Behavioral Science Research Research Articles

On the use and potential of behavioural economics from the perspective of transport and climate change

It can be argued that the main thinking in transport planning and policy making stem from neoclassical economics in which individuals are largely assumed to make rational, consistent, and efficient choices, and apply cognitive processes of decision making that maximise their economic utility. Research in behavioural sciences indicates that individuals’ choices in a wide range of contexts deviate from the predictions of the rational man paradigm inspired the research agenda in the field of travel behaviour. New concepts and practices of government aim to apply some behavioural economics insights in the design of behavioural change initiatives and measures, an approach recently advocated in the US and the UK. This paper provides a brief review on the use and potential of behavioural economics from the perspective of transport and climate change, in two main contexts: travel demand modelling and design of behaviour change measures. The discussion of limitations and knowledge gaps associated with the implementation of behavioural economics to a travel behaviour context might contribute to the debate and help in defining research agenda in this area.

Evaluating prior scholarship in literature reviews of research articles: A comparative study of practices in two research paradigms

Evaluations of prior scholarship play a crucial role in the literature review (LR) of a research article by showing how the boundary of an area of inquiry can be further advanced by the writer’s work. Yet, many inexperienced writers find evaluating others’ work a major challenge. Although the task has received some attention in research and writing manuals, advice given tends to be rather general, often with little distinction made of practices followed in different paradigms. This gap could have resulted from the scarcity of empirical work in this regard. Motivated by both these gaps, this study examines how researchers in two paradigms evaluate others’ work in LRs. LRs of 80 articles were collected from four journals of Information Systems. Forty of the articles were drawn from two journals that follow a strong behavioural science research paradigm while the other 40 were from two journals that show a strong design science research paradigm. Evaluations in the LRs were analyzed based on a conceptual framework developed from the CARS model (Swales, 1990) and the work on academic evaluations in Hunston (1993a, 1993b) and Hunston and Thompson (2000). The analysis aims to characterize and compare (a) the major types of evaluation acts performed by writers in the two research domains, (b) the entities that they evaluate and (c) the value parameters they employ. Results show marked cross-domain differences in the three areas. This article will discuss how the findings and the integrated conceptual framework can inform teaching of evaluations in LRs.

Tävlandet inom idrotten

The article describes and analyses the behavioral science research on sport in Sweden and how “competitive sport” was treated between 1970 and 2010, as “modern sport” came to be called in Sweden. The point of departure is that sports researchers have not only analyzed but also influenced how sport in associations and schools has developed. In modern society men and women in science have a legitimacy and authority that give them good opportunities to influence opinions and concrete policies. The article describes the fundamental criticism that Swedish sports researchers for 40 years have directed at competition in sport. It is also shown that this criticism has been accompanied by a very positive description of other forms of sport, including games. The article concludes, with a critical examination of the sports researchers’ analysis of “competitive sport”, among other things their superficial understanding of “competition” and the lack of analyses and problematisations of informal competitions.

A Comparison of Item-Level and Scale-Level Multiple Imputation for Questionnaire Batteries

Behavioral science researchers routinely use scale scores that sum or average a set of questionnaire items to address their substantive questions. A researcher applying multiple imputation to incomplete questionnaire data can either impute the incomplete items prior to computing scale scores or impute the scale scores directly from other scale scores. This study used a Monte Carlo simulation to assess the impact of imputation method on the bias and efficiency of scale-level parameter estimates, including scale score means, between-scale correlations, and regression coefficients. Although the choice of imputation approach had no influence on the bias of scale-level parameter estimates, it had a substantial impact on efficiency, such that item-level imputation consistently produced a meaningful power advantage. The simulation results clearly supported the use of item-level imputation. To illustrate the differences between item- and scale-level imputation, we examined predictors of 7th-grade academic self-efficacy in a sample of 595 low-income Mexican Origin adolescents in a planned missingness design. The results of the empirical data analysis were consistent with those of the simulation and also suggested that researchers should be cautious when implementing planned missing data designs that necessitate scale-level imputation.

Present and Future Horizons for Transdisciplinary Research

In 1998, when one of us (BKR) presented the concept for Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers (TTURCs) to the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) Board of Scientific Advisors (BSA) for approval, they questioned whether transdisciplinary was a word. We provided the Oxford English Dictionary1 definition as proof. Fast-forward to 2008 when one of us (DBA), who was on the BSA and principal investigator for a TTURC, built on the NCI experience to make transdisciplinary systems science the centerpiece of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research's strategic plan for NIH institutes and centers.

Future Computer-aided Decision-making Support Systems: Concerning more about the Mechanism of Human Behavior

With the development of computer and network technology, more and more areas (such as power system security control, medical diagnosis system, government emergency management, stock invesment strategy anallysis, etc.) have gradually established decision-making support systems, which are mainly responsible for information collection, management and analysis. Studies show that decision-making support systems have greatly enhanced user productivity. So the engineers ’ interest in designing computerized decision support systems has considerably increased in recent years. The current decision support systems mainly focus on data acquisition and analysis. They are responsible for providing large amounts of data continuously and delivering adaptable models, which can enable people to use these results effectively and then make decisions more quickly and accurately. Then, is there any real-time decision support system in the future that can change human’s judgment and decision-making? By behavior science research, t his paper will provide some answer s by present ing the results of a study that subliminal vision signal may have direct influence on human’s advanced cognitive process and finally change human’s decision under ambiguity. It will provide key technology and new research ideas for engineers to design more intelligent and more powerful decision-making support systems in the future.

Open Book: The Failed Promise of Information Privacy in America

With financial and other personal information about us in countless databases, and with companies such as Facebook and Google collecting data about their users to drive profits and satisfy expectations of shareholders, there is a pervasive concern that we have little control over access to potentially harmful uses of that information. Moreover, many consumers believe that little can be done to address the problem except to give out as little information as possible and try our best to monitor our credit reports and financial accounts in an effort to detect unexpected activity if it occurs. By not enacting strong information privacy laws in the non-governmental sector, the U.S. Congress and the fifty states have effectively defaulted to a market-based model of privacy protection that relies heavily on individual self-policing and market incentives as the primary means of information control. A self-policing privacy protection model could be effective if a market for information privacy were possible — if well informed individuals could shop their privacy preferences effectively. This book-length paper (the book itself will be available in 2013) examines the reasons why this is highly unlikely and why privacy laws in the United States (or the lack thereof) will not protect legitimate consumer interests in the years to come. Part 1 shows why information privacy is a social or societal value and not just an individual concern. Part 2 examines in more detail why individualist, market approaches to privacy protection are destined to fail. Part 3 continues this theme and examines research in behavioral sciences about how consumers make decisions in market transactions. Part 4 concludes by critiquing the “new” privacy framework released by the Federal Trade Commission. While the framework contains hopeful rhetoric calling for greater emphasis on societal solutions to privacy concerns, most of the framework continues to rely heavily on individual notice and choice in transactions that involve exchanges of personal information.

DIFFERENTIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY TO CONTEXT: A PROMISING MODEL OF THE INTERPLAY OF GENES AND THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT.

The goal of this chapter is to demonstrate the importance of incorporating gene by environment (GxE) interactions into behavioral science theory and research. In pursuit of this aim, the chapter is organized in the following way. First, we provide a brief critique of the behavioral genetics paradigm, noting why one should be skeptical of its suggestion that genes exert large main effects, and only main effects, on social behavior. Second, we describe how the recent mapping of the human genome has facilitated molecular genetic research and the emergence of the new epigenetic paradigm that has begun to supplement and replace the simpler model of genetic determinism. Third, we turn our focus to the explosion of GxE research that has occurred in the wake of this paradigmatic shift. These studies find that genetic variation often interacts with environmental context to influence the probability of various behaviors. Importantly, in many, and perhaps most, of these studies the genetic variable, unlike the environmental variable, has little if any main effect on the outcome of interest. Rather, the influence of the genetic variable is limited to its moderation of the effect of the environmental construct. Such research does not undermine the importance of environmental factors; rather it shows how social scientific explanations of human behavior might be made more precise by incorporating genetic information. Finally, we consider various models of gene - environment interplay, paying particular attention to the differential susceptibility to context perspective. This model of GxE posits that a substantial proportion of the population is genetically predisposed to be more susceptible than others to environment influence. We argue that this model of GxE is particularly relevant to sociologists and psychologists.

Life history of impulsive behavior: Development and validation of a new questionnaire

A self-report version of the Lifetime History of Impulsive Behaviors (LHIB) interview was developed and its psychometric properties examined. Initially, forty-two personality disordered and 20 control subjects completed both the interview (I) and self-report (Q53) versions of the LHIB along with other self-report measures of impulsivity and an assessment of venturesomeness and empathy.The LHIB-Q53 demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and evidence of convergent and divergent validity. The LHIB-Q53 was then simplified to 20 items and administered to a large population-based sample of adults from the community. Following this, it was administered to nearly 400 subjects with or without histories of Axis I and/or II disorders. The latter two studies demonstrated good to excellent psychometric properties as well as evidence of convergent and divergent validity. Since the LHIB quantifies the occurrence of impulsive behaviors, rather than a self-assessment of a personality trait of impulsivity, we propose that the LHIB-Q20 represents a needed additional assessment of impulsivity for behavioral science research.

Secondary Design: A Case of Behavioral Design Science Research

As user interactions have become more central to specific classes of information systems, design theorizing must expand to support the processes of interaction and the evolution of information systems. This theorizing goes beyond user-aided, participatory design to consider users as designers in their own right during the ongoing creation and recreation of information systems. Recent theorizing about an emerging class of tailorable systems proposes that such systems undergo an initial, primary design process where features are built in prior to general release. Following implementation, people engage in a secondary design process where functions and content emerge during interaction, modification, and embodiment of the system in use. This case study reveals that people are engaged designers, framed by dualities in behaviors including planned and emergent behaviors, and participatory and reifying behaviors. We contribute to design science research by extending work on tailorable systems, investigating processes of secondary design in a highly interactive system suited to support user engagement. We also contribute more broadly to design science research by explicitly extending behavioral aspects associated with the use of information system artifacts.

Methodological Issues in the Assessment of Diabetes Treatment Adherence

Improving treatment adherence in patients with diabetes remains an important objective of behavioral science research. However, progress is often limited by the heterogeneity in methods used to measure treatment adherence and difficulties in generalizing across methodologies. Various measurement methods are often used with little attention paid to questions regarding validity. Doubts about validity of adherence measurement often lead investigators to measure distal clinical outcomes instead, such as glycemic control, resulting in a loss of information. This article provides an overview of the literature on diabetes medication adherence, with a focus on measurement issues. We also consider work conducted in other chronic illnesses, particularly HIV/AIDS, that may have value in guiding future directions of diabetes medication adherence research. We highlight the need for focused investigation on how characteristics of self-report methodologies affect the validity of patient responses and conclude with practical recommendations based on the current state of the science.

New Directions for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)

New Directions for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)

Conceptual framework for behavioral and social science in HIV vaccine clinical research

HIV vaccine clinical research occurs within a context where biomedical science and social issues are interlinked. Previous HIV vaccine research has considered behavioral and social issues, but often treated them as independent of clinical research processes. Systematic attention to the intersection of behavioral and social issues within a defined clinical research framework is needed to address gaps, such as those related to participation in trials, completion of trials, and the overall research experience. Rigorous attention to these issues at project inception can inform trial design and conduct by matching research approaches to the context in which trials are to be conducted. Conducting behavioral and social sciences research concurrent with vaccine clinical research is important because it can help identify potential barriers to trial implementation, as well as ultimate acceptance and dissemination of trial results. We therefore propose a conceptual framework for behavioral and social science in HIV vaccine clinical research and use examples from the behavioral and social science literature to demonstrate how the model can facilitate identification of significant areas meriting additional exploration. Standardized use of the conceptual framework could improve HIV vaccine clinical research efficiency and relevance.

Expanding cancer prevention education to national and international audiences: the National Cancer Institute's Principles and Practice of Cancer Prevention and Control annual summer course.

The Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention has been sponsored by the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program for over two decades. This curriculum includes a 4-week course entitled "Principles and Practice of Cancer Prevention and Control." The ultimate goal of this course is to present the most current cancer prevention research to a diverse workforce of researchers and practitioners eager to address the current challenges in this field. The course covers the current status of cancer prevention research and practice, ranging from epidemiology and clinical practice, and from basic to behavioral science research. It is comprised of lectures grouped into nine modules representing broad and specific topics relevant to cancer prevention. Course participants come from a broad cross-section of career stages, professions, and research interests, and are from across the USA and other countries. Over time and in response to feedback from participants, the course has developed to meet the needs and expectations of this diverse audience, and may serve as a model for those interested in cancer prevention education and training in other countries.

Methods for Structuring Scientific Knowledge from Many Areas Related to Aging Research

Aging and age-related disease represents a substantial quantity of current natural, social and behavioral science research efforts. Presently, no centralized system exists for tracking aging research projects across numerous research disciplines. The multidisciplinary nature of this research complicates the understanding of underlying project categories, the establishment of project relations, and the development of a unified project classification scheme. We have developed a highly visual database, the International Aging Research Portfolio (IARP), available at AgingPortfolio.org to address this issue. The database integrates information on research grants, peer-reviewed publications, and issued patent applications from multiple sources. Additionally, the database uses flexible project classification mechanisms and tools for analyzing project associations and trends. This system enables scientists to search the centralized project database, to classify and categorize aging projects, and to analyze the funding aspects across multiple research disciplines. The IARP is designed to provide improved allocation and prioritization of scarce research funding, to reduce project overlap and improve scientific collaboration thereby accelerating scientific and medical progress in a rapidly growing area of research. Grant applications often precede publications and some grants do not result in publications, thus, this system provides utility to investigate an earlier and broader view on research activity in many research disciplines. This project is a first attempt to provide a centralized database system for research grants and to categorize aging research projects into multiple subcategories utilizing both advanced machine algorithms and a hierarchical environment for scientific collaboration.

Regression Commonality Analysis: A Technique for Quantitative Theory Building

When it comes to multiple linear regression analysis (MLR), it is common for social and behavioral science researchers to rely predominately on beta weights when evaluating how predictors contribute to a regression model. Presenting an underutilized statistical technique, this article describes how organizational researchers can use commonality analysis to more completely interpret their regression effects and thereby inform theory. Using an empirical example from published literature, readers will see how regression commonality analysis can uncover important theoretical relationships that might be left undetected by only examining beta weights.

A generic dynamic control task for behavioral research and education

Recent research in behavioral sciences presents strong evidence of poor human understanding for dynamic systems. Computer-based dynamic control tasks have an important potential for helping behavioral scientists advance research that investigates reasons for poor understanding and for helping students understand how dynamic systems work. In this paper, we introduce a simulation called Dynamic Stocks and Flows (DSF) that portrays the basic building blocks of dynamic systems: an accumulation; an inflow and outflow determined by an environment; and an inflow and outflow determined by a decision maker. In DSF, decision makers control the accumulation to a goal level by making repeated inflow and outflow decisions. We provide details of an experiment conducted with DSF that highlight some problems people face in controlling a dynamic system with different kinds of environmental inflow and outflow functions. DSF is flexible enough to represent dynamic systems with continuous or discrete accumulations, and with real-time or event-driven decision-making. We suggest that these and other features in DSF make it a good research and educational tool.

Progress and Challenges in Product Line Pricing

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in research on product line pricing. Modelers in multiple disciplines have offered methods for the optimal design/selection and pricing of the products in new or modified product lines. Behavioral scientists have contributed insights on how consumers' perceptions of product line prices, attributes, and quality levels influence their evaluation of the alternative choices. Significantly, the work of both modelers and behavioral scientists is distributed across three types of product line contexts: price‐quality product lines, multi‐attribute product lines, and product lines that include a core product plus options. This paper reviews this literature, and assesses its usefulness for managers. One observation is that, while scholars have developed approaches to optimization that offer increased scope and tractability, the applicability of these models is constrained by the narrow specification of profit functions, and the limited consideration of competitive and other dynamic forces. A second conclusion is that the managerial usefulness of the behavioral science research on perceptions and product‐line choice has been limited by a dependence on attribute‐based estimation of utilities, uncertainty about possible interaction effects, and an excessive focus on the cannibalization aspects of product line pricing. Based on the review, a research agenda is identified for enhancing the applicability of research on consumer perceptions and choice to product line pricing decisions, and for building more complete product line price optimization models.

Ethical Decision Making and Research Deception in the Behavioral Sciences: An Application of Social Contract Theory

Despite significant ethical advances in recent years, including professional developments in ethical review and codification, research deception continues to be a pervasive practice and contentious focus of debate in the behavioral sciences. Given the disciplines' generally stated ethical standards regarding the use of deceptive procedures, researchers have little practical guidance as to their ethical acceptability in specific research contexts. We use social contract theory to identify the conditions under which deception may or may not be morally permissible and formulate practical recommendations to guide researchers on the ethical employment of deception in behavioral science research.

Public Response to a Catastrophic Southern California Earthquake: A Sociological Perspective

This paper describes a hypothetical scenario of public response to a large regional earthquake on the southern section of the San Andreas Fault. Conclusive social and behavioral science research over decades has established that the behavior of individuals in disaster is, on the whole, controlled, rational, and adaptive, despite popular misperceptions that people who experience a disaster are dependent upon and problematic for organized response agencies. We applied this knowledge to portray the response of people impacted by the earthquake focusing on actions they will take during and immediately following the cessation of the shaking including: immediate response, search and rescue, gaining situational awareness through information seeking, making decisions about evacuation and interacting with organized responders. Our most general conclusion is that the actions of ordinary people in this earthquake scenario comprised the bulk of the initial response effort, particularly in those areas isolated for lengthy periods of time following the earthquake.