Louis Fitzgerald, BSc (Hons) Applied Psychology 4th Year student, won first prize for the best undergraduate oral presentation at the All-Ireland Psychology Student Congress in Limerick on 28th April. He presented his final year research project, “Disconsent forms: An eye-tracking study of the privacy paradox in academic information sheets and consent forms.”  As part of this award, he can go on to present his research at the Psychological Society of Ireland Annual Conference this winter. Despite the growing importance of data and the ongoing commodification of our data by businesses, there exists a “privacy paradox”, where people express concerns about privacy, yet rarely protect their data online. Given the importance of ethical research, Louis examined how people engage with information sheets and consent forms in research contexts.

Louis’ project was supervised by Dr. Marian McDonnell. Additional support was provided by Dr. Irene Connolly (as projects co-ordinator), Dr. Liam Challenor (as Psychology Ethics Chair), Sean Henriques and Carmel Mueller (as psychology technicians at various stages) and Dr. Christine Horn in her Advanced Research in Psychology classes. Dr. Andrew Errity was also a huge support in keeping lab facilities running, which enabled the eye-tracking research.

Dr Grainne Kirwan, programme chair, explains that the All-Ireland Student Congress is an annual event, previously hosted in IADT in 2025, where psychology students from all over Ireland present their research. IADT staff, who previously judged this event multiple times, can confirm that the award, which Louis has won, is the most competitive of the event. His win is a testament to his hard work, excellent supervision, and the support received from the wider Applied Psychology team.

” I am just so grateful to have been given this opportunity to present my work at the All-Ireland Student Psychology Congress. I am in shock that I have won! I am in awe of the psychology research being done all across Ireland, and I am honoured to be a part of it.

Winning with this project means a lot to me, having poured my heart and soul into the research. I certainly could not have achieved this without the support of my friends (Christine, Alex, Arthur, and Molly), my supervisor Dr Marian McDonnell, and all the IADT staff who helped me along the way.” – Louis Fitzgerald. 

The Applied Psychology team is immensely proud of Louis’ fantastic achievement.