Table 6 Hypothetical altruists without full trial understanding

Participant: […] It wouldn’t make no difference about the trials, if I was randomised for a different type and I didn’t like it, she [the nurse] said that’s no problem, she said you don’t have to go on the trials but I agreed in the end. I thought about it and I agreed. I thought yes it’s a better outcome and for people to understand more about breast cancer.

Interviewer: So how do you think you would have felt if you would have been randomised just to have no implant [less preferred option]?

Participant: I wouldn’t have minded. I think after going through the operation and going through the cancer, I didn’t mind either way as long as the cancer was gone and I was a shape, I was still a woman with my own flesh there somewhere […]

[On randomisation] I thought that the computer put in my details and then have a look through it all and see what is best for me and when I thought about it afterwards they said I could change my mind at any time, I didn’t have to go through with what the computer picked but thinking about it, and I thought yes I think I would like to go along with it.

Trial acceptor, did not fully understand randomisation (participant 11)

Interviewer: So knowing that you had this preference not to have an implant, how did you feel about being randomised then, knowing that you might have been offered the other option?

Participant: Well, after speaking to [surgeon], he did say that both, whichever one they decided to do, and I trust that man absolutely, that it would be perfect for me.

Interviewer: So if you had been randomised to have an implant, you would have been happy to go along with that?

Participant: Yes.

[On randomisation] I think they [the Quest people] just looked at everything, what I was like, all my notes and everything and then decided. […] Well, the Quest people. […] This is how I understood it, they wanted equal amounts of women to go for and against the two procedures.

Trial acceptor, did not fully understand randomisation (participant 12)