The emotional labour of conducting sensitive research: the researchers’ perspective

Esmée Hanna and Richard Hall

Chapter 3 in Handbook of Sensitive Research in the Social Sciences, 2025, pp 38-54 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Conducting sensitive research has a range of emotional implications for researchers, some positive but others with the potential to impact emotional well-being negatively. While increasing attention has been given to the emotional impact of research from the perspectives of researchers, much of this focus is on the personal impacts. In this chapter, we outline how research can impact researchers emotionally, but importantly, we explore some of the structural features that contribute to the emotional burdens of doing sensitive research in contemporary research environments. We explore the institutional shaping of the move towards conducting sensitive research, the personal (and often political) motivations that shape researcher engagement in sensitive research, and also the wider inequities, which mean some researchers are more exposed to emotional labour within the conduct of sensitive research. While emotion remains an important feature in the exploration of sensitive topics, it is important that we collectively attempt to safeguard and protect researchers, especially those for whom the burden of such research becomes too heavy. We end with a proposition of actions we could all consider to ensure that the emotional impact of sensitive research is thoroughly considered and safely managed to ensure that the important ethical principle that research does no harm includes no harm for those who conduct it.

Keywords: Sensitive research; Emotional labour; Researcher well-being; Ethics; Qualitative research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035315222
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