Researching Human Rights Violations: Assessing Research-related Stress Among Research Assistants

How does participating in research on difficult topics affect research staff? While investigations of research-related stress (RRS) have increased in recent years, most are focused on researchers’ direct interactions with survivors during field-based research. Less is known about the consequences of intensive research based on primary and secondary sources such as human rights reports and news sources. We surveyed over 100 current and former research assistants who worked on large-scale human rights abuse and political violence data coding projects. Using an ethics-based framework of balancing risks and benefits, we evaluated both the self-reported harms and benefits of this coding work. We find that signs of stress are common; 88% of respondents reported experiencing at least one indicator of such stress. At the same time, nearly all respondents reported their experience was more positive than negative, along with numerous benefits, such as gaining new perspectives and research skills. This study provides some of the first systematic empirical evidence regarding desk-research-based RRS and has implications for the ethics and practice of conducting research and directing research teams studying challenging topics.