Heuristic Theory Research Articles

Collaboration or competition? Experimental evidence for coalition heuristics

AbstractDoes coalition formation have a causal effect on the perceived ideological distance between the coalition members? Observational research shows that voters typically think of parties that form a coalition government as more ideologically similar than those that do not, holding everything else constant. Their many qualities aside, the existing studies are not able to establish a causal relationship between coalition formation and changing perceptions. It is quite possible that voters are reacting to concurrent changes in parties' stated policy and not the coalition information itself. In this paper, I present two survey experiments that isolate the difference between telling voters that two parties can cooperate and telling them that they cannot. In both experiments, I find evidence supporting the theory of coalition heuristics.

An analytical framework to compare innovation strategies and identify simple rules

Innovation strategy is a context specific set of choices towards a goal that is underpinned by strategic logic. We link three archetypal innovation strategies via an analytical framework covering four dimensions- ‘objectives’, ‘scope’, ‘advantages’, and ‘flaws’. We argue that such a framework is currently non-existent and enables innovation strategy comparisons on a common basis. Patterns in the ‘disruptive’, ‘modular’, and ‘enabling’ innovation archetypes, help draw out simple rules for proactive innovation strategy. Thus, the theoretical contributions of this paper are two-fold- (a) the introduction of a novel analytical framework to characterize innovation strategies, and facilitate their comparison on common basis; and (b) the pattern-driven discovery of simple rules for three innovation types, thereby contributing to the emerging theory of strategic heuristics.

Fairness perceptions of artificial intelligence decision-making

<p id="p00005">Inequality is the biggest challenge for global social and economic development, which has the potential to impede the goal of global sustainable development. One way to reduce such inequality is to use artificial intelligence (AI) for decision-making. However, recent research has found that while AI is more accurate and is not influenced by personal bias, people are generally averse to AI decision-making and perceive it as being less fair. Given the theoretical and practical importance of fairness perceptions of AI decision-making, a growing number of researchers have recently begun investigating how individuals form fairness perceptions in regard to AI decision-making. However, existing research is generally quite scattered and disorganized, which has limited researchers’ and practitioners’ understanding of fairness perceptions of AI decision-making from a conceptual and systematic perspective. Thus, this review first divided the relevant research into two categories based on the type of decision makers. The first category is fairness perception research in which AI is the decision-maker. Drawn upon moral foundations theory, fairness heuristic theory, and fairness theory, these studies explain how AI characteristics (i.e., transparency, controllability, rule, and appropriateness) and individual characteristics (demographics, personalities, and values) affect individuals’ fairness perceptions. Existing research revealed that there were three main underlying cognitive mechanisms underlying the relationship between AI or individual characteristics and their fairness perceptions of AI decision-making: (a) individual characteristics and AI appropriateness affect individuals’ fairness perceptions via their moral intuition; (b) AI transparency affects individuals’ fairness perceptions via their perceived understandability; and (c) AI controllability affects individuals’ fairness perceptions via individuals’ needs fulfillment. The second category is fairness perception research that compares AI and humans as decision-makers. Based on computers are social actors (CASA) hypothesis, the algorithm reductionism perspective, and the machine heuristic model, these studies explained how individuals’ different perceptions of attributes between AI and humans (i.e., mechanistic attributes vs. societal attributes, simplified attributes vs. complex attributes, objective attributes vs. subjective attributes) affect individuals’ fairness perceptions and have revealed some inconsistent research findings. Specifically, some studies found that individuals perceive AI decision makers as being mechanical (i.e., lack of emotion and human touch) and simplified (i.e., decontextualization) than human decision makers, which leads individuals perceive that the decisions made by humans rather than AI are fairer. However, other studies found that compared to human decision makers, individuals regard AI decision makers as being more objective (i.e., consistent, neutral, and free of responsibility) than human decision makers, which leads individuals perceive that the decisions made by AI rather than human are fairer. Also, a small number of studies found that there is no significant difference in individuals’ fairness perceptions between AI decision makers and human decision makers. Such mixed findings reveal that individuals’ fairness perceptions of decision-making may be dependent on the specifical attributes of AI that individuals perceived in different contexts. Based on this systematic review, we proposed five promising directions for future research to help expand fairness perception literature in the context of AI decision-making. That is, (a) exploring the affective mechanisms underlying the relationship between AI or individual characteristics and their fairness perceptions of AI decision-making; (b) exploring the antecedents of interactional fairness perceptions of AI decision-making; (c) exploring fairness perceptions when robotic AI is the decision maker; (d) clarifying the boundary conditions when AI decision-making is considered to be fairer than human decision-making, versus when human decision-making is considered to be fairer than AI decision-making; and (e) exploring fairness perceptions when AI and humans make decisions jointly. We hope this review contribute to the understanding of individuals' fairness perceptions of AI decision-making theoretically and practically.

Behavioural Biases in Investor’s Stock Market Participation in Post Pandemic Phase: A Literature Review Approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the literature on the role of biases in shaping the decision-based anomalies in investor's stock market participation. The paper reviews the literature across a wider spectrum of biases involving heuristic perspective, prospect theory, herding, market, overconfidence, anchoring, and other representative aspects. The study embeds the sources of biases as critical to the understanding of consequences for investment decision making and respective stock market participation. The study evaluates the literature on the investor's self-dispositions, optimism, and other irrational mistakes as possessing consequences for investment decision making. The study presents the literature in post COVID pandemic times to assess the possible implication of financial uncertainty as shaping the investor's stock market participation. The study especially figures out the implications of faltering financial literacy and contingent financial inconsistency as shaping biases and resultant participation. The paper reviewed the existing literature especially in midst of COVID-19 pandemic and publications on the changes in financial behaviour. The PhD work will contribute towards understanding of changes in the biases in financial decision making and investor’s stock market participation in post COVID times.

Job Acceptance in Money Mule Recruitment: Theoretical View on the Rewards

The inspiring digital innovation has gained traction from criminals who have perfected their modus operandi in targeting victims with cybercrimes and fraudulent activities with the financial motive being the common denominator. The money trail had been the evidence of the crime, as such the illicit funds enter a money-laundering scheme to disguise the money trail from the unlawful activities and transform the funds into legitimate sources. Criminals recruit money mules and position them in the money laundering cycle to transfer funds that have been credited into their bank accounts. Criminals strategize recruitment by promoting job packages with persuasive job vacancy advertisements and attractive rewards. The hidden criminal agenda has been blurred in the decision making and job acceptance process by the rewards offered. This study will explore the underlying psychological aspect which relates to rewards and job acceptance using the theory of heuristics, social influence, and individual differences. Based on the examination, victims were captivated by attractive rewards and scrutinizing the job package became less attentive in deciding the job acceptance.

Heuristic self-organization of knowledge representation and development: analysis in the context of explainable artificial intelligence

From the analysis of the main theoretical provisions of heuristic self-organization systems and logical models, it follows that according to O. G. Ivakhnenko's systems of heuristic self-organization, the first task is to determine the factors content “that determine the essence of different images”. These are the images that characterize the objects of a particular subject area. After determining the composition and content of these images, the next problem is solved, namely, the problem of “generating the new successful heuristic”, which in content is a solution that leads to increased accuracy. Note that we are talking about improving the accuracy of solving the problem of data processing. It follows from the above mentioned that heuristic self-organization systems are data processing systems. This allows the multiplicity of heuristics. Heuristics in content correspond to the logical rules applied in heuristic self-organization systems. The main provisions of the heuristic self-organization system theory were developed by O. G. Ivakhnenko in the eighties of the last century, but they remain unnoticed to this day. At this time, the task is to explain why the neural network makes such a decision and not another. Based on this, the concept of “explainability of artificial intelligence” was introduced for artificial intelligence. It is the content of heuristics that forms the structure of the neural network in the form of logical rules and determines the logic of the decision made. It is established that the derivation rule, which is the basis for constructing artificial neural networks, is an abductive rule, which, unfortunately, does not meet the fourth heuristic and does not meet the definition of intelligence: intelligence is the ability to measure things. Unfortunately, none of the neural networks can measure things. From the analysis of the basic rules content of inference, it follows that the dialectical method of inference is general (generating) for the basic logical methods of inference. The difference lies in the composition and content of the middle member of the triangular relationship, namely, in the form of the element combination of the relationship: the transition from one concept to another. The explainability of artificial intelligence refers to the laws of the structure and activity of artificial neural networks. But modern theories of artificial neural networks ignore the existence of logical rules (heuristics), which were established by O. G. Ivakhnenko. After all, only knowing the rules based on which problems are solved, it is possible to check the correctness of the decision, but not by searching for such rules. The three hypotheses about the explainability of artificial intelligence and the theory of machine identification can be further defined as statements or theorems and strictly proved.

The influence of perception of luck on consumers&amp;rsquo; behavior and its theoretical explanation

<p id="p00005">The behaviors of pursuing luck have been widely existing in a great many aspects of human social life from the past to the present, among them many manifested as consumer behaviors, and can be explained by the theoretical achievements regarding the effects of perception of luck on consumer behaviors. However, few extant studies systematically reviewed the relevant literature, to some extent which has restricted research efforts and marketing practices in this area. In this paper, we summarized five categories of consumer behaviors: risk-taking, uniqueness seeking, contagion effects, attitude towards product with luck meaning, lucky consumption. Furthermore, we pointed out theoretical explanations which from various perspectives uncover the linkage and reasoning behind the perception of luck and consumer behavior: attribution theory, personality trait theory, cognitive priming theory, the theory of counterfactual thinking, social comparison theory, the theory of locus of control and heuristics theory. To start with, by the lens of attribution theory, luck is viewed as an external and unstable factor that determines personal success. Comparing to attribution theory, the theory of personality trait attaches more attention to the internal and stable aspect of perception of luck and holds that the influence of perception of luck can be unchanged over time and situation, if people believe that they possess lucky disposition or lucky characteristics. Thirdly, the theory of cognitive priming admits the long-term accessibility of perception of luck in individuals, it also underlines the activation of perception of luck by situational factors. Additionally, both counterfactual thinking and social comparison emphasize the role of "comparison", but the difference lies in the objects of comparison: counterfactual thinking proposes that the perception of luck comes from the comparison of results of before and after an event. Contrarily, social comparison theory posits that the perception of luck arises from the downward comparison of self and others in a society. This comparison can produce a self-enhancing effect, and affect consumers’ behavior in subsequent purchase. Finally, the common point of locus of control theory and heuristics is that both of them place weighs on the influence of lucky perception on consumer decision, especially when the external environment is highly uncertain. Nevertheless, the difference is yet very distinct. Specifically, the former focuses on the role of perception of luck played to compensate the sense of control. It holds that, in order to gain illusion of control to a highly involved thing, people are more likely to purchase lucky products. The later, however, believes that luck is applied as a shortcut for decision-making of a purchase, the more complex the situation, the more likely consumers are to simplify their decisions through heuristics. In the final part of the paper, we give three suggestions to the further research: to deepen the mechanism of perception of lucky, to expand the boundary conditions, and to examine both the advantages and disadvantages of luck consumption. Specifically, other theories might be inspiring to understand the relationships between the perception of luck and some certain consumer behaviors, such as coping theory and cognitive processing theory. Furthermore, the possible moderator variables might be worth to notice——social norm, impression management, usage scenario of product, and product types. At last, including advantages of luck consumption, another two types of consequence research also are promising: the disadvantages of luck consumption and the tradeoff between positive and negative results set off by perception of luck.

Too generous to be fair? Experiments on the interplay of what, when, and how in data breach recovery of the hotel industry

Although data breaches have become increasingly common, few studies have examined data breach recovery. Thus, this study aims to examine when (i.e., reactive versus passive) and how (i.e., public versus private) to conduct data breach recovery in the hotel industry, using different types of compensations. Based upon the fairness heuristic theory and the prospect theory, two experiments were conducted with university students as the samples. The results show that consumers' perceived justice with economic and social compensation is not significantly higher than that with either economic compensation or social compensation, under the public mode or the private mode. Furthermore, under the reactive mode participants’ perceived justice with economic and social compensation is lower than that with just economic compensation. Our study expands the literature on service recovery to data breach recovery in the hotel industry. It also provides important practical guidelines for travel industry managers.

Mobile app users' privacy concerns: different heuristics for privacy assurance statements in the EU and China

PurposeAs mobile apps request permissions from users, protecting mobile users' personal information from being unnecessarily collected and misused becomes critical. Privacy regulations, such as General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union (EU), aim to protect users' online information privacy. However, one’s understanding of whether these regulations effectively make mobile users less concerned about their privacy is still limited. This work aims to study mobile users' privacy concerns towards mobile apps by examining the effects of general and specific privacy assurance statements in China and the EU.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on ecological rationality and heuristics theory, an online experiment and a follow-up validation experiment were conducted in the EU and China to examine the effects of privacy assurance statements on mobile users' privacy concerns.FindingsWhen privacy regulation is presented, the privacy concerns of Chinese mobile users are significantly lowered compared with EU mobile users. This indicates that individuals in the two regions react differently to privacy assurances. However, when a general regulation statement is used, no effect is observed. EU and Chinese respondents remain unaffected by general assurance statements.Originality/valueThis study incorporates notions from fast and frugal heuristics end ecological rationality – where seemingly irrational decisions may make sense in different societal contexts.

Linking employee perceptions and employee attitudes through their levels of organizational identification: a field investigation in India

PurposeDespite organizational socialization and support, contemporary managers often perceive employees to be less engaged and attached to their workplace, multiplying their workload with unsolicited vexations and worries. In this connection, the purpose of this paper is to explore and possibly confirm the ameliorative role of organizational identification as a mediator between employees' perceptions of organizational support and justice and their favorable association to their levels of engagement and attenuation of their intentions to quit.Design/methodology/approachSuitable theories such as the social exchange and fairness heuristics theories were examined to select and support the study constructs. Accordingly, the literature was reviewed to formulate the study hypotheses and connect them through a conceptual latent variable model (LVM). Data were collected from 402 full-time managerial executives all over India. The data thus collected were subjected to structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures.FindingsAll the measures used in this study had acceptable reliabilities as indicated by their Cronbach's Alpha values. Based on the SEM procedures all the study hypotheses and one of the competing LVMs labeled as LVM5 was finally accepted.Originality/valueThe distinctive feature of this study is the theoretical compilation of all the study constructs in one LVM and subsequent empirical verification of the same. This study is, perhaps, the first of its kind to examine the implications of such justice-based perceptions of social exchange relations between employees and their organizations in India more so, since it considers support and justice to complement each other as an interactive whole.

Rewiring Linked Fate: Bringing Back History, Agency, and Power

Linked fate, the concept introduced by Dawson almost three decades ago, reoriented the study of racism and political behavior in the United States. The scholarship traditionally had focused on the racial psychology of whites and how racism seeps into their political views and actions. Dawson proposed the Black utility heuristic theory and linked fate, its associated measure, to investigate the political behavior of Blacks, the minority group most harmed by racism. Since then, linked fate has become a ubiquitous variable of interest in research on minority group politics. Yet the research program around linked fate is due for some extension. Most studies gloss over the fact that the Black utility heuristic theory is historically and socially conditional. We call for bringing elite-level agency and group-level social practices back into the literature to clarify the macro- and meso-level conditions under which a group’s racial status translates into linked fate at the individual level. Greater inquiry into these dynamics is not only warranted but also has broad implications for the research on racial and ethnic politics.

Stripped of Agency: The Paradoxical Effect of Employee Monitoring on Deviance

Organizations have long sought to mitigate risks associated with unsupervised employee conduct (e.g., employee deviance) through employee monitoring, an approach consistent with traditional theorizing. Yet the effectiveness of employee monitoring as a deviance deterrent has been called into question by emerging evidence suggesting that monitored employees may actually engage in higher levels of deviance. To address this critical tension and shed light on why and when monitoring leads to deviance, we draw upon social cognitive theory to examine the self-regulatory consequences of employee monitoring. We theorize that monitoring paradoxically creates conditions for more (not less) deviance by diminishing employees’ sense of agency, thereby facilitating moral disengagement via displacement of responsibility. Integrating fairness heuristic theory, we further argue that overall justice provides a powerful heuristic that mitigates the potential loss of sense of agency associated with monitoring. Accordingly, we suggest that employee perceptions of high justice will attenuate displacement of responsibility and, in turn, deviance. Across a field study and an experimental study, we find converging support for our predictions and rule out alternative explanations. This research provides important theoretical and practical insights into how monitoring can be used effectively without also promoting unintended consequences.

Customer integration, fairness perceptions, and silent endurance in digital versus human service interactions

Growing digitization is accompanied by a concomitant increase in customer integration, making the customer an even more integral part of service settings, to the extent that customers even may replace employee labor. Customer integration can have positive effects for service firms and customers, but it also threatens some negative effects that have not been studied closely. This study proposes silent endurance as a neglected outcome of customer integration, caused by violations of customer fairness perceptions. In line with fairness heuristic theory, providing more input for the same output may reduce perceptions of distributive fairness. Four studies test this theorizing (one critical incident study and three experiments) to investigate the effect of being integrated on customers’ distributive fairness and silent endurance. Stable results across studies show that distributive fairness mediates the link between customer integration and silent endurance; offering monetary advantages can offset integration-induced losses of fairness perceptions. These findings thus have both theoretical and managerial implications.

Ensuring Effective Public Health Communication: Insights and Modeling Efforts From Theories of Behavioral Economics, Heuristics, and Behavioral Analysis for Decision Making Under Risk.

Public health (PH) messaging can have an enormous impact on shaping how individuals within society behave, and can ensure it is in a safe and responsible way, consistent with up-to-date evidence-based PH guidelines. If done effectively, messaging can save lives and improve the health of those within society. However, unfortunately, those within Government PH bodies typically have little training about how to effectively represent PH messages in a way that is consistent with psychological theories of cognitive bias, in order to avoid cognitively biasing the public through their messages. As a result of this, inadequate representation of PH messages can result, which can often lead to cognitive bias in those from the public who read or listen to the message information. This can lead to poor decision making of the pubic as a whole, which can then further lead to harm and even death of public members as a result of these poor decisions. One way to minimize the problem of bias in decision making is to explore psychology theories that model how bias can occur from PH messaging, and identify ways in which PH agencies can utilize such approaches to improve the effectiveness of their messages. Previous focus has been largely on behavioral economic theories, however, here, other accounts are offered in addition to these. These include theories of heuristics and theories from the behavior analysis domain, which may increase the predictive power of modeling bias, and have applications for how best to represent PH message information which minimize bias.

Investor’s behavior and stock investment decision in batam city

This study aims to analyze the influence of investor’s behavior on investment decisions in stock investing in Batam City. The investor’s behavior consists of heuristic theory, herding behavior, and prospect theory. The heuristic theory used in this study consists of representativeness, overconfidence, availability, and anchoring. Whereas prospect theory consists of loss aversion, regret aversion, and mental accounting. This study used a purposive sampling method, which is the sample is selected by the criteria that are the investor who has a stock investment in Batam. The total sample is 200 respondents. The research method is multiple regression with SPSS software. The results show that there are only three behaviors from the heuristic theory that have a significant effect on investment decisions, namely representativeness, availability, and anchoring. Meanwhile, overconfidence does not have a significant effect. Herding behavior does not have a significant effect. Meanwhile, prospect theory is only mental accounting behavior that has a significant effect and loss aversion and regret aversion have no significant effect.

Strong coupling regime and hybrid quasinormal modes from a single plasmonic resonator coupled to a transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer

We present a rigorous photonic mode model to describe the strong coupling between a monolayer of $\rm MoSe_2$ and a single gold nanoparticle. The onset of strong coupling is quantified by computing the three-dimensional hybrid quasinormal modes of the combined structure, allowing one to accurately model light-matter interactions without invoking the usual phenomenological theories of strong coupling. We explore the hybrid quasinormal modes as a function of gap size and temperature and find spectral splittings in the range of around 80-110 meV, with no fitting parameters for the material models. We also show how the hybrid modes exhibit Fano-like resonances and quantify the complex poles of the hybrid modes as well as the Purcell factor resonances from embedded dipole emitters. These effects cannot be described with the usual heuristic normal mode theories.

A Multi‐Level Model of I‐deals in Workgroups: Employee and Coworker Perceptions of Leader Fairness, I‐Deals and Group Performance

AbstractWe test theory regarding the within‐group dynamics linking employees’ leader fairness judgments to the receipt of idiosyncratic deals (‘i‐deals’), and how differences between workgroups in the extent and variability of i‐deals influence workgroup performance. We assert that employees, their co‐workers, and the workgroup leader are three key stakeholders to i‐deals. Drawing on fairness heuristic theory, we hypothesize that employees are more likely to obtain i‐deals when they view their workgroup leaders as procedurally fair. Further, individual perceptions of leader fairness exist within the context of their co‐workers’ perceptions of leader fairness, that is, (in)congruence between the two affects individual i‐deals. At the workgroup level, we hypothesize a positive association between the access and extent of i‐deals and workgroup performance. Employing polynomial regression on data from 258 employees nested in 69 workgroups, we find that congruence between individual and co‐workers’ perceptions of leader fairness is positively related to the individual’s receipt of i‐deals; incongruence has an asymmetric effect, such that individual perceptions matter more. Finally, within‐group access and extent of i‐deals are positively related to group performance.

Application of heuristic UTD formulation for describing scattering by a thin and multilayer anisotropic slab

The previously developed heuristic uniform theory of diffraction (UTD) corner and wedge diffraction coefficients for a thin lossless anisotropic slab are generalized and applied for predicting electromagnetic scattering by a thin and multilayer anisotropic slab with complex permittivity and permeability tensors. The effective reflection and transmission coefficients of a thin and multilayer slab are used in the heuristic formulation to determine the scattered fields. Numerical results are provided for various scattering problems that demonstrate the application of the heuristic formulations for a thin and multilayer structure.

The development of a preschool event management system using usability heuristic theory

Preschool Event Management System for Genius Aulad (PEMS) is a computerized prototype system, developed to facilitate preschool event management process handling. Genius Aulad Kuala Terengganu has been selected as a case study. Adapting a more systematic data management approach is critical to elevate problems inherent from the current manual way used in managing the event management related processes. The issues that lead to the proposal of the new system are difficult to inform the upcoming events to the parents, missing confirmation messages due to unstructured conversation, paper-based registration form used cause inefficient data storage and retrieval, the payment for event program always overdue and limited type of report can be generated. The System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) using Adapted Waterfall Model serves as a development methodology. Furthermore, the Usability Heuristic for User Interface Design is adapted in developing the system interface. The PEMS is tested and evaluated in terms of functionality and usability by the developer, and five target users. The test case and scenario are used to evaluate the functionality of the system. Meanwhile, the usability metric is applied to evaluate the usability of the system. The SUS score for PEMS is 82.5, which means the users are satisfied with the overall usability of the system. All the recommendations received during the testing session can be used as a reference for future work. With the existence of PEMS it is hoped that it will bring benefits to the organization when using this system.

How does Leader Anger Expression towards Unethical Behavior Impact Team OCB?

Based on fairness heuristic theory, this study examines how and when leader anger expression towards unethical behavior influences team OCB. Team-level data are collected at three time points from 453 employees in 93 work teams. Results show that distributive justice climate mediates the positive relationship between leader anger expression towards unethical behavior and team OCB. Moreover, leader moral decoupling weakens the positive impact of leader anger expression towards unethical behavior on team OCB via distributive justice climate. The findings suggest the importance of adopting a fairness perspective to understand the collective level consequences of leader anger expression.