Drivers Of Decisions Research Articles

Management and outcomes of acute appendicitis in children with congenital heart disease.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) care has evolved during the past decades. Advances in care have contributed to improved survival among CHD patients. Children with CHD are requiring interventions for non-CHD related medical issues that occur in the general pediatric population. A retrospective review of the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database from January 1, 2004, to July 31, 2023. Discharges of patients with an admitting/principal diagnosis of appendicitis were evaluated and categorized as CHD or non-CHD. A total of 319,228 patients were identified with 1,25,858(39.4%) female, 1,38,966(43.5%) white, and median age of 11[IQR:8-14] years. 708(0.2%) had CHD with 85(12%) of them having a diagnosis consistent with single-ventricle CHD (SV-CHD). In univariate analysis, CHD patients were more likely to undergo conservative treatment (n = 172(24.2%)vs n = 59,358(18.6%)) and less likely to undergo laparoscopic appendectomy (n = 483(68.2%) vs n = 2,35,324(73.8%))(p < 0.001) compared to non-CHD. After adjustment, CHD patients had increased odds of undergoing open appendectomy compared to non-CHD. CHD patients were more likely to have an ICU admission (OR:8.36(95%CI 6.35-10.00),p < 0.001) and had a 77.6%(95%CI 40.89-123.93) increase in length of stay (LOS) (p < 0.001). CHD patients are more likely to have an open appendectomy than non-CHD patients. These findings suggest a distinctive pattern in the care of CHD patients compared to non-CHD. Overall, CHD patients had a more intense level of care with longer LOS and increased ICU admissions. Further work is needed to evaluate drivers of management decisions, the role of conservative treatment with antibiotics alone in the CHD population, and the potential impacts and safety of a laparoscopic approach.

What sustains feminized part-time work at the gender equality frontier? Evidence from a vignette experiment

Feminized part-time work has been deemed a family policy conundrum yet to be solved by any welfare regime. To identify ways forward, this article examines structural drivers of part-time work decisions through a vignette experiment fielded in the gender-egalitarian context of Norway ( N = 3500). Six theory-grounded factors are tested in this multidimensional, causal framework: partner income level, physical and cognitive household labour burdens, the presence of a part-time culture at the workplace, and consequences of part-time work for career advancement and future pensions. Results show that overall, factors that regulate individuals’ material self-interest (partner income, career and pension consequences) have the largest impact on working-time decisions. Additionally, a priming treatment is given with a split sample concerning the factor of cognitive household labour – the organizational dimension of household work. Results from sub-group analyses show that non-primed respondents prefer significantly higher working hours when their cognitive labour burden is lower. Respondents who received experimental priming, however, portray the opposite behaviour (lower working-hour preference when cognitive labour burden is low). The pattern is driven by women, whereas men are left largely unaffected by both the priming and vignette treatment of cognitive labour. Thus, robust findings imply that gender inequality in material circumstances sustains feminized part-time work patterns. Suggestive evidence further indicates that gender inequality in cognitive labour loads may also contribute to sustaining feminized part-time work.

Mapping lineage-traced cells across time points with moslin

Simultaneous profiling of single-cell gene expression and lineage history holds enormous potential for studying cellular decision-making. Recent computational approaches combine both modalities into cellular trajectories; however, they cannot make use of all available lineage information in destructive time-series experiments. Here, we present moslin, a Gromov-Wasserstein-based model to couple cellular profiles across time points based on lineage and gene expression information. We validate our approach in simulations and demonstrate on Caenorhabditis elegans embryonic development how moslin predicts fate probabilities and putative decision driver genes. Finally, we use moslin to delineate lineage relationships among transiently activated fibroblast states during zebrafish heart regeneration.

COVID-19 Vaccine Preferences in General Populations in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States: Discrete Choice Experiment.

Despite strong evidence supporting COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and safety, a proportion of the population remains hesitant to receive immunization. Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) can help assess preferences and decision-making drivers. We aim to (1) elicit preferences for COVID-19 vaccines in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States; (2) understand which vaccine attributes people there value; and (3) gain insight into the choices that different population subgroups make regarding COVID-19 vaccines. Participants in the 2019nCoV-408 study were aged ≥18 years; self-reported antivaccinationists were excluded. A DCE with a series of 2 hypothetical vaccine options was embedded into a survey to determine participant treatment preferences (primary objective). Survey questions covered vaccine preference, previous COVID-19 experiences, and demographics, which were summarized using descriptive statistics to understand the study participants' backgrounds. In the DCE, participants were provided choice pairs: 1 set with and 1 without an "opt-out" option. Each participant viewed 11 unique vaccine profiles. Vaccine attributes consisted of type (messenger RNA or protein), level of protection against any or severe COVID-19, risk of side effects (common and serious), and potential coadministration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines. Attribute level selections were included for protection and safety (degree of effectiveness and side effect risk, respectively). Participants were stratified by vaccination status (unvaccinated, or partially or fully vaccinated) and disease risk group (high-risk or non-high-risk). A conditional logit model was used to analyze DCE data to estimate preferences of vaccine attributes, with the percentage relative importance calculated to allow for its ranking. Each model was run twice to account for sets with and without the opt-out options. The mean age of participants (N=2000) was 48 (SD 18.8) years, and 51.25% (1025/2000) were male. The DCE revealed that the most important COVID-19 vaccine attributes were protection against severe COVID-19 or any severity of COVID-19 and common side effects. Protection against severe COVID-19 was the most important attribute for fully vaccinated participants, which significantly differed from the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated subgroup (relative importance 34.8% vs 30.6%; P=.049). Avoiding serious vaccine side effects was a significantly higher priority for the unvaccinated or partially versus fully vaccinated subgroup (relative importance 10.7% vs 8.2%; P=.044). Attributes with significant differences in the relative importance between the high-risk versus non-high-risk subgroups were protection against severe COVID-19 (38.2% vs 31.5%; P<.000), avoiding common vaccine side effects (12% vs 20.5%; P<.000), and avoiding serious vaccine side effects (9.7% vs 7.5%; P=.002). This DCE identified COVID-19 vaccine attributes, such as protection against severe COVID-19, that may influence preference and drive choice and can inform vaccine strategies. The high ranking of common and serious vaccine side effects suggests that, when the efficacy of 2 vaccines is comparable, safety is a key decision-making factor.

Understanding Pediatric Experiences With Symptomatic Varicoceles: Mixed Methods Study of an Online Varicocele Community.

Varicoceles affect up to 30% of postpubertal adolescent males. Studying this population remains difficult due to this topic's sensitive nature. Using the popularity of social media in this cohort and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, our aim was to identify perceptions of adolescent males on an internet varicocele forum to inform how physicians may better evaluate and counsel this pediatric population. We aimed to characterize themes of discussion and specific concerns expressed by adolescents using a mixed methods approach involving quantitative NLP and qualitative annotation of an online varicocele community. We extracted posts from the Reddit community "r/varicocele" (5100 members) with criteria of discussant age ≤21 years and word count >20. We used qualitative thematic analysis and the validated constant comparative method, as well as an NLP technique called the meaning extraction method with principal component analysis (MEM/PCA), to identify discussion themes. Two investigators independently interrogated 150 randomly selected posts to further characterize content based on NLP-identified themes and calculated the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) statistic and the Bartlett test. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were then compared to identify key themes of discussion. A total of 1103 posts met eligibility criteria from July 2015 to June 2022. Among the 150 randomly selected posts, MEM/PCA and qualitative thematic analysis separately revealed key themes: an overview of varicocele (40/150, 27%), management (29/150, 19%), postprocedural experience (28/150, 19%), seeking community (26/150, 17%) and second opinions after visiting a physician (27/150, 18%). Quantitative analysis also identified "hypogonadism" and "semen analysis" as concerns when discussing their condition. The KMO statistic was >0.60 and the Bartlett test was <0.01, indicating the appropriateness of MEM/PCA. The mean age was 17.5 (SD 2.2; range 14-21) years, and there were trends toward higher-grade (40/45, 89% had a grade of ≥2) and left-sided varicoceles. Urologists were the topic of over 50% (53/82) of discussions among discussants, and varicocelectomy remained the intervention receiving the most interest. A total of 60% (90/150) of discussants described symptomatic varicoceles, with 62 of 90 reporting pain, 24 of 90 reporting hypogonadism symptoms, and 45 of 90 reporting aesthetics as the primary concern. We applied a mixed methods approach to identify uncensored concerns of adolescents with varicoceles. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches identified that adolescents often turned to social media as an adjunct to doctors' visits and to seek peer support. This population prioritized symptom control, with an emphasis on pain, aesthetics, sexual function, and hypogonadism. These data highlight how each adolescent may approach varicoceles uniquely, informing urologists how to better interface with this pediatric population. Additionally, these data may highlight the key drivers of decision-making when electing for procedural management of varicoceles.

Drivers of Zero-Waste Purchase Decisions : The Mediating Role of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Drivers of Zero-Waste Purchase Decisions : The Mediating Role of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Negative emotions and marketing retrenchment during crisis: attribution effects through crisis severity and strategic orientations

PurposeEmotions are widely acknowledged decision-making drivers, taking the front seat when managers lack objective information. Existing evidence indicates that negative emotions often lead to the decision to retrench. Contrary to these insights, our research aims to show that negative emotions can sometimes push top managers to withdraw from retrenching marketing activities. By drawing on the affect-as-information approach, this study aims to examine the direct and conditional effects of top managers’ negative emotions on small and medium-sized enteprises (SMEs’) intention to retrench marketing activities during the recent economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a descriptive research design and surveys a sample of 155 chief executive officers from business-to-business (B2B) SMEs in Croatia. The authors empirically test the conceptual framework with hierarchical regression.FindingsBased on the sample of 155 top managers of SMEs operating in B2B industries, negative emotions positively drive marketing retrenchment. However, additional insights reveal that this relationship is conditioned by crisis severity and SMEs' strategic orientations (exploration and exploitation). The relationship between negative emotions and marketing retrenchment weakens for SMEs severely hampered by the crisis and for SMEs following the exploitative orientation. In contrast, this relationship becomes stronger for SMEs whose business customers have been severely hampered and for SMEs following exploratory orientation.Originality/valueThis research advances the body of knowledge by demonstrating that, depending on the severity of the crisis and the strategic orientation of the SME, top managers may interpret negative emotions quite differently, which eventually has lasting consequences on marketing retrenchment during crises. Therefore, by focusing on emotional microfoundations and unique crisis- and firm-level contingencies, this study goes beyond existing theoretical discussions that contrast marketing retrenchment vs investment and offers a different understanding of why and when SMEs retrench their marketing activities during crises.

Applying Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory and Analytic Network Process Approaches to Explore Green Production in the Semiconductor Industry

As environmental awareness grows, society emphasizes green business. Thus, semiconductor companies encompass energy-saving processes and innovative product development. This study employs the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) analysis method to assess the impact of four key dimensions, externalities, market orientation, green technology, and corporate social responsibility, on semiconductor companies’ green production decisions. This study uses the DEMATEL-based analytic network process (DANP) approach to rank the criteria order in green production decision-making. The results from the DEMATEL causality diagram highlight externalities as the most critical dimension influencing other dimensions of green production decisions. This study suggests that regulatory pollution punishment and subsidies emerge as the primary drivers for green production decisions. Companies adopt environmentally friendly production practices to prevent regulatory pollution penalties or reduce carbon trading costs. Additionally, the DANP results reveal that corporate image criteria in the corporate social responsibility dimension hold the utmost priority in semiconductor firms’ green production decision-making. This implies that considerations for improving a company’s image should take precedence as semiconductor companies seek shareholder support and governmental subsidies to ensure sustainable operations. Externalities arise as the secondary priority dimension in green production decision-making, aligning with the impact of externalities identified in DEMATEL findings.

Factors influencing climate change adaptation of tourism businesses

ABSTRACT Climate change poses significant challenges to the tourism industry, making understanding the factors influencing businesses’ adaptive responses crucial. This research investigates the complex interplay of social discourse, belief systems, perceived costs, risk perceptions, response efficacy, and self-efficacy in shaping tourism professionals’ adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. Focusing on businesses near Iran’s Lake Urmia, the study employs the model of private proactive adaptation to climate change on a sample of 320 tourism businesses. The findings highlight the positive impact of climate change-related discussions on perceptions and behaviors, the critical role of strongly held beliefs, and the barriers posed by perceived costs. Risk perception emerges as a central driver of decision-making, emphasizing the importance of raising risk awareness. The study also reveals how response efficacy and self-efficacy impact adaptive behavior, while maladaptation presents a significant challenge. These insights are valuable for developing strategies to enhance tourism resilience to climate change in vulnerable destinations.

Behavioral risk profiling: Measuring loss aversion of individual investors

Loss aversion has been shown to be a key driver of people's investment decisions. Encouraged by regulators, financial institutions are seeking ways to integrate this behavioral factor into client risk classifications. A critical obstacle is the lack of a valid measurement method for loss aversion that can be straightforwardly incorporated into existing processes. This paper reports on two large-scale implementations of such a method within the risk-profiling application of an established financial institution. We elicit loss aversion for 1,040 employees and 3,740 clients, observing distributions that align with existing findings. Importantly, our results demonstrate that loss aversion is largely independent of the risk-return preferences commonly used for investor classification. Furthermore, the correlations we observe between these two preferences and individuals’ background characteristics align with previous research: loss aversion is strongly correlated with education—higher educated individuals exhibit greater loss aversion—whereas risk aversion is related to gender, age, and financial status—women, older individuals, and those less financially secure are more risk averse. These findings support the conjecture that risk and loss aversion are complementary in capturing investor intent.

What Determines Civil Servants’ Error Response? Evidence From a Conjoint Experiment

To err is human and learning from mistakes is essential for finding viable solutions to grand societal challenges through development and innovation. Yet, public organizations often exhibit a punitive zero-error culture, and public employees are stereotyped as error and risk-averse. Little is known about the underlying behavioral mechanisms that determine civil servants’ likelihood of handling errors positively, namely reporting and correcting them instead of ignoring and hiding them to avoid blame. Based on the transactional theory of stress coping, we argue that individuals’ error-handling strategies relate to both rational and emotional evaluations of error-specific and consequential contextual factors. Using a conjoint survey experiment conducted with N = 276 civil servants in Germany ( Obs. = 1,104), this study disentangles the effects of error-related, individual, and organization-cultural factors as decisive drivers of individuals’ error response. We find that error characteristics (type and harmfulness) determine error-handling behavior, which is revealed to be independent from organizational error culture and individual error orientation, providing important and novel insights for theory and practice.

Tipping points and farmer decision-making in European permanent grassland (PG) agricultural systems

Permanent grasslands (PG) provide multifunctional ecosystem services (ES) in Europe and globally, which are threatened by both increased farming intensity and land use change in marginal areas. Farm management decisions can represent critical thresholds, or behavioural “tipping points”, in the agricultural system. Decisions are influenced by a combination of agronomic, policy and social factors. Transformation of PG systems can be facilitated through positive tipping points and relevant policy implementation to ensure sustainable PG systems. The aim of this research was to understand the drivers of decisions regarding land use changes and management towards critical positive and negative tipping points across five biogeographic zones in Europe. Interview methodology assessed farmers’ preferences and priorities regarding the adoption of sustainable PG systems. Participants were selected from five case study countries, each representing a different biogeographic zone in Europe (Continental/Pannonian: Czech Republic, Boreal: Sweden, Mediterranean: Spain, Alpine: Switzerland, and Atlantic: UK). The sample also covered three farming intensity types within these biogeographic zones: high input/intensive conventional farms (≥1.0 LU/ha); low input/extensive conventional farms (<1.0 LU/ha); and certified organic farms. In total, 373 farm interviews were obtained from the case study countries between October 2020 and October 2021. The analysis focuses on drivers of change and considers tipping points across these countries, considering case studies of land use changes (specifically land abandonment) and land management practices (specifically changes in stocking rates). The most common reasons for PG management changes towards either intensification or extensification were economic. Farmers require policy support to increase provision of non-market ES, while rebalancing subsidies can deliver environmental ES at scale through abandonment (e.g., through the creation of specific habitats that support some threatened species). Agri-environment schemes (AES)and subsidies could be more flexible to allow farmers to better adapt grassland management to local production conditions and unpredictable circumstances such as droughts, floods, or market shocks. To maintain PG that delivers more goods and services, financial compensation for ES delivery was perceived to be the most significant support mechanism needed, while easier access to ES provision expertise through extension or consultancy services is considered important factor.

Speculation in investment in technology firms: a trust-based perspective

PurposeWe analyze the role of trust as a driver of speculative investment decisions in technology firms.Design/methodology/approachStructural Equation Modeling analysis in the context of blockchain technology supports our hypotheses.FindingsOur findings indicate that a general propensity to trust technology leads to trusting beliefs in a service based on technology and that trusting beliefs in a technological service leads to a higher propensity to invest in any firm associated with that service. In addition, we show that in a non-technological context, there is no evidence for such an effect of trusting beliefs in a service on investment decisions. These results support the notion that trusting beliefs are facilitators of speculative investment in technology firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe research advances knowledge about the influence of trust in technology on investment decisions; its findings can help build new theoretical models regarding investment decisions using Fintech.Practical implicationsFor investors, it is important to realize the potential bias identified in this study, so they can actively avoid adhering to it, thus avoiding exposure to unnecessary risk. Further, beyond individual investors, investment firms take active measures to avoid biases in their own decision-making. Banks and investment firms can help guide their clients about trust-based bias when building their investment portfolio.Originality/valueAlthough trust in information systems has been studied extensively, research on the relationship between trust in technology and decisions to invest in technology-related firms is limited.

Changing the food environment in secondary school canteens to promote healthy dietary choices: a qualitative study with school caterers

BackgroundTypical adolescent diets do not meet current dietary recommendations. There is a need to address these dietary patterns to reduce the risk of obesity and other diet-related diseases. Schools provide an opportune setting to do so, as students consume a substantial proportion of their daily dietary intake whilst at school. There is a developing evidence base on the use of choice architecture (food choice cues) to promote healthy eating in school contexts. It is necessary to understand the acceptability and feasibility of implementing such interventions. We aimed to explore these factors from the perspectives of secondary school caterers.MethodsWe conducted qualitative interviews with caterers from secondary schools across the West Midlands, UK and national/regional catering representatives. A semi-structured topic guide and visual aid were used to guide interviews. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Framework analysis was conducted in NVivo v12.ResultsTwelve participants took part. Seven themes were identified and grouped into three categories: Acceptability (Suitability; Salient cues; Student engagement), Barriers (Catering decision drivers; Limits of influence), and Enablers (Perceived role; Opportunities). Caterers considered healthy food cues to be suited to adolescents as they require minimal reflective motivation. Salient cues included enhancing the placement, presentation and portability of healthy items, improving the dining environment and focusing pricing/incentive strategies on increased quantity. Student engagement was considered important. Some catering decision drivers conflicted with healthy food cues, and many felt that their role in healthy eating was limited due to the overwhelming influence of external food environments, adolescent resistance, and features of the secondary school canteen setting e.g. short duration of lunchtime, lack of space. However, caterers appeared motivated to implement healthy food cues and identified key opportunities for implementation, including integration into whole-school approaches to healthy eating.ConclusionsInterventions using healthy food cues appeared acceptable to secondary school caterers, key potential implementers of these strategies. Future interventions could incorporate strategies relating to placement, presentation and pricing to prompt healthy selections, and actions to engage the student body and improve the dining environment. Evaluations should consider potential impacts upon food purchasing, consumption and waste to address caterers’ concerns about these issues.

Expert and operator perspectives on barriers to energy efficiency in data centers

It was last estimated in 2016 that data centers (DCs) comprise approximately 2% of total US electricity consumption. However, this estimate is currently being updated to account for the massive increase in computing needs due to streaming, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence (AI). To prevent energy consumption that tracks with increasing computing needs, it is imperative we identify energy efficiency strategies and investments beyond the low-hanging fruit solutions. In a two-phased research approach, we ask: What non-technical barriers still impede energy efficiency (EE) practices and investments in the data center sector, and what can be done to overcome these barriers? In particular, we are focused on social and organizational barriers to EE. In Phase I, we performed a literature review and found that technical solutions are abundant in the literature, but fail to address the top-down cultural shifts that need to take place in order to adapt new energy efficiency strategies. In Phase II, reported here, we interviewed 16 data center operators/experts to ground-truth our literature findings. Our interview protocols focus on three aspects of DC decision-making: procurement practices, metrics and monitoring, and perceived barriers to energy efficiency. We find that vendors are the key drivers of procurement decisions, advanced efficiency metrics are facility-specific, and there is convergence in the design of advanced facilities due to the heat density of parallelized infrastructure. Our ultimate goals for our research are to design DC decarbonization policies that target organizational structure, empower individual staff, and foster a supportive external market.

Tourism-driven livelihood dynamics: A comprehensive empirical study of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park communities in Tanzania

Tourism is pivotal for rural economic development; however, despite hosting a substantial number of tourists, many developing countries with rural landscapes face persistent poverty among local communities. This study aims to delve into the impact of tourism (geoheritage and national parks) on local livelihoods, examining drivers for livelihood portfolio and community decisions to engage in tourism activities. The Multivariate Probit and instrumental variable models (Instrumental Variable Probit, and Two Stage Least Squares) were employed on data from 582 respondents collected through cross-sectional questionnaires. Results highlight the significant influence of socioeconomic factors—sex, age, household size, credit access, market access, social membership, and education—on livelihood portfolio. Results show that specific tourism activities, such as accommodation services, handcrafts, catering and hospitality, and tour guiding, exert varying effects on household food security, income, and access to essential social services. Challenges hindering participation include education levels, information and awareness, service quality, cultural barriers, financial costs, government policies, competition, resource monopolisation, corruption, and infrastructure deficiencies. Recommendations include investments in skill development, infrastructure enhancement, cultural preservation, financial inclusion, regulatory frameworks, and community awareness programs. These strategies aim to facilitate household participation in tourism activities, promoting geotourism and enhancing the well-being of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park communities. Policymakers are urged to implement these measures to uplift local livelihoods and foster sustainable tourism in the region.

Factors Associated With Healthcare and Financial Decision Making Among Older Black Adults Without Dementia

ABSTRACT Objectives The study aims to identify factors associated with health care and financial decision-making among older Black adults without dementia. Methods Participants (N = 326) underwent assessments of decision-making and completed measurements of factors from four categories: cognitive, contextual, psychosocial, and personality. We performed separate linear regression models to examine the association between each factor and decision-making and created a fully adjusted model. Results Higher global cognition (estimate = 1.92, SE = 0.21, p < .0001) was associated with better decision-making. Contextual factors including higher current annual income (estimate = 0.23, SE = 0.05, p < .0001), higher childhood socioeconomic status (estimate = 0.48, SE = 0.18, p = .006), higher health and financial literacy (estimate = 0.08, SE = 0.01, p < .0001), and lower financial stress (estimate = −0.19, SE = 0.07, p = .01) were associated with better decision-making. More psychological well-being (estimate = 0.07, SE = 0.22, p = .001), a psychosocial factor, and less neuroticism (estimate = −0.06, SE = 0.02, p = .002), a personality factor, were associated with better decision-making. In the fully adjusted model, two factors, higher global cognition and higher literacy (health and financial), remained associated with better decision-making. Conclusions Cognitive and contextual factors serve as drivers of decision-making among older Black adults. Clinical Implications Clinicians may implement strategies to bolster cognition and improve health and financial literacy to facilitate optimal decision-making among older Black adults.

How Sure is the Driver? Modelling Drivers’ Confidence in Left-Turn Gap Acceptance Decisions

When a person makes a decision, it is automatically accompanied by a subjective probability judgment of the decision being correct, in other words, a confidence judgment. A better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for these confidence judgments could provide novel insights into human behavior. However, so far confidence judgments have been mostly studied in simplistic laboratory tasks while little is known about confidence in naturalistic dynamic tasks such as driving. In this study, we made a first attempt of connecting fundamental research on confidence with naturalistic driver behavior. We investigated the confidence of drivers in left-turn gap acceptance decisions in a driver simulator experiment (N = 17). We found that confidence in these decisions depends on the size of the gap to the oncoming vehicle. Specifically, confidence increased with the gap size for trials in which the gap was accepted, and decreased with the gap size for rejected gaps. Similarly to more basic tasks, confidence was negatively related to the response times and correlated with action dynamics during decision execution. Finally, we found that confidence judgments can be captured with an extended dynamic drift–diffusion model. In the model, the drift rate of the evidence accumulator as well as the decision boundaries are functions of the gap size. Furthermore, we demonstrated that allowing for post-decision evidence accumulation in the model increases its ability to describe confidence judgments in rejected gap decisions. Overall, our study confirmed that principles known from fundamental confidence research extend to confidence judgments in dynamic decisions during a naturalistic task.

Perceived Status and Sustainable Actions: How Subjective Socioeconomic Status Drives Green Energy Consumption in Chinese Households

Household energy consumption plays a critical role in the context of global climate change. Utilizing data from the 2018 China Social Survey (CGSS), this study empirically examined the impact of subjective socioeconomic status (SES) on household green energy consumption behaviors using probit and ordered probit models. The mechanism of influence was further analyzed through the mediated effect approach. The results found include the following: (1) Although the proportion of households participating in green energy policies is similar to those not participating, the proportion of households deeply participating in multiple policies is very low; (2) subjective SES significantly influences both the rate and depth of household participation in green energy policies; (3) internet usage and understanding of green energy policies serve as mediating mechanisms for the promotive effect of subjective SES; and (4) subjective SES showed significant heterogeneity in its effects on different gender and education level groups. These findings contribute to the understanding of the drivers of household green energy use decisions and provide an important reference for governmental policymaking to enhance participation rates and degrees in green energy participation. Implications of these findings highlight the potential for targeted policies that address internet accessibility and educational outreach, which could significantly enhance the effectiveness of green energy initiatives across diverse socioeconomic groups.

Drivers of agrivoltaic perception in California and North Carolina

The last decade has seen dramatic growth in solar power. In some regions, the most favorable land for solar panels is farmland, which is often flat and exposed to high levels of irradiance. At the same time, the agricultural sector is faced with growing challenges, notably changing water availability and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. The combination of these trends presents an opportunity for a synergistic relationship between the agriculture and solar sectors: agrivoltaic systems (AVS). In AVS, solar panels are placed above and between crops, such that the same land produces both food and energy. This system has beneficial microclimate impacts, such as reduced evapotranspiration. Yet, despite these benefits there has been limited uptake of AVS. One reason may be hesitation on the part of farmers, whose perceptions of AVS have been explored little. This analysis seeks to address part of this gap by exploring the relationship between farmer perceptions and interest in AVS. A Likert scale survey was designed and distributed to farmers across two large, agriculturally productive states, North Carolina and California. Responses from the 41 participants who fully completed the survey suggest that farmers who perceive AVS as diversifying their income or whose goals include reducing water use are the most interested in installing AVS. Respondents also identified financial viability as a major concern, agreeing that upfront cost is a major barrier to AVS, and markets as the most influential driver of crop decisions. These findings provide insights for policymakers interested in expanding AVS, particularly in response to environmental stressors, such as water scarcity and extreme weather events. They also suggest the aspects of AVS that may be most important to farmers, and most effective in encouraging AVS uptake. This information can support efforts to promote AVS, contributing to sustainable agriculture.