Low Time Pressure Research Articles

The effect of the normative context on intergroup discrimination: implications for the scientific value of exact and conceptual replications

We tested the hypothesis that discriminatory behaviors against religious or ethnic minorities are largely governed by culturally specific intergroup norms that are tied to a given social context. In Study 1 (N = 733), we compared participants from five countries and identified “new secularism” as the culture-specific norm predominant in the target country, France. In Study 2 (N = 296) and Study 3 (N = 135) conducted in France between November 2014 and January 2016, we assessed the effects of several distinct normative contexts on discriminatory behavior under high or low time pressure, and examined for the first time, the effect of a deadly terrorist attack on anti-Muslim discrimination. As predicted based on Study 1, the experimentally induced new secularism (“nouvelle laïcité” in French) normative context had a major effect on discrimination on its own, and in interaction with the terrorist attack, whereas no effect was found for the three normative contexts (assimilation, multiculturalism, and colorblindness) that have been the focus of research in social psychology over the last 40 years. These results support the claim that intergroup behaviors are highly sensitive to variations in the social context and that culture-specific intergroup norm play a causal role in the emergence of discrimination. The implications of the findings for the scientific value of exact versus conceptual replications in social psychology are discussed.

Which is more prominent for fighter pilots under different flight task difficulties: Visual alert or verbal alert?

To explore the behavioural and cognition patterns of fighter pilots under visual and verbal alert conditions, 20 right-handed subjects participated in the experiment after 200 h of flight task training, and ERP technology was used to conduct EEG experiments under four conditions: high time pressure visual alert, low time pressure visual alert, fast speech speed verbal alert, and slow speech speed verbal alert. The results indicated the following: 1) the highest accuracy rate and shortest reaction time could be achieved under the slow speech speed verbal alert condition, indicating that the slow speech speed alert performance was optimal. 2) Subjects in the verbal alert trial showed a “right hemisphere advantage”, and the brain function area was located in the right temporal lobes. The speech speed correlated negatively with the latency and amplitude of P80.3) Subjects in the visual alert trial showed a “left hemisphere advantage”, and the brain activity was located in the left parietal lobes. 4) The latency of P80 evoked by verbal alert was earlier than that of N140 evoked by visual alert, indicating that a verbal alert causes an earlier attention effect in pilots. Based on the eye movement experiment, the performance of visual and verbal dual-channel alert was significantly higher than that of visual alert.

Screening Older Adults for Depression: Barriers Across Clinical Discipline Training.

Background and ObjectivesDepressed older adults are more likely to be seen in primary care than in specialty mental health settings, but research shows that physicians may not routinely screen for depression. Other clinical disciplines are also in a position to screen for depression, but have not been studied. This study examined barriers to screening older adults for depression, and disciplinary differences in clinical trainees’ likelihood of screening.Research Design and MethodsWe used a cross-sectional, online survey with experimental manipulation of vignettes. A four-way mixed analysis of variance explored the effects of clinical discipline (between subjects) and time pressure, patient difficulty, and level of symptoms (within subjects) on trainees’ likelihood of screening.ResultsParticipants were 229 trainees in medicine (83), psychology (51), nursing (49), and social work (46). Lower time pressure and greater symptom severity increased likelihood of screening. There was a significant three-way interaction among discipline, patient difficulty, and symptom level that was driven by social work graduate trainees’ greater likelihood of screening for depression when there were more symptoms present, which was diminished if the patient was being difficult. There was a two-way interaction between patient difficulty and level of symptoms: more symptoms resulted in increased likelihood of screening, an effect that diminished with greater patient difficulty.Discussion and ImplicationsThe study holds implications for identifying and addressing gaps in education on depression screening to minimize the effects of barriers. Interventions could address education about older adults and depression, including practice-based screening, time management, and behavior management skills.

Time pressure and proactive work behaviour: A week‐level study on intraindividual fluctuations and reciprocal relationships

Recent research on proactive work behaviours (PWBs) pointed out that these behaviours can have negative consequences for the proactive individual. We add to this perspective by showing that PWBs may be a source of strain at work and result in elevated time pressure. Challenging the view of time pressure as a challenge stressor, we hypothesize that over the course of work weeks, time pressure will result in less (rather than more) PWB. We investigate these reciprocal effects as within‐person, week‐level fluctuations of time pressure and PWB based on experience sampling data (N = 52 participants,k = 274 observations). Over the course of three consecutive work weeks, results show a positive lagged effect of PWB in the first week on experiencing time pressure in the second week; in turn, time pressure in the second week had a negative lagged effect on PWB in the third week. Results further suggest that PWB is lowest in work weeks of low time pressure when following a week of high time pressure, indicating a conservation of resources interpretation of the results.Practitioner pointsAbove and beyond the many positive effects of employees’ proactive work behaviour (PWB), organizations need to be aware that these behaviours can have costs for employees, for example, in increasing their experience of time pressure.Over consecutive work weeks, time pressure seems to impede rather than facilitate employees’ PWBs.When work weeks characterized by high time pressure were followed by work weeks of low time pressure, employees used the latter to ‘recharge their batteries’ instead of engaging in more PWB.

Time pressure and risk taking in auctions: A field experiment

Auctions often require risk taking under time pressure. However, little is known about how time pressure moderates the relationship between uncertainty of outcomes and bidding behavior. This study consists of a field experiment in which participants are invited to a Vickrey auction to elicit their willingness to pay for a lottery ticket. The time available to place a bid and also the payoff variance of the lottery are systematically manipulated. We find that under high time pressure participants are less likely to place a bid at all. Furthermore, participants who do place a bid under high time pressure bid significantly less than participants under low time pressure. The main finding is that increased time pressure significantly decreases risk taking. The effect seems to be particularly strong for the lottery with a high probability of winning and for female subjects.

Effect of playing golf on children's mental health

Adolescents in particular are exposed to high stress levels due to biological changes, identity development and higher academics demands at school (Schraml, Perski, Grossi, & Simonsson-Sarnecki, 2011). The construct of resilience can be understood as a factor for healthy development: those who manifest high resilience experience more positive emotions (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004; Wolin & Wolin, 1993) and can improve both their self-esteem and psychological adaption reaction (Block & Kremen, 1996). According to previous investigations, golf has a favourable impact on the development of resilience due to its lack of direct opponents and comparatively low time pressure (Drane & Block, 2006), and was therefore used as an intervention in the present study. During a period of three months, the control group (CG; n = 25) played soccer and the intervention group (IG; n = 25) were trained in golf. Data measuring resilience (a shortened version of the resilience scale; Schumacher, Leppert, Gunzelmann, Strauß, & Brähler, 2004) was collected twice, once at the beginning and again towards the end of the intervention. An intergroup comparison revealed significant differences in the development of resilience between CG and IG (p < 0.001; Cohen's d = 2.041), with the IG showing greater improvement. It can be expected that golf training demonstrates a positive influence on children's resilience development. Follow-up studies should examine the long-term effects of these results to provide a justification for including golf in school sports.

The pressure cooker: When crisis stimulates explorative business model change intentions

How do firms respond to critical threats, such as regulatory turmoils or disruptive innovations? After more than three decades of contradicting theoretical arguments and inconsistent empirical results, this question remains unresolved. One view argues for and finds evidence for amplified propensity to engage in change when organization members perceive critical threat. The other view supports the threat-rigidity phenomenon, reinforcing resistance to change through a focus on habitual practices and routines. To resolve this puzzle, we draw on the multi-dimensional framework of ‘crisis’ strategic issues processing, supplemented with the behavioral decision making perspective. In particular, we investigate the conditions of emergence of radical (explorative) business model change intentions within organizations in response to major threats. The resulting model suggests that cognitive moderators – perceived predictability and time pressure – lead to highly divergent results of critical threat perception, such that low predictability and high time pressure attenuate the threat-induced explorative business model change intentions. The model is tested in two empirical contexts, real estate brokerage and higher education, finding strong empirical support.

The Drift Diffusion Model Can Account for the Accuracy and Reaction Time of Value-Based Choices Under High and Low Time Pressure

An important open problem is how values are compared to make simple choices. A natural hypothesis is that the brain carries out the computations associated with the value comparisons in a manner consistent with the Drift Diffusion Model (DDM), since this model has been able to account for a large amount of data in other domains. We investigated the ability of four different versions of the DDM to explain the data in a real binary food choice task under conditions of high and low time pressure. We found that a seven-parameter version of the DDM can account for the choice and reaction time data with high-accuracy, in both the high and low time pressure conditions. The changes associated with the introduction of time pressure could be traced to changes in two key model parameters: the barrier height and the noise in the slope of the drift process.

The Moderator Role of Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty on Consumers’ Online Impulse Buying Behavior

In recent years, with consumers’ widespread preference for shopping in Private Shopping Clubs (PSCs) on the internet, there has been a remarkable increase in impulse purchases with the attractive opportunities and smart strategies of PSCs stimulating consumers’ impulse buying behavior. Within the PSC framework, the purpose of this article is to investigate the moderator effect of brand awareness and brand loyalty on the relationship between online impulse buying behavior and perceived low price, browsing behavior and time pressure. The study created and tested five hypotheses using data collected in Turkey. Results indicate that browsing behavior, time pressure and perceived low price do influence online impulse buying behavior. A hierarchical regression analysis was also used to analyze the moderating role of brand awareness and brand loyalty on impulse buying behavior and both variables were found to have a moderating role. The results provide substantial information on strategy development for internet retailers.

Psychological safety climate and professional drivers’ well-being: The mediating role of time pressure

Professional drivers are at risk of poor well-being, thus, research on how to prevent this status has valuable practical implications. Psychological safety climate, individual perceptions of the safety climate, and time pressure are relevant antecedents of drivers’ well-being. Psychological safety climate acts as a frame of reference for professional drivers because they are remote/lone workers. Time pressure also becomes crucial among drivers who reported higher quantitative job demands and work intensification than employees in other industrial sectors. In addition, several theoretical frameworks suggest that psychological safety climate would minimize time pressure demands, which, in turn, would mediate the relationship between psychological safety climate and drivers’ well-being. Psychological safety climate would diminish time pressure demands because they could be detrimental to safety, in turn, low time pressure demands would be accompanied by an improvement in drivers’ well-being. To date, research on these issues is scarce.This study examines the mediating role of time pressure on the psychological safety climate and drivers’ well-being (general health and lack of burnout) relationship. The sample was composed of 367 professional drivers, and structural equation modeling was used to test two competing models: full and partial mediation. Findings showed that psychological safety climate was negatively associated with time pressure and positively with drivers’ general health and burnout. Time pressure was detrimental to drivers’ well-being, and it partially mediated the relationship between psychological safety climate and drivers’ well-being.

Joint cognition and the role of human agency in random number choices.

Joint cognition refers to the mental systems that support group performance when carrying out a shared, or jointly owned task. We focused here on understanding the social configurations that underpin key phenomena in joint cognition, in particular, whether individual cognition in task-sharing environments is mostly shaped by social factors or not. To this end, we investigated, first and mainly, whether human presence is necessary for the creation of joint performance; second and separately, whether prior experience of task sharing has an adaptive influence on subsequent individual choices; and third and additionally, whether individual differences in a social trait mediate joint performance. We describe an experiment in which participants combined with another human or a computer as they attempted to generate a paired sequence that was as random as possible. First, we found little difference in joint performance with regard to whether a human or a computer was the co-participant, except for immediate repetitive response. Second, we found evidence for choice adaptation, but only under the lower time pressure. Third, we replicated previous research in which no systematic link was established between social desirability and joint performance. We conclude that joint cognition phenomena may be rooted primarily in turn-taking configurations rather than in social dynamics per se.

Creative responses to imminent threats: The role of threat direction and perceived effectiveness

Previous work on the threat-creativity link has mainly used paradigms in which participants had ample time to generate ideas. However, people under imminent threats have limited time to think of, and select, the single best response for actual implementation. In three studies, we examined the effect of imminent threats on the generation and selection of threat responses. Participants facing self-directed or other-directed threats were asked to select one out of two alternative responses that differed on either originality or usefulness to deal with the displayed situation (Studies 1 and 2) or think of and decide on, a fitting response themselves (Study 3). They did so under high or low time pressure (Studies 1–3) and reported their perceived effectiveness of each alternative response in managing the threats (Study 2). Participants selected and generated useful rather than original responses. Whereas time pressure did not moderate this effect, threat direction impacted the selection and generation of imminent threat responses: Self-directed rather than other-directed threats increased the selection and generation of original and creative responses because original responses were seen as more effective.

Why seeking feedback from diverse sources may not be sufficient for stimulating creativity: The role of performance dynamism and creative time pressure

SummaryWe explore how the impact of seeking feedback from different sources (i.e., feedback source variety) on employee creativity is shaped by perceptions of the work environment. Specifically, we argue that two contextual factors, namely, performance dynamism (Study 1) and creative time pressure (Study 2), moderate the relationship between feedback source variety and creativity such that under conditions of high performance dynamism and low creative time pressure, individuals benefit from diverse feedback information. In Study 1 (N = 1,031), the results showed that under conditions of high performance dynamism, the relationship between feedback source variety and self‐reported creativity was nonlinear, with employee creativity exponentially increasing as a function of feedback source variety. Similarly, in Study 2 (N = 181), we found that under conditions of low creative time pressure, the relationship between feedback source variety and employee creativity was nonlinear, with supervisor‐rated creative performance exponentially increasing at higher levels of feedback source variety. Such results highlight that the relationship between feedback source variety and creative performance is affected by the perceptions of the work environment in which feedback is sought.

Probabilistic inference under time pressure leads to a cortical-to-subcortical shift in decision evidence integration

Real-life decision-making often involves combining multiple probabilistic sources of information under finite time and cognitive resources. To mitigate these pressures, people “satisfice”, foregoing a full evaluation of all available evidence to focus on a subset of cues that allow for fast and “good-enough” decisions. Although this form of decision-making likely mediates many of our everyday choices, very little is known about the way in which the neural encoding of cue information changes when we satisfice under time pressure. Here, we combined human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a probabilistic classification task to characterize neural substrates of multi-cue decision-making under low (1500 ms) and high (500 ms) time pressure. Using variational Bayesian inference, we analyzed participants’ choices to track and quantify cue usage under each experimental condition, which was then applied to model the fMRI data. Under low time pressure, participants performed near-optimally, appropriately integrating all available cues to guide choices. Both cortical (prefrontal and parietal cortex) and subcortical (hippocampal and striatal) regions encoded individual cue weights, and activity linearly tracked trial-by-trial variations in the amount of evidence and decision uncertainty. Under increased time pressure, participants adaptively shifted to using a satisficing strategy by discounting the least informative cue in their decision process. This strategic change in decision-making was associated with an increased involvement of the dopaminergic midbrain, striatum, thalamus, and cerebellum in representing and integrating cue values. We conclude that satisficing the probabilistic inference process under time pressure leads to a cortical-to-subcortical shift in the neural drivers of decisions.

Effects of time pressure, type of shopping, and store attributes on consumers’ satisfaction with grocery shopping

The aim of this study is to investigate whether satisfaction with grocery stores is affected by type of grocery shopping in conjunction with time pressure, and which attributes are important for satisfaction. Fictitious grocery stores are constructed according to a fractional factorial design by varying access, price level, supply quality/range, and service quality. In an Internet survey, 1023 Swedish consumers rated satisfaction with major vs. fill-in shopping imagining they were under high or low time pressure. The results showed that satisfaction is higher for fill-in shopping than major shopping, that time pressure has no effect on satisfaction, and that price level, service quality, and product quality/range are more important for satisfaction with major shopping, whereas access is more important for satisfaction with fill-in shopping. It is also found that the importance of attributes for satisfaction depends on type of shopping more than on individual characteristics.

Satisficing in split-second decision making is characterized by strategic cue discounting.

Much of our real-life decision making is bounded by uncertain information, limitations in cognitive resources, and a lack of time to allocate to the decision process. It is thought that humans overcome these limitations through satisficing, fast but "good-enough" heuristic decision making that prioritizes some sources of information (cues) while ignoring others. However, the decision-making strategies we adopt under uncertainty and time pressure, for example during emergencies that demand split-second choices, are presently unknown. To characterize these decision strategies quantitatively, the present study examined how people solve a novel multicue probabilistic classification task under varying time pressure, by tracking shifts in decision strategies using variational Bayesian inference. We found that under low time pressure, participants correctly weighted and integrated all available cues to arrive at near-optimal decisions. With increasingly demanding, subsecond time pressures, however, participants systematically discounted a subset of the cue information by dropping the least informative cue(s) from their decision making process. Thus, the human cognitive apparatus copes with uncertainty and severe time pressure by adopting a "drop-the-worst" cue decision making strategy that minimizes cognitive time and effort investment while preserving the consideration of the most diagnostic cue information, thus maintaining "good-enough" accuracy. This advance in our understanding of satisficing strategies could form the basis of predicting human choices in high time pressure scenarios. (PsycINFO Database Record

International Real Estate Review

This study examines the effects of time pressure on residential real estate broker behavior. Consistent with our intuition, we find that when under a binding time constraint, brokers do transact the property more quickly, but do not work as hard and ultimately recommend less optimal homes. Interestingly, brokers earn the same commission when operating in either a low or high time pressure environment. When the characteristics of the broker are considered, we find that experienced brokers are significantly more effective at matching buyers and sellers under time constrained conditions.

The Effects of Product Popularity and Time Pressure on Consumer Responses in Social Commerce

Shopping in social commerce websites is different from other shopping in terms of time pressure and product popularity presented on the webistes. This study investigates the effects of time pressure and product popularity on consumer responses in a context of social commerce. Time pressure is operationalized as the time remaining for consumers to sign up for a deal, and product popularity is operationalized as the number of products already sold at the moment when consumers visit the web page. The design of the study was a 2 (time pressure: high vs. low) x 2 (product popularity: high vs. low) between-subjects design, and a total of 363 people participated in an online experiment. The results suggest that product popularity significantly influences perceived risk and purchase intention. Moreover, consumers with high time pressure perceive higher risk and have lower purchase intention than consumers with low time pressure when they perceive the product as being popular. As an individual difference, this study also examines a moderating role of conformity intention and finds that consumers with high conformity intention perceive significantly less risk in a high product popularity condition than consumers with low conformity intention. The results provide practical implications for an effective strategy for retailers.

How do servant leaders ignite absorptive capacity? The role of epistemic motivation and organizational support

This study examines the role of servant leadership in absorptive capacity. Data from manufacturing and service sector organizations found that: a) there was moderation of servant leadership influence on knowledge identification through POS by high need for cognition, b) there was moderation of servant leadership influence on knowledge application through POS by low time pressure, and c) POS mediated relationship between servant leadership and knowledge dissemination. The findings illustrate and support the importance of a comprehensive model integrating servant leadership, POS, and epistemic motivation in determining absorptive capacity.

Human factors assessment of conflict resolution aid reliability and time pressure in future air traffic control

Though it has been reported that air traffic controllers' (ATCos') performance improves with the aid of a conflict resolution aid (CRA), the effects of imperfect automation on CRA are so far unknown. The main objective of this study was to examine the effects of imperfect automation on conflict resolution. Twelve students with ATC knowledge were instructed to complete ATC tasks in four CRA conditions including reliable, unreliable and high time pressure, unreliable and low time pressure, and manual conditions. Participants were able to resolve the designated conflicts more accurately and faster in the reliable versus unreliable CRA conditions. When comparing the unreliable CRA and manual conditions, unreliable CRA led to better conflict resolution performance and higher situation awareness. Surprisingly, high time pressure triggered better conflict resolution performance as compared to the low time pressure condition. The findings from the present study highlight the importance of CRA in future ATC operations.Practitioner Summary: Conflict resolution aid (CRA) is a proposed automation decision aid in air traffic control (ATC). It was found in the present study that CRA was able to promote air traffic controllers' performance even when it was not perfectly reliable. These findings highlight the importance of CRA in future ATC operations.