conditions were confirmed, but prediction 3) men would be more likely than women to be dissatisfied with the reward offered was not confirmed. The current study is discussed from the perspective of sex differences in risk taking.