Table 8 Conditional altruism

[Choice made] […] as I say it’s the least I can do and also I feel quite chosen to be one and it’s helped me which you know I don’t know whether with QUEST when you set it up thought, oh they might feel a little comfort from this; my comfort is that I didn’t have to decide what I was having at a time when I was making decisions.

[On randomisation] I know that that was okay and I could understand why they said you can’t choose the computer has to choose for you and I could see that, because you wouldn’t get the fair result would you if we all started to say “we’ve got to choose one”.

Trial acceptor, full understanding of randomisation (participant 1)

[Choice made] I think it was just having the choice made for me and as I say I thought well if any data or research that would be useful that would come out of it then if it helps other people later on down the line then I am quite happy to do that.

[On randomisation] I think they are obviously trying to find which surgery is best for most people […] if you are in the position where you have got two options of surgery I think they are obviously, I thought they were trying to find out which was really best for patients in the long run, collecting data on the two different procedures because I suppose if a surgeon is choosing or a patient is choosing you could only get one type of surgery being done far more than the other and perhaps they want to find out, make it something a bit fairer really and see how patients respond to the different types of operation and surgery.

Trial acceptor, understood rationale for but not process of randomisation (participant 2)