Affect Heuristic Research Articles

Do cognitive bias and heuristics influence improvement in knee pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis treated with open label placebo? The CHIPS study - An exploratory study using questionnaire and group concept mapping.

This study explored if the patient-experience and the affect heuristic influenced improvements in painful symptoms, in response to open label placebo injections in patients with knee OA. It furthermore explored if other cognitive biases or heuristics were involved in the response to open-label placebo. A mixed method study in a pre-specified knee OA cohort. The influence of patient-experience, and the affect heuristic, on change in painful symptoms in response to an open-label placebo injection, were assessed using a questionnaire and multivariate linear regression. The group concept mapping method was used to characterise the expectations and hopes regarding the effect of an open-label placebo injection in non-responders and responders, defined as the lower- and upper quartile of the ΔVAS pain scores. 103 participants received the questionnaire, and 60 finalised questionnaires were included in the analysis showing that the reduction in pain was associated with the patient-experience and that the affect heuristic acted as an effect modifier. Three workshops were held for non-responders (n​=​13) and responders (n​=​15) each generating respectively 113 and 119 statements. It was found that the two groups reported different expectations and hopes for the open label placebo injections. The patient-experience influenced the response to an open label placebo injection in patients with knee OA, and this influence was moderated by the strength of the affect heuristic. Furthermore, non-responders and responders reported different hopes and expectation towards the open label placebo injection indicating the presence of the optimism bias in the responder group.

Affect Heuristic and Influence of ‘Name’ in Investment Decisions of Nepalese Investors

The study aims to investigate the presence of affect heuristics in investment decisions and analyze the influence of company and financial tool names in investment decisions. The framework of the Affect Heuristic Model was adapted to measure perceived risk and perceived benefit. Besides the impact of fluency, association and familiar names were tested to discover the level of perceived risk and perceived benefit during the investment decision. The research was conducted among 150 investors who invest in the Nepal Stock Exchange through an online form. The study indicates that Nepalese investors tend to rely on heuristic shortcuts, such as fluency, familiarity, and association, when assessing investment opportunities. They are notably influenced by affect ‘name’ heuristics, shaping their perceptions of benefits. Moreover, their perception of risk and benefit is more influenced by trends and superficial factors like glitz than past performance and corporate character. Local companies and well-known brands are favored due to the familiarity heuristic.

Reducing the Influence of Time Pressure on Risky Choice.

While the impact of time pressure on decision-making is extensively studied, how individuals regulate their behavior under such conditions is less understood. This study addressed this gap by prompting participants to use cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy. Participants were instructed to reinterpret their emotions during the decision-making process and asked to answer within 1,000 ms. Findings revealed that cognitive reappraisal mitigated the effects of time pressure in gain-framed trials by decreasing risk aversion that is usually induced by time pressure. A post hoc moderated mediation analysis indicated that this was attributed to the dual influence of cognitive reappraisal: less emotional intensity toward options and less overall emotional reliance during the cognitive process, both modulating risky preferences. However, this modulation was not observed in loss-framed trials. These results enhance our understanding of cognitive reappraisal's role in moderating the behavioral impact of time pressure and suggest interventions to reduce affect heuristics in decision-making.

Affect heuristics and peer effect on substance use among adolescents in Brazil

Significant changes are observed during adolescence with respect to health-related habits and risky behaviors. Among the behavioral changes, the consumption of substances such as alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and illicit drugs, and social interactions are relevant factors for the intake of such substances. This study aims to analyze the relationship between the joint decisions of substance use by adolescents and their peers from the perspective of the affect heuristics. To this end, a multivariate probit model was estimated, based on microdata from the 2019 National School Health Survey. The results showed that substance use by adolescents was positively related to substance use by their peers; therefore, having friends who consume alcohol, illicit drugs, and cigarettes or having parents who consume alcohol or cigarettes increases the likelihood of an adolescent consuming these substances. The study also identified that the substance consumption decision was governed by an unobserved common factor compatible with the affect heuristic.

How Do People Perceive Immigrants? Relating Perceptions to Numbers

AbstractHow does the general public perceive immigrants, whom do they think of when thinking about “immigrants,” and to what extent are these perceptions related to the actual composition of immigrant populations? We use three representative online surveys in the United States, South Africa, and Switzerland (total N = 2,778) to extend existing work on the perception of immigrants in terms of geographic coverage and individual characteristics. We also relate these responses to official statistics on immigration and integration patterns. In all three countries, there are significant discrepancies between perceptions of immigrants and their real proportion in the population and characteristics. Although we observe clear country differences, there is a striking pattern of people associating “immigrants” with “asylum seekers” in all three countries. We consider two possible explanations for the differences between perceptions and facts: the representativeness heuristic and the affect heuristic. In contrast to previous research, we find only partial support for the representativeness heuristic, whereas the results are consistent with the affect heuristic. We conclude that images of “immigrants” are largely shaped by pre-existing attitudes.

The Power of Images: How Multimodal Hate Speech Shapes Prejudice and Prosocial Behavioral Intentions

While online hate speech has become a serious problem in multimedia environments, most studies in this area have examined text-based hateful content, with less attention paid to its other visual aspects. From a multimodal perspective, we conducted an online experiment ( N = 799) to investigate how multimodal hate speech (i.e., text and images presented together to convey hateful meanings) on social media affected users’ prejudicial attitudes and prosocial behavioral intentions. The results showed that participants in the text-plus-image (vs. text-only) condition felt more sympathy, which led to less implicit prejudice toward the target group and more prosocial behavioral intentions. In addition, exposure to text-plus-image hate speech had an indirect effect on prosocial behavioral intentions through sympathy and implicit prejudice. The findings contribute to scholarship on online hate speech and provide insights into the affect heuristics that individuals rely on when processing multimodal information.

Considering risk associated with leisure time physical activity (LTPA) at craft breweries: overlooking dangers in the name of fun

Many breweries in the US have become popular settings for leisure time physical activity (LTPA). While risk is widely accepted as an inherent part of sport and physical activity (PA), breweries are places of increased risk due to the nature of their hospitality- and beer production-focused environments. Utilising a multi-case study methodology, this study sought to explore how physical risk is conceptualised relative to LTPA at these venues. Data revealed that engagement in LTPA at breweries was viewed as sport and thus physical risk was considered a part of that; most participants and management seemed oblivious to the increased risk in the settings; that there was a little concern for or clarity about liability; and a lack of preparedness on site was prevalent. Together the findings suggest the affect heuristic of risk perception may be influencing stakeholders where risk is being overlooked and minimised in the name of fun. Such attitudes contrast sharply with the views of experts, implying the existence of a knowledge deficit about risk in these settings among hosts and patrons alike; a deficit that should be addressed with more explicit information and clarity about hazards, potential for accidents and liability associated with LTPA at breweries.

An Explanation of The Affect Heuristic for Behavioral Economics, Focusing on The Difference Between Rational Agents and Irrational Fools

The objective of this essay is to present a comprehensive overview of two significant cognitive methodologies. The defining elements of the experiential mode include its intuitive, automatic, and natural nature, as well as its reliance on mental imagery that has acquired positive and negative meanings over time. An inherent characteristic of the alternative mode is its analytical, deliberative, and reasoning-based nature. In this response, I will provide a thorough analysis of the latest empirical data that sheds light on the concept of the affect heuristic. The term "affect heuristic" denotes a cognitive shortcut that assists individuals in making rational decisions across various situations. When individuals can effectively predict the favorable or unfavorable consequences of their decisions based on their prior experiences, it represents a significant achievement. However, we deem it as unsuccessful due to the significant disparity between the findings and our initial estimates.Given the aforementioned circumstances, the rational individual may ultimately transform into a sensible imbecile.

Advanced age predicts increased susceptibility to attribute, goal, and risky-choice framing in negative frame valences

The framing effect has been extensively studied in the context of attribute, goal, and risky-choice framing, revealing its significant impact on decision-making. However, the interplay between age and the framing effect remains relatively unexplored, and existing findings are inconclusive and conflicting. Addressing this gap, this study investigates the influence of age on all three types of framing using a large cohort of participants (N = 696). The Johnson-Neyman technique was employed to examine the effect across a continuous range of ages. The analysis demonstrated that advanced age significantly increased susceptibility to the framing effect. Moreover, it was found that this susceptibility primarily manifests in response to negative frames across all framing types. These findings not only align with the socioemotional selectivity theory and dual-process model but also underscore the importance of affect heuristics in decision-making among older adults. By offering a robust examination of all three types of framing and their interactions with age, this study provides a theoretical foundation for the role of age as a potential moderator in framing contexts. These findings may therefore inform the development of targeted strategies to mitigate the impact of the framing effect on elderly populations.

AI Pilot in the Cockpit: An Investigation of Public Acceptance

Crew-reducing exhibits promise for various benefits in the aviation industry. However, there is limited understanding regarding public acceptance. Using an experimental design deployed with a vignette-based online study, we investigated individuals’ negative emotion, trust, risk acceptance, and willingness to ride toward Single Pilot Operations (SPO) and Dual Pilot Operations (DPO). Results established that people preferred DPO flights, relying on affect heuristic. Specifically, people’s negative emotion associated with SPO decreases their trust, which subsequently results in lower levels of willingness to ride and risk acceptance. Furthermore, we observed that people are less likely to accept risk evoked by intelligent autonomous system in DPO flights, which likely due to their psychological model about two pilots in the cockpit. Findings from this research highlight the importance of users’ initially positive affects about intelligent equipment in the cockpit. Other theoretical and practical implications for narrowing the acceptable gap between SPO and DPO are discussed.

Heuristic Information Processing as a Mediating Factor in the Process of Exposure to COVID-19 Vaccine Information and Misinformation Sharing on Social Media

ABSTRACT Social media use for risk communication during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable concerns about an overabundance of information, particularly misinformation. However, how exposure to COVID-19 information on social media can lead to subsequent misinformation sharing during the pandemic has received little research attention. This study adopted the social amplification of risk framework to delineate how exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information on social media can be associated with individuals’ misinformation sharing through heuristic information processing. The role of social media trust was also examined. Results from an online survey (N = 1488) of Chinese Internet users revealed that exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information on social media was associated with misinformation sharing, mediated by both affect heuristics (i.e., negative affect toward the COVID-19 pandemic in general) and availability heuristics (i.e., perceived misinformation availability). Importantly, both high and low levels of trust in social media strengthened the mediating associations. While a low level of trust strengthened the association between exposure to COVID-19 vaccine information on social media and the affect heuristics, a high level of trust strengthened its association with the availability heuristics, both of which were associated with misinformation sharing. Our findings suggest that heuristic information processing is essential in amplifying the spread of misinformation after exposure to risk information on social media. It is also suggested that individuals should maintain a middle level of trust in social media, being open while critical of risk information on social media.

Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Risk Perception and Behaviors of Small Life Cycle Event Attendees

This study investigated the behaviors of attendees of small social life cycle events during the COVID19 pandemic, incorporating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) into the study framework. Adopting individuals' risk perception aspects based on the affect and availability heuristics as antecedents of variables of TPB, this study found that affect and availability heuristics influenced individuals' attitudes and perceived behavioral control when attending small social life cycle events during the pandemic. Findings of the study also revealed that individuals' attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and social norm influenced their behavioral intentions and, in turn, their behaviors. The group comparison analysis found the severity of the pandemic in the regions moderated attendees' behaviors partially. Theoretical and managerial implications were addressed, followed by limitations and future study suggestions.

Implications of zero party data on user decision-making in digital advertising

Today’s digital advertising is predominantly founded on third party data such as cookies, which track the browsing behavior history. However, the data collected by cookies is incomplete, it merely reflects past browsing behavior instead of providing information on current interests and specific consumption desires.
 Due to an increased need of privacy, Google announced the disappearance of third party cookies. This means that websites will not be allowed to collect user data through cookies anymore in order to share it with third parties. As a result, companies will not be able to rely on user data gathered through external websites.
 On the other hand, zero party data allows companies to collect direct information from its users. Through the means of intentionally provided data by users (such as user profiles, forms and surveys), digital advertisers could create more pertinent advertising content without relying on third party cookies.
 When subject to digital advertising, several biases play a role in the decision making process. This work intends to assess the impact of digital advertising using zero party data, by analyzing the potential decrease in discrepancy between rational consumption intent and actual consumption considering behavioral biases. 
 Browsing is defined as the “act of looking through a set of information quickly, without a specific sense of purpose”[1]. In Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman, D & Tvesky, A (2011) explain how the thinking system 1 uses past decision-making experience to generate a fast response, which is often influenced by a variety of behaviour biases. Therefore, browsing information collected by third party cookies results from system 1. 
 Zero party data primarily relies on system 2. This thinking system works in a slower manner as it requires effort to lead to logical conclusions. It is used for instance to resolve hard problems and evaluate pros and cons. When answering a complex survey on personal goals, or completing a form requiring conscious attention, then, system 2 is used. As zero party data consists of more meaningful and intentionally provided information compared to third party data, digital advertisement based on zero party data has a higher likelihood that rational consumption intent and actual consumption are in line.
 The methodology conducted consists of research through two surveys (which served as A/B test) and interviews to suggest an alternative approach to third party cookies. Through the surveys and interviews, eight biases and heuristics present in the user journey were identified; the paradox of choice, the availability bias, the confirmation bias, the consistency bias, the bandwagon effect, the anchoring bias, the Ikea effect, and the affect heuristic. Each section aims to analyze how these biases affect the online consumption process of a user in both scenarios of third party data and zero party data. Each outcome revolves around how to use the identified bias in the benefit of the user using zero party data.
 Digital advertisement based on zero party data is a win-win solution for the user and the advertisement company.

Linking cognitive and affective heuristic cues to interpersonal risk perceptions and behavior.

People often use cognitive and affective heuristics when judging the likelihood of a health outcome and making health decisions. However, little research has examined how heuristics shape risk perceptions and behavior among people who make decisions on behalf of another person. We examined associations between heuristic cues and caregivers' perceptions of their child's asthma risk, the frequency of caregivers' asthma management behaviors, and child health outcomes. We used Ipsos KnowledgePanel to recruit 814 U.S. adult caregivers of children with asthma of the age<18 years. Participants completed a survey at baseline (T1) and 3 months later (T2). Caregivers who, at T1, reported greater negative affect about their child's asthma (affect heuristic cue), greater ease of imagining their child experiencing asthma symptoms (availability heuristic cue), and greater perceived similarity between their child and a child who has ever experienced asthma symptoms (representativeness heuristic cue) reported statistically significantly (p<0.05) higher interpersonal perceived risk of their child having an exacerbation or uncontrolled asthma at T1. They also indicated at T2 that their child had poorer asthma control and more frequent exacerbations. Greater T1 negative affect was associated with more frequent T2 actions to reduce inflammation, manage triggers, and manage symptoms, and with poorer T2 child health outcomes. Heuristic cues are likely important for interpersonal-not just personal-risk perceptions. However, the interrelationship between caregivers' ratings of heuristic cues (in particular, negative affect) and risk judgments may signify a struggle with managing their child's asthma and need for extra support from health care providers or systems.

Communicating risk: How relevant and irrelevant probabilistic information influences risk perception in medical decision-making.

Patients rely on knowing potential risks before accepting medical treatments, but risk perception can be distorted by cognitive biases and irrelevant information. We examined the interactive effects of subjective processes, objective knowledge, and demographic characteristics on how individuals estimate risks when provided with relevant and irrelevant probabilistic information. Participants read medical scenarios describing potential adverse effects associated with declining and accepting preventative treatment, as well as the objective likelihood of experiencing adverse effects associated with one of these two courses of action. We found that the perceived negativity of outcomes influenced perceptions of risk regardless of whether relevant probabilities were available and that the use of affect heuristics to estimate risk increased with age. Introducing objective estimates ameliorated age-related increases in affective distortions. Sensitivity to relevant probabilities increased with greater perceived outcome severity and was greater for men than for women. We conclude that relevant objective information may reduce the propensity to conflate outcome severity with likelihood and that medical judgments of risk vary depending on exposure to relevant and irrelevant probabilities. Implications for how medical professionals should communicate risk information to patients are considered.

Willingness to invest and the assurance of corporate social responsibility reports

AbstractRecent research has found that the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information on investment decisions will be eliminated when it is explicitly assessed, especially when CSR is not related to core business activities (immaterial CSR issues). We thus extend prior research by investigating whether (1) CSR assurance increases investors' willingness to invest when CSR performance is material or immaterial to core business activities and (2) CSR assurance moderates the effect of explicit assessment and CSR information on investment judgment. A 2 × 2 × 2 between‐subjects experiment was conducted using 213 professional investors. Overall, our results suggest that investors' willingness to invest is greater when positive CSR is verified by third‐party assurance in both material and immaterial CSR conditions. In addition, CSR assurance has a significant effect on investment judgment when immaterial CSR performance is explicitly assessed. As the affect‐as‐information heuristic (i.e., heuristic processing) is likely to be removed when CSR performance is explicitly assessed, the results of this study indicate that the affect heuristic is only eliminated when immaterial CSR is not assured, suggesting that CSR assurance moderates the effect of explicit assessment on investment judgment. Consistent with systematic‐heuristic theory, our results thus confirm that the systematic processing of CSR information does not necessarily attenuate affect heuristic processing; rather, these two processing modes can co‐occur. Our results concerning the impact of CSR assurance on positive CSR information inform firms that third‐party assurance affects investment judgment, especially for parties who consider purchasing these services, for example, managers or audit committee members. As CSR assurance is not mandatory, the audit profession could also be interested in our findings, as they might encourage firms to assure their nonfinancial information to enhance disclosure credibility. The inconclusive results on how CSR assurance affects investment judgment warrant further investigation of this issue in other reporting environments in different countries. Nevertheless, our findings contribute to the CSR literature by identifying novel aspects of the value of CSR assurance in different contexts, that is, the moderating role of CSR assurance and the explicit assessment of CSR information during investment decisions.

Public perception of flood hazards in the housing market: A revealed preference study of affect heuristics and availability heuristics

Public perception of flood hazards in the housing market: A revealed preference study of affect heuristics and availability heuristics

Risky Therefore Not Beneficial: Replication and Extension of Finucane et al.’s (2000) Affect Heuristic Experiment

Risks and benefits are negatively related in people’s minds. Finucane et al. causally demonstrated that increasing risks of a hazard leads people to judge its benefits as lower. Vice versa, increasing benefits leads people to judge its risks as lower (original: r = −.74 [−0.92, −0.30]). This finding is consistent with an affective explanation, and the negative relationship is often presented as evidence for an affect heuristic. In two well-powered studies, using a more stringent analytic strategy, we replicated the original finding. We observed a strong negative relationship between judgments of risks and benefits across three technologies, although we do find that there was no change in risks when highlighting low benefits. We note that risks seem to be more responsive to manipulation (as opposed to benefits) and find evidence that the negative relationship can depend on incidental mood. We provided materials, data sets, and analyses on https://osf.io/sufjn/?view_only=6f8f5dc6ff524149a4ed5c6de9296ae8.

Investigating the Neural Correlates of the Affect Heuristic Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

This study investigated the neural correlates of the so-called affect heuristic, which refers to the phenomenon whereby individuals tend to rely on affective states rather than rational deliberation of utility and probabilities during judgments of risk and utility of a given event or scenario. The study sought to explore whether there are shared regional activations during both judgments of relative risk and relative benefit of various scenarios, thus being a potential candidate of the affect heuristic. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we developed a novel risk perception task, based on a preexisting behavioral task assessing the affect heuristic. A whole-brain voxel-wise analysis of a sample of participants (n = 42) during the risk and benefit conditions revealed overlapping clusters in the left insula, left inferior frontal gyrus, and left medial frontal gyrus across conditions. Extraction of parameter estimates of these clusters revealed that activity of these regions during both tasks was inversely correlated with a behavioral measure assessing the inclination to use the affect heuristic. More activity in these areas during risk judgments reflect individuals' ability to disregard momentary affective impulses. The insula may be involved in integrating viscero-somatosensory information and forming a representation of the current emotional state of the body, whereas activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus and medial frontal gyrus indicates that executive processes may be involved in inhibiting the impulse of making judgments in favor of deliberate risk evaluations.

Is Reliance on the Affect Heuristic Associated With Age?

With age, decision makers rely more on heuristic and affect-based processing. However, age differences have not been quantified with respect to the affect heuristic, which derives judgments based on positive and negative feelings toward stimuli and concepts. This study examined whether reliance on the affect heuristic is associated with age, whether these patterns vary by task type, and which covariates account for age effects. In a preregistered study, an adult life-span sample (N = 195, 21-90 years, Mage = 52.95, 50% female, 71% non-Hispanic White) completed a battery of cognitive, personality, and socioemotional covariates as well as 3 established affect heuristic tasks: (a) a risk-benefit task, (b) a dread-inference task, and (c) an affect-impact task. Reliance on affect was indexed through (a) a negative relationship between perceived food risks and benefits, (b) a positive relationship between feelings of dread and statistical inferences about mortality risks, and (c) a positive relationship between affective responses and impact judgments when evaluating catastrophes. For all 3 tasks, usage of the affect heuristic was documented at the group and the individual levels. Contrary to hypotheses, age was not associated with affect heuristic use for any of the tasks. Affect heuristic indices did not correlate across tasks and showed no consistent associations with the covariates. Results suggest that the use of affect-based heuristics is context- or stimulus-dependent rather than a stable, age-associated trait. Further research is needed to validate the present results across additional domains, tasks, and stimulus types.