Heuristic Cues Research Articles

Disrupted default mode network dynamics in recuperative patients of herpes zoster pain.

IntroductionPrevious studies of herpes zoster (HZ) have focused on acute patient manifestations and the most common sequela, postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), both serving to disrupt brain dynamics. Although the majority of such patients gradually recover, without lingering severe pain, little is known about life situations of those who recuperate or the brain dynamics. Our goal was to determine whether default mode network (DMN) dynamics of the recuperative population normalize to the level of healthy individuals.MethodsFor this purpose, we conducted resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in 30 patients recuperating from HZ (RHZ group) and 30 healthy controls (HC group). Independent component analysis (ICA) was initially undertaken in both groups to extract DMN components. DMN spatial maps and within‐DMN functional connectivity were then compared by group and then correlated with clinical variables.ResultsRelative to controls, DMN spatial maps of recuperating patients showed higher connectivity in middle frontal gyrus (MFG), right/left medial temporal regions of cortex (RMTC/LMTC), right parietal lobe, and parahippocampal gyrus. The RHZ (vs HC) group also demonstrated significant augmentation of within‐DMN connectivity, including that of LMTC‐MFG and LMTC‐posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Furthermore, the intensity of LMTC‐MFG connectivity correlated significantly with scoring of pain‐induced emotions and life quality.ConclusionFindings of this preliminary study indicate that a disrupted dissociative pattern of DMN persists in patients recuperating from HZ, relative to healthy controls. We have thus provisionally established the brain mechanisms accounting for major outcomes of HZ, offering heuristic cues for future research on HZ transition states.

Exploring the Place Brand Factors Influencing Tourism to South Africa

Despite the proliferation of destination branding-related studies, there appears to be a limited academic inquiry into generic place brands and their potential influence on tourist behaviour towards destination countries. More-so within the African context. This paper explores whether there are place brand factors that potentially influence inward tourist’s perceptions of South Africa as a tourism destination country. Data generated from a survey of 233 inbound tourists to South Africa were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis. The findings establish that South Africa's place brand consisted of six distinct factors, two of which, namely, Socio-cultural and Competitive Advantages were new place brand factors within the South African context. Theoretically, the study complements the extent of the literature within the tourism discourse by providing an international demand-side perspective on place branding within an African tourism context. Practically, this study provides both South African and African tourism practitioners with insights into the potential utility of place branding as a heuristic cue in the decision-making process of international tourists, predominantly from the European and American markets.

Abstract A041: Community engagement in the development of an m-health app utilizing a black male virtual health assistant (VHA) to promote colon cancer screening: An iterative study of credibility and likeability

Abstract Traditionally, promotion of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among minority and rural populations including African American men was delivered by Community Health Workers (CHW), Patient Navigators, and decision aids (printed text or video media) at clinics. A novel approach to increase CRC screening of black men includes developing and utilizing a patient-centered, tailored message delivered via mobile-health (m-health) technology. In this study, a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach provided feedback on a Virtual Health Assistant (VHA) designed to deliver precision and personalized messages promoting the Fecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) for CRC screening. Focus groups of Black men were recruited to understand and employ their perceptions of a Black-male VHA. Specifically, these men identified source characteristics that would enhance the credibility of the VHA and likeability of an m-health app. The MAIN Model which examines how an interface features affect the user’s psychology through four Affordances: Modality, Agency, Interactivity, and Navigability was used to assess the presumed credibility of the VHA and likability of the app from the focus group transcripts. Each affordance triggers heuristic cues that stimulate a positive or negative perception of trustworthiness, believability, and understandability thereby increasing source credibility and likability. Data collected in the focus group included feedback on the different content modalities, both text and visual: size and font of the text, VHA appearance, voice, movement, diction, the environment as well as perceptions of the trustworthiness and expertise of the interface. Data related to interactivity and ease of navigation through the app was also collected and analyzed. All in all, 25 Black men from the community contributed to the development of three iterations of a Black male VHA over an eighteen-month time span. The final version of the Black male-VHA, ALEX is now part of an intervention to increase CRC screening among minority and rural populations. Citation Format: Danyell Wilson-Howard, Melissa Vilaro, Lauren Griffin, Fatemeh Travassoli, Mohan Zalake, Benjamin Lok, Francois Modave, Peter Carek, Thomas George, Janice Krieger. Community engagement in the development of an m-health app utilizing a black male virtual health assistant (VHA) to promote colon cancer screening: An iterative study of credibility and likeability [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr A041.

Three Models for Persuasive Effects of Source Expertise : The Heuristic Cue Model, the Evidence Model, and the Moderator Model

Three Models for Persuasive Effects of Source Expertise : The Heuristic Cue Model, the Evidence Model, and the Moderator Model

I don’t understand you but I trust you: using computer-aided text analysis to examine medical terminology use and engagement of vaccine online articles

ABSTRACT Background Public health departments recommend that medical terms should be replaced by plain language in order to make health information understandable to the general public. However, as a heuristic cue to assess information credibility, terminology makes an article appear more convincing and objective to its audience. Terminology can also make the information more engaging and persuasive. Using online articles about vaccine as an example, the present study examined whether practitioners should reduce medical terminology to lower the readability level or increase medical terminology to engage more audience. Method Computer-aided text analysis was used to analyze 541 pro-vaccine articles and 382 anti-vaccine articles. Results Anti-vaccine online articles contained significantly more medical terminology than pro-vaccine articles. Medical terminology was not significantly associated with readability. The use of medical terminology positively predicted reader engagement in both pro- and anti-vaccine articles, while the reading level of the articles negatively predicted the pro-vaccine articles’ reader engagement. Finally, pro-vaccine articles gradually reduced the use of medical terms and lowered readability from 2007 to 2017. Readability and the amount of medical terminology included in anti-vaccine articles did not significantly change over time. Conclusions Health practitioners are recommended not to simply reduce the use of medical terminology to lower readability levels when creating health education materials. Other recommendations for designing effective health messages and combating misinformation are provided.

Youth quotas and “Jurassic Park” politicians: age as a heuristic for vote choice in Tunisia’s new democracy

ABSTRACT Countries that undergo a democratic transition often adopt youth quotas to ensure stability and legitimacy in the eyes of a potentially rebellious youth cohort. Tunisia followed this trend by instating a youth quota after undergoing a youth-led democratic revolution in 2011. This subsequently led to youth representing 52% of the candidates (aged 18–35) in the 2018 municipal elections. However, it has yet to be tested whether a candidate’s age matters when evaluating politicians and casting a ballot in elections among Tunisian voters. This article explores the link between age and candidate evaluations which has been largely understudied in the political behaviour literature. Using an original survey experiment fielded in Tunisia, I run a series of regressions that model the relationship between several age treatments and candidate evaluations. Overall, I find that most Tunisians do not use age as a heuristic cue when evaluating political candidates running for office with the exception of the oldest voters who tend to prefer a candidate that is in their 50s. These results showcase the potential limitations of youth quotas serving as a mechanism ascertaining governmental legitimacy in the eyes of young people.

Vote or not? How various information cues affect helpfulness voting of online reviews

PurposeThe helpfulness vote is a type of aggregate user representation that, by measuring the quality of an online review based on certain criteria, can allow readers to find helpful reviews more quickly. Although widely applied in practice, the effectiveness of the voting mechanism is unsatisfactory. This paper uses the heuristic–systematic model and the theory of dynamics of reviews to shed light on the effect of various information cues (product ratings, word count and product attributes in the textual content of reviews) on online reviews’ aggregative voting process. It proposes a conceptual model of seven empirically tested hypotheses.Design/methodology/approachA dataset of user-generated online hotel reviews (n = 6,099) was automatically extracted from Ctrip.com. In order to measure the variable of product attributes as a systematic cue, the paper uses Chinese word segmentation, a part-of-speech tag and word frequency statistics to analyze online textual content. To verify the seven hypotheses, SPSS 17.0 was used to perform multiple linear regression.FindingsThe results show that the aggregative process of helpfulness voting can be divided into two stages, initial and cumulative voting, depending on whether voting is affected by the previous votes. Heuristic (product ratings, word count) and systematic cues (product attributes in the textual content) respectively exert a greater impact on the two stages. Furthermore, the interaction of heuristic and systematic cues plays an important role in both stages, with a stronger impact on the cumulative voting stage and a weaker one on the initial stage.Practical implicationsThis paper’s findings can be used to explore improvements to helpfulness voting by aligning it with an individual’s information process strategy, such as by providing more explicating heuristic cues, developing different methods of presenting relevant cues to promote the voting decision at different stages, and specifying the cognitive mechanisms when designing the functions and features of helpfulness voting.Originality/valueThis study explores the aggregative process of helpfulness votes, drawing on the study of the dynamics of online reviews for the first time. It also contributes to the understanding of the influence of various information cues on the process from an information process perspective.

How product aesthetics cues efficacy beliefs of product performance

AbstractAesthetics of package design is an important consideration when consumers make purchase decisions. We argue that this is particularly the case for purchase decision of products in the beauty category. This paper advances current understanding of the role of packaging in product purchase behavior by identifying heuristic cues exhibited in packaging (i.e., that beautiful packaging is more effective at making the consumer more beautiful). Across a pilot field study and four lab studies, we demonstrate that package aesthetics informs inferences of how well the product can perform, which, in turn, drives purchase decisions. Importantly, we show that in the presence of a diagnostic cue such as a brand name, or an explicit promise (e.g. tagline of an advertisement), this effect is attenuated and rendered irrelevant. Further, we show that this effect is rendered ineffective to a category to which beauty is irrelevant. Hence, by signaling product efficacy, the beauty‐in‐a‐bottle heuristic appears to inform purchase decisions.

It's OK to pay well, if you write well: The effects of remuneration disclosure readability

AbstractWe examine whether, and how, shareholders’ votes in the Say‐on‐Pay (SOP) are affected by the readability of the Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A). Despite the SEC's Plain English requirement, qualitative disclosures on executive remuneration are generally long and complex. Extant evidence on whether low readability results in higher or lower shareholder dissent in the SOP, however, is ambiguous. We resolve this debate by demonstrating that the effects of readability on SOP voting are heterogeneous; while obfuscation may reduce dissent when CEO compensation is close to “normal” levels, diminished readability results in increased scepticism when pay levels are clearly excessive. The moderating role of readability is most pronounced for firms with less sophisticated shareholders, consistent with readability acting as a heuristic cue. Our results are robust to propensity score matching, and are less pronounced (1) when shareholders have less time to review the CD&A, and (2) when shareholders are distracted by competing AGMs, suggesting they are driven by readability, directly. Overall, our results highlight that greater use of Plain English in remuneration disclosures can have a substantial persuasive impact on shareholders.

THE ECONOMIC AND BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES OF ONLINE USER REVIEWS

AbstractOnline user reviews have become an increasingly relevant informational tool during product search and adoption. Recent surveys have shown that consumers trust and rely on online reviews more than they do on website recommendations and experts opinions. As a new way of driving consumer purchasing intentions, online user reviews have therefore come under scrutiny by researchers. The objective of this paper is to offer an overview of the literature regarding the impact of online user reviews on economic indicators (e.g., sales, marketing strategies) and on consumer behavior. Furthermore, following the growing interest of academics and professionals alike on the topic, the present work provides an exploratory analysis of the consequences of online reviews on individual rating behavior – empirical regularities showed that online rating distributions tend to be concentrated on extreme values, possibly because of rating biases. As consumers and firms incorporate the heuristic cues from such distributions into their decision‐making processes, biased ratings might lead to suboptimal choices. This overview presents established results (e.g., the impact of volume on product sales) and insights as issues for future research.

The salient place brand factor(s) influencing medical tourism to South Africa

Regardless of its importance to the global tourism economy, there is still limited academic inquiry relating to Africa within the context of non-traditional tourism typologies, such as medical tourism. This article contributes to the broader understanding of the potential factors influencing medical tourism by extending place branding theory to the decision-making process of tourists within the South African medical tourism context. The present study examines the place brand - medical tourism nexus using data generated from a sample of n=233 conveniently sampled inbound tourists. Exploratory Factor and Multiple Regression Analyses were applied to the data. It emerged that South Africa's socio-cultural place brand was found to be a statistically significant heuristic cue, positively influencing medical tourism to the country, pivoting aspects such as the country's cultural practices and colonial heritage, as some of the key considerations in the decision making the process of tourists when considering South Africa as a medical tourism destination. Critically, the results associate medical tourism with the socio-cultural profile of South Africa, through the place brand as a heuristic cue for information symmetry. The study enriches both place branding and medical tourism discourse by providing empirical evidence of the nexus between the two constructs. Practically, destination marketers are provided with critical insights into tourist perspectives, and it is recommended that African governments and medical tourism facilitators collaborate to develop a nation branding theory-based framework as a decision support model for proactively managing and communicating the image of South Africa as a medical tourism destination

The Effectiveness of Promotional Cues for Organic Products in the German Retail Market

The market for organic products is constantly growing, but successfully promoting them remains a controversial issue. Marketing research shows that organic products such as fruits and vegetables cannot be advertised effectively via monetary promotions (e.g., discounts); however, how promotional effectiveness is affected by other promotional actions (e.g., offering premiums instead of discounts) or the product type promoted (e.g., promoting hedonic products such as organic ice cream instead of utilitarian products) has not been empirically investigated to date. Through a study conducted with 487 German participants, we demonstrate that monetary promotion is less effective for organic than for conventional products. In contrast, non-monetary promotion (via offering increased content) enhances promotional effectiveness more for organic than for conventional products. Increased heuristic processing can explain these findings, as consumers focus more on the heuristic cues offered by non-monetary promotion when confronted with organic, and in particular hedonic organic, products.

Achieving mobile social media popularity to enhance customer acquisition

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw on social exchange theory and heuristic–systematic model to examine how peer-to-peer (P2P) lending firms can enhance their customer acquisition by achieving mobile social media popularity.Design/methodology/approachContent data collected from multiple sources (websites and mobile applications) were employed to validate the research model.FindingsThe mobile social media popularity of P2P lending firms positively influences their customer acquisition. Furthermore, the heuristic cues (i.e. source credibility and content freshness) and the systematic cue (i.e. transaction relevance) potentially affect the firms’ mobile social media popularity.Research limitations/implicationsMobile social media is not only a platform for firms’ image-building but a critical means of acquiring actual customers. The appropriate use of heuristic–systematic cues in a mobile interface is useful for firms to achieve high user popularity despite the challenges derived from the mobile context.Practical implicationsTo achieve higher user popularity in the competitive online world, firms should dedicate greater effort in determining the adequate heuristic–systematic cues designed for the interface of their mobile social media account. The effect of popularity can then help the firms acquire more customers.Originality/valueThis study extends the understanding of social exchange in the context of mobile social media accounts and enriches the knowledge on business value of mobile social media popularity. This paper also contributes to the literature by relating heuristic–systematic cues to firms’ mobile social media popularity.

Privacy calculus or heuristic cues? The dual process of privacy decision making on Chinese social media

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of self-disclosure intention on mobile social applications. This study integrates privacy calculus model and elaboration likelihood theory to reconcile the rational and heuristic views of privacy decision making.Design/methodology/approachUsing a “random dialing” sampling method, an empirical survey with 913 respondents was conducted. A series of regression models were employed to test the proposed relationships. Robust checks with sub-group analysis were conducted.FindingsSelf-disclosure intention develops along a dual route including the central route and the peripheral route. When the central route predominates, social media users form their attitudes toward self-disclosure based on a rational calculus of the privacy concern and perceived rewards. When the peripheral route predominates, users perform a more heuristic evaluation of relevant informational cues (information about privacy harms, the extent of information asymmetry between users and operators) and contextual cues (flow experience, privacy disclosure of friends). Peripheral cues moderate the relationships between central cues and self-disclosure intention.Originality/valueThis paper extends the Elaboration Likelihood Model by investigating the interaction between the central route and peripheral route. The results provide alternative explanations on the renowned “privacy paradox” phenomenon.

The role of conflicting online reviews in consumers’ attitude ambivalence

ABSTRACT The extant literature overlooks conflicting online hotel reviews from the perspective of online and offline factors and their effect on attitude ambivalence, which determines consumer behavior. The present study fills this research gap using the heuristic–systematic model of information processing and examines: (1) how conflicting customer star ratings (i.e. heuristic cues) and opinions about hotel attributes (i.e. systematic cues) engender attitude ambivalence, (2) how offline interpersonal informational influence moderates the relationship between conflicting reviews and attitude ambivalence, and (3) relational impact on purchase intentions. The data collected from 382 inbound tourists in Beijing, China reveal the positive effect of conflicting star ratings and opinions about hotel attributes on attitude ambivalence, which lowers consumers’ purchase intentions. This study also finds a significant role of offline interpersonal informational influence as a moderator. Theoretical implications are provided, and findings have strategic managerial implications with the acknowledgement of limitations and directions for future scholars.

Conceptualizing Healthy Food: How Consumer’s Values Influence the Perceived Healthiness of a Food Product

The healthy lifestyle trend represents an opportunity to food manufacturers to redesign their marketing strategy for healthy food products. The prevalent strategy of posting nutritional information may not be effective because consumers use general heuristic cues to infer how healthy is a product. The purpose of this study is to extend the comprehension of the healthy food concept from a consumer perspective by assuming values are the basis to conceptualize healthy food. A qualitative approach was applied to collect in-depth information from a group of consumers with different demographic profiles and health motivations. The qualitative information is analyzed using as reference the food consumption value framework. The results of the thematic analysis indicate consumer’s conceptualization of healthy food is elusive, imprecise and intuitive. Product and process values are utilitarian values consumers use to assess how healthy is food. However, the physical setting and more intangible values such as the feeling of taking care of oneself also influence healthy food preferences. Based on these findings, a definition of “healthy food” based on four food values is proposed. This consumer-based definition of “healthy food”, in addition to the conventional product-based definition, may be used by governmental health institutions and food manufacturers to persuade individuals to make healthier food choices by using more emotionally evocative and cognitively effortless food-related communication regarding the healthfulness of food products.

Role of Skepticism and Message Elaboration in Determining Consumers’ Response to Cause-Related Marketing Claims on Facebook Brand Pages

This study explores whether the negative effects of consumer skepticism toward cause-related marketing communications can be lessened through emotional messaging and heuristic cues such as the number of likes and followers on a Facebook brand page. Results of an eye-tracking experiment (N = 197) indicated that although skepticism prohibited consumers’ message elaboration, (i.e., the extent to which a person carefully considers a message), highly skeptical consumers still considered the message credible through close attention to the heuristic cues. This study is among the first to validate consumers’ defense mechanisms by demonstrating how consumer skepticism prohibits their attention and cognitive elaboration.

Adolescents’ Responses to Cereal Ads: An Assessment of Weight and Gender

ABSTRACTChildhood obesity is a health epidemic. While we know that food advertising is impacting dietary perceptions of youth, we do not know all of the contributing factors. Health claims are used as heuristic cues, often misleading consumers to perceive foods as healthier than they otherwise would believe. This study investigates how the body weight of characters in advertising leads adolescents to perceive a cereal’s healthfulness and appeal. Findings suggest that higher BMI adolescents in particular believe a food to be healthier when promoted by a thin character. Conversely, females preferred heavier models, suggesting positive changes in regard to body image and stigmatization of those who are overweight. Potential explanations of these findings and avenues for further investigation are discussed.

Assessing the Factors that Drive Consumers’ Intention to Continue Using Online Travel Agencies : A Heuristic-systematic Model Perspective

As the growth of online travel agencies (hereafter OTAs) accelerates, competition among hotels to gain exposure on the first page of OTA websites, and the financial burden, such as commissions hotels have to pay in return, are increasing. Therefore, to facilitate successful management in the tourism industry, it is important to establish what makes people continue the practice of using OTAs to book rooms in hotels and other accommodation outlets. By adopting the heuristic-systematic model (HSM), this study explores the factors that drive consumers’ continued use of OTA and classifies them into heuristic cues (brand awareness, cost saving, and scarcity message) and systematic cues (recommendation quality and the ability to provide reputation). Furthermore, we divided the sample based on the location of hotels within and outside Korea, and investigated the different roles of the cues between two models. The results are expected to provide theoretical and practical implications for both OTAs and hotels.

The effectiveness of credibility indicator interventions in a partisan context

Audiences, who cannot investigate the credibility of most news stories for themselves, rely on noncontent heuristic cues to form credibility judgments. For most media, these heuristics were stable over time. Emerging formats of journalism, however, require audiences to learn to interpret what new heuristics credibility cues mean about the story’s credibility. In an experiment, participants (N = 254) were given instructions about how to interpret the credibility cues in three formats as they read a politicized news story, which were compared with a control condition with no instructions. Results show the timing and source increase the effectiveness of the instructions.