Empathy is a key predictor of bystanders’ helping behaviors, yet its role in cyberbullying contexts has yielded inconsistent findings. This study investigated whether accuracy motivation, the drive to form correct and well-reasoned judgments, moderates the relationship between dispositional empathy and helping tendencies among cyberbullying bystanders. In Study 1, 164 Taiwanese undergraduates (61 males, 100 females, 3 unknown; Mage = 22.96, SD = 14.25) read a cyberbullying scenario and completed measures of empathy, helping tendencies, and need for cognition (NFC), a personality trait reflecting enjoyment of cognitively effortful tasks, widely used as a proxy for accuracy motivation. Results showed that the positive association between empathy and helping tendencies was weaker among participants with higher NFC scores (i.e., higher accuracy motivation). In Study 2, 180 undergraduates (67 males, 113 females; Mage = 20.96, SD = 5.44) were randomly assigned to either control or high accuracy motivation group. Findings revealed that, for participants in the control group, empathy predicted helping through increased feelings of responsibility. This mediational pathway was not observed in the high accuracy motivation condition. These findings suggest that accuracy motivation may attenuate the influence of empathy on helping behavior in cyberbullying contexts. Theoretically, this provides a possible explanation for the mixed results observed in prior research. Practically, it highlights the importance of encouraging individuals to prioritize providing timely support in cyberbullying incidents, rather than becoming overly focused on verifying the authenticity of online messages.

Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly used for decision-making across domains, raising debates over the information and explanations they should provide. Most research on Explainable AI (XAI) has focused on feature-based explanations, with less attention on alternative styles. Personality traits like the Need for Cognition (NFC) can also lead to different decision-making outcomes among low and high NFC individuals. We investigated how presenting AI information (prediction, confidence, and accuracy) and different explanation styles (example-based, feature-based, rule-based, and counterfactual) affect accuracy, reliance on AI, and cognitive load in a loan application scenario. We also examined low and high NFC individuals’ differences in prioritizing XAI interface elements (loan attributes, AI information, and explanations), accuracy, and cognitive load. Our findings show that high AI confidence significantly increases reliance on AI while reducing cognitive load. Feature-based explanations did not enhance accuracy compared to other conditions. Although counterfactual explanations were less understandable, they enhanced overall accuracy, increasing reliance on AI and reducing cognitive load when AI predictions were correct. Both low and high NFC individuals prioritized explanations after loan attributes, leaving AI information as the least important. However, we found no significant differences between low and high NFC groups in accuracy or cognitive load, raising questions about the role of this specific personality trait in AI-assisted decision-making. These findings underscore the importance of user-centric personalization in XAI interfaces, where explanation styles are tailored to users’ personality traits, cognitive characteristics, and task context, with support adapted to each individual to optimize human–AI collaboration.

Introduction Political trust is essential for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially in the context of new media’s impact during health crises. However, how political trust is influenced by media diversity still need further exploration, especially in the post-pandemic era. This study develops an integrated framework linking Diversity of Information (DI), Need for Cognition (NFC), Information Freedom Perception (IFP), Media Trust (MT), and Political Trust (PT) to examine these mechanisms in a post-pandemic context. Methods An online survey using validated measurement scales was conducted in China between October and December 2023. This study analyzed the 370 valid data through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypothesized paths among DI, NFC, IFP, MT, and PT. Cluster analysis and multi-group comparisons were then employed to identify heterogeneous user groups and to examine how the influence mechanisms vary across them. Results DI has a significant positive effect on PT and positively affects IFP and NFC. NFC, in turn, significantly impacts IFP, MT, and PT. Additionally, IFP significantly influences MT, and MT significantly influences PT. Cluster analysis identified three demographic groups: “Informed and Trusting,”“Isolated but Trusting,” and “Partially Informed and Skeptical.” Results indicate that the “Partially Informed and Skeptical” group perceives greater DI and less IFP compared to the “Isolated but Trusting” group. Discussion These findings underscore the critical role of media diversity in shaping residents’ trust in political and media institutions, particularly during crises. This study provides a long-term perspective on political trust in the post-pandemic era, which contributes to the SDGs by highlighting strategies to foster political trust through diverse and credible media environments, essential for sustainable governance.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of frontline managers’ (FLM) religious values and interpersonal values alignment on the ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) and its effect on customers’ dispositional trust within the tourism industry. Additionally, it assesses the need for cognition (NFC) as a moderator influencing the direct and indirect relationships between religious values, value alignment, AI ethics and customers’ dispositional trust. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected from 373 tourism firms. The model was evaluated using AMOS 23 and SPSS 24 to confirm the hypothesized relationships. Findings The results confirm that religious values and value alignment significantly promote the ethical use of AI, which in turn enhances customers’ dispositional trust. NFC was found to moderate these relationships; such that high levels of NFC strengthened the relationship between values and AI ethics, and between values and dispositional trust, while low levels of NFC rendered these relationships weaker and insignificant. Originality/value This study provides new insights into the moderating role of NFC and the importance of value alignment in promoting ethical AI use and building customer trust in the tourism industry.

This research aims to examine how consumers with low versus high need for cognition (NFC) appreciate visual metaphor ads varying in the multifaceted aspects (complexity, conceptual similarity, verbal anchoring, and explicitness) and creator types (human vs. artificial intelligence [AI]). Two studies test hypotheses deduced from the modified theory of constructive choice. In Study 1, which uses human-made images as the baseline, low-NFC consumers appreciate visual metaphor ads characterized by low complexity, high conceptual similarity, direct verbal anchoring, and high explicitness. Conversely, high-NFC consumers prefer visual metaphor ads involving high complexity, low conceptual similarity, no verbal anchoring, and low explicitness. Study 2 extends these findings by comparing consumer responses to human-made and AI-generated images. Specifically, high-NFC consumers appreciate AI-generated visual metaphor ads less than human-made ones, while low-NFC consumers exhibit no difference. This research advances our understanding of visual metaphor ads by considering their multifaceted aspects and generative AI.

The proactive adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) by e-commerce platforms to enhance consumer experience is emerging as a predominant trend. This research investigates the influence of AI overview on consumers’ perceived usefulness of the customer reviews section on e-commerce platforms, thereby further expanding the scope of application of the technology acceptance model (TAM). Across three scenario-based experiments (n = 568), we examined the effects of AI overview and their underlying mechanisms. Results consistently confirmed a main effect: the presence of AI overview significantly enhanced perceived usefulness compared to its absence. Study 2 identified perceived diagnosticity as a mediator, while Study 3 revealed that need for cognition (NFC) moderated both the main effect and the mediation process. Specifically, for High-NFC participants, the presence or absence of AI overview made no significant difference, whereas for Low-NFC participants, AI overviews significantly increased perceived usefulness. These findings offer novel insights into the effectiveness of AI overview in shaping the consumer evaluations of online customer reviews. By clarifying the mediating role of perceived diagnosticity and the boundary condition of NFC, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how AI can be strategically integrated into e-commerce platforms to enhance consumer decision-making and guide business development.

IntroductionConsumers increasingly face overwhelming amounts of information when making online contractual decisions, particularly as e-commerce continues to expand the scope and complexity of available information. While this digital transformation promises greater transparency, many consumers struggle to process complex information effectively, leading to suboptimal decision making.MethodsIn a simulated online contracting scenario (N = 206), we investigated whether providing and promoting computer-based decision aids (CDA) could enhance decision quality. Additionally, we examined how individual differences in Need for Cognition (NFC), a trait characterizing one's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities, moderates CDA effectiveness.ResultsWe find that promotional nudges increase the adoption of CDA and that they subsequently improve decision quality. These benefits are primarily seen among participants with low NFC, suggesting that decision aids are most valuable for individuals less inclined toward systematic information processing.DiscussionThese findings have significant implications for personalizing digital decision support systems and advancing consumer protection in increasingly complex online marketplaces.

Abstract Personal factors have been examined in recent literature for their impact on attitudes toward AI, often treating AI as a single, uniform concept and using samples from one cultural group. To address this, we differentiate between two modalities of AI operation: freedom of choice, referring to users’ ability or inability to choose alternatives to AI, and social proof, reflecting whether AI has been widely used and accepted by others. We also include samples from two distinct populations, Arab and UK. This study investigates the influence of the Big Five personality traits, Need for Cognition (NFC), and Locus of Control (LOC) on attitudes toward AI across four combinations of these modalities. A total of 639 participants (316 UK, 323 Arab) completed a survey containing scenarios, validated scales and bespoke, face-validated questions. Using hierarchical multivariate multiple regression (MMR), we analyzed how these personal factors predict two key dimensions of AI attitudes: acceptance (perceived personal and social benefits) and fear (ethical concerns and risks). Agreeableness consistently predicted more favorable attitudes across both cultures, while neuroticism was linked to greater fear. Internal LOC and higher NFC were associated with greater acceptance, highlighting the role of perceived control and cognitive engagement. Cultural differences emerged, with conscientiousness being more influential in the Arab sample and openness in the UK. Overall, personality traits had a weaker impact than expected, aligning with previous research treating AI as a single concept. The modality of operation showed limited effect. This study adds to AI acceptance literature by emphasizing psychological and cultural variability in public attitudes.

Background and objectivesAlthough online discussions are widely recognized as an effective instructional strategy in blended learning environments, their differential impacts on learners with varying need for cognition (NFC) remain underexplored. This study specifically examines how online discussion interventions affect learners’ engagement, emotions, and motivation, with particular focus on the moderating role of learners’ NFC.MethodsIn this study, we conducted a 2 (NFC: higher NFC/lower NFC) × 2 (online discussion intervention: online discussion/non-online discussion) between-subjects design and recruited 95 teacher education undergraduates.ResultsResults revealed that (a) online discussion intervention led to higher learning engagement, more enjoyment and less boredom than non-online discussion conditions; and (b) learners with higher NFC reported higher learning engagement and autonomous learning motivation, as well as more enjoyment and less boredom than learners with lower NFC. In addition, learners with higher NFC generated more high-quality discussion content than those with lower NFC in online discussions; and (c) NFC moderated the effects of online discussion intervention on cognitive engagement and autonomous learning motivation, with higher-NFC learners benefiting more from online discussions.Originality/valueThe findings highlight the critical role of bolstering learners’ NFC and demonstrate the necessity of implementing NFC-based dynamic support mechanisms in online discussions. This study provides the first empirical evidence supporting personalized online discussion design based on NFC, contributing to the optimization of pedagogical effectiveness for diverse learner populations.

The main assumption in legal decisions on misleading food packaging is that consumers read the list of ingredients when purchasing food products (CJEU Teekanne). This study examines whether this assumption reflects actual consumer behaviour in a supermarket context. Specifically, it investigates whether the number of choice options (few vs. many), consumers’ Need for Cognition (NfC), and purchase intention (healthy vs. tasty product) influence consumers’ reading and remembering ingredient lists. Participants (n = 379) took part in a 2x2 experimental design, manipulating the number of yoghurt package options (two vs. five) and purchase task (healthy vs. tasty), along with a pre-test and a post-test. The study recorded the duration and frequency of participants’ attention to the ingredient list, their recall of the ingredients, and the influence of NfC on these behaviours. Results show that participants exposed to two packages (vs. five packages) and participants with high NfC (vs. low NfC) looked at the ingredient list significantly more frequently. Although participants tasked with choosing a healthy product looked at the ingredient list more often than those tasked with choosing a tasty product, this difference was not statistically significant. The findings suggest that the legal assumption that the “average consumer” reads the ingredient list when purchasing food products conflicts with actual consumer behaviour. The results indicate the importance of reconsidering this legal assumption, given (1) different information needs of consumers (NfC), (2) the context of supermarkets offering numerous choices, and (3) differing purchase intentions of consumers when buying food products.

Beyond the post: The impact of politized anti-vaccine misinformation comments and challenges of correction on social media.

This study aimed to examine the educational outcomes of a required general education course, “Great Books Reading,” at A University and to explore differences in outcome changes based on students’ levels of need for cognition (NFC). Pre-and post-semester surveys were conducted to assess students’ reading competence, communication skills, creativity, problem-solving efficacy, academic interest, and course satisfaction. Based on NFC scores collected at the beginning of the semester, students were categorized into high, middle, and low groups to compare changes across groups. Overall, the results showed positive changes in students’ competencies, problem-solving efficacy, academic interest, and course satisfaction after completing the course. Group comparisons revealed no significant differences in changes in competencies or problem-solving efficacy. However, motivational variables showed differentiated patterns: situational interest significantly increased in the middle and low NFC groups, while individual interest significantly increased in the middle and high NFC groups. These findings suggest that students’ responses to classical education may differ depending on cognitive traits such as need for cognition. The study also implies that inconsistent results in previous research on academic interest may be partly explained by individual differences in NFC. This research contributes to the literature by empirically examining the learning outcomes of a Great Books course and highlighting the importance of learner-centered instructional design that accounts for cognitive characteristics.

Need for cognition (NFC) reflects the tendency to enjoy and engage in cognitive challenges. This study examines the relations between NFC and academic interest among 922 German secondary school students (academic track) assessed four times in Grades 5-7 (initial age M = 10.63, SD = 0.55; 41% female; 90% first language German) in mathematics, German, and English. Data were collected between 2008 and 2012 and were analyzed using autoregressive cross-lagged panel models. In all domains, NFC positively predicted subsequent academic interest (β = 0.03 to β = 0.17) but interest did not positively predict subsequent NFC. Findings were comparable after controlling for students' achievement, gender, socioeconomic status, and class type. They suggest that NFC is a potential facilitator of the development of academic interest in school.

This study examines the interaction of social media users’ expectations regarding advertisement clutter, actual physical advertisement clutter and information processing needs when estimating the perceived intrusiveness of advertisements and attitude towards advertisements. Specifically, an online experiment (n = 170) supports the three-way interaction of expected advertisement clutter, physical advertisement clutter and need for cognition (NFC) vis-à-vis perceived advertisement intrusiveness, and the intrusiveness of an advertisement subsequently impacts attitude towards that advertisement. The findings suggest that perceived advertisement intrusiveness is influenced by the extent to which the expected advertisement clutter correlates with the actual advertisement clutter, and this effect is dependent upon the individual’s NFC level. The results also highlight the long-term negative effects of advertisement clutter and that high advertisement relevance might not be sufficient to offset the negative effects of both physical advertisement clutter and expected advertisement clutter. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.

ABSTRACTThe effectiveness of persuasive messages often depends on how their affective or cognitive content aligns with recipients' predispositions for processing such information. Individual differences in the need for affect (NFA) and need for cognition (NFC) influence engagement with affective or cognitive appeals, but the interplay between intrinsic brain connectivity and these predispositions in shaping persuasive outcomes remains underexplored. This study advances understanding of the affective‐cognitive matching effect by integrating intrinsic (resting‐state) and extrinsic (task‐based) brain‐behavior relationships. Using resting‐state and task‐based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigate how NFA and NFC align with intrinsic brain network properties and influence behavioral and neural responses to affective and cognitive persuasive messages. We employ intrinsic connectivity metrics, such as participation coefficient (cross‐network communication) and within‐module degree (within‐network communication), to capture resting‐state network dynamics not examined in previous studies. Our results reveal that key regions within the frontoparietal network, which is central to attention, decision‐making, and executive functions, play pivotal roles in processing persuasive messages based on participants' motivational orientations. Specifically, affective‐oriented individuals exhibit greater neural engagement with congruent affective messages, while cognitive‐oriented individuals show intensified engagement under incongruent conditions—a novel finding extending beyond prior research. These findings expand the affective‐cognitive matching effect to include intrinsic neural dimensions, highlighting how resting‐state brain connectivity primes responses and modulates task engagement according to motivational predispositions. This integrative approach supports the Elaboration Likelihood Model by elucidating distinct neural pathways in persuasion and offers actionable insights for tailoring persuasive strategies to individual affective and cognitive orientations.

The purpose of this empirical study is to examine how the use of smart technologies—virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and intelligent virtual environments (IVEs)—impacts tourists’ overall wellbeing in the context of a virtual destination tour. It also aims to explore the direct and moderating effects of tourists’ need-for-cognition (NfC) in the prestay phase. Two factors were examined in an experimental setting. The first factor, technology-type, was manipulated using four treatments reflecting four levels of sophistication: (1) static virtual tour (two-dimensional (2D) images) as a control group; (2) virtual tour with VR (360° images); (3) virtual tour with AI (intelligent chatbot plus 2D images); and (4) virtual tour with IVE (intelligent chatbot plus 360° images). The second factor, NfC, distinguished between individuals with high versus low NfC. The results indicate that (i) virtual tours enhanced by VR, AI, or IVE technology exert a positive and significant effect on tourists’ wellbeing during the prestay phase; (ii) NfC exerts a positive and significant effect on tourist overall wellbeing; and (iii) NfC moderates the relationship between a virtual tour with IVE and tourist overall wellbeing.

Analytic thinking dispositions are trait-like individual differences in epistemic values and attitudes toward putting effort into thinking. Much-studied dispositions include actively open-minded thinking (AOT), the need for cognition (NFC), and cognitive reflection (CRT). However, it is unclear how different analytic thinking dispositions relate to each other. Three studies (N = 339, N = 400, and N = 2484) used latent profile analysis to explore the combinations in which these dispositions occur. Three qualitatively different types of "highly analytic thinkers" and two types of non-analytic thinkers emerged. Overall Analytic thinkers scored high on all three dispositions, while Open thinkers scored high on AOT and NFC but not CRT, and Reflective thinkers had the opposite pattern. The profiles differed in societally meaningful outcomes such as misinformation susceptibility and conspiracy mentality. While the Overall Analytic and Open profiles had rational thinking outcomes conventionally expected of analytic thinkers, the Reflective thinkers did not. Analytic thinking dispositions are a profile construct, whose different components should be assessed separately. The somewhat common practice of pooling AOT and NFC into composite variables with CRT is not warranted, because it risks mislabeling participants and conflating research findings.

Academic success is not solely the result of cognitive ability. There is evidence that traits such as students' need for cognition (NFC) and self-efficacy beliefs influence academic success. Beyond cognitive ability and personal traits, social background constitutes an important factor. Students from academic households are (still) much more likely to pursue an academic degree than their peers from non-academic households. Past research on traits and beliefs relevant in (higher) education has focused on academic success, but only to a limited extent on its direct precursor: the decision to pursue an academic degree. This study aims to investigate NFC and academic self-efficacy (ASE) as positive predictors of students' intentions to go to college, with consideration of students' generational status regarding academic education. Results based on survey data from 1,389 German high school students provide evidence for positive relationships between NFC, ASE, and study intention, with ASE acting as a mediator of NFC's effect. Our analyses also investigate the effects of NFC and ASE on study intentions for students from academic as compared to students from non-academic households via multigroup analyses.

Extrinsic motivation can foster effortful cognitive control. Moreover, the selective coupling of extrinsic motivation on low- versus high-control demands tasks would exert an additional impact. However, to what extent their influences are further modulated by the level of Need for Cognition (NFC) remains unclear. Thus, the current study sought to address this question. To this end, we conducted two behavioral experiments wherein cognitive control was triggered by the confound-minimized Stroop task and the NFC questionnaire was administered. Two different forms of extrinsic motivation were manipulated at the block level. In Experiment 1, extrinsic motivation was triggered by evaluative feedback. In Experiment 2, extrinsic motivation was triggered by reward incentives, while evaluative feedback was selectively coupled with low (congruent)- or high (incongruent)- control demands trials. The results indicated that two forms of extrinsic motivation (evaluative feedback vs. reward incentives) presented distinctive effects on effortful cognitive control; while their benefits on overall performance were further influenced by NFC. Interestingly, when incongruent rather than congruent trials were selectively coupled with reward incentives, not only conflict processing, but also overall performance for low-NFC participants only, benefited from this scenario. Taken together, the current study shows that extrinsic motivation can boost cognitive control, which gain was further reduced by high NFC.

The present study investigated whether parents' and teachers' evaluations of children's intellectual investment would predict a change in children's need for cognition (NFC) over one year. An exploratory look at how teachers' evaluations are predicted by a range of factors was also taken. N = 565 third-graders (298 girls; Mage = 8.40, SD = 0.59) and teachers (N = 39) were surveyed in 2021 and 2022. The parents (N = 452) provided the data in 2021. Longitudinal data were analyzed by means of latent change score models (LCSMs). Changes in the teachers' evaluations and in the children's cognitive engagement differed between the children. However, there was no effect of the parents' or teachers' assessments on the development of the children's NFC. The change in the teachers' assessment was negatively related to their initial judgment and the children's age; it was positively related to the pupils' fluid intelligence. The results and implications are discussed.