Eileen Morrow, NIHR Doctoral Clinical Academic Research Fellow at NDORMS said the research community ‘must acknowledge the problem and dedicate resources to testing and implementing safeguards .. to ensure that the data guiding clinical care reflect the real patient voice.’
Imposter participants are individuals who provide deceptive or inaccurate data in order to take part in health research or automated computer ‘bots’ which mimic human behaviour and responses.
The issue has grown in recent years as online recruitment has become central to modern healthcare research and can impact all types of studies, from surveys to randomised controlled trials.
The motivations of imposter participants remain unknown, explained Eileen who conducted the study with colleagues from NDORMS. Although some reports suggest that monetary benefit is a driver, not all studies offer financial incentives, so other motives, such as boredom, curiosity, or even an ideological intent to disrupt research, may also play a role.
Yet their impact is demonstrable. A 2025 review showed that 18 of 23 studies which looked for imposter participants in their data sets, found them, with rates ranging from 3% to a high of 94%.