Online Experiment Research Articles

Neutral news from in- and out-party media and attitudes toward them: integration of expectancy violations theory and hostile media perceptions

ABSTRACT The contemporary U.S. media environment is characterized by a strong partisan divide. Both Democrats and Republicans express strong distrust in oppositional media and accuse them of showing partisan bias. Clearly, this public opinion climate is not helpful to a healthy democracy. Unlike the common wisdom, these news outlets do provide neutral political coverage. Based on propositions from expectancy violation theory and hostile media perceptions, we test the effects of exposure to neutral news from an out-party outlet on violation interpretation and attitudes toward oppositional media. An online experiment (N = 610) shows that exposure to neutral news from an out-party outlet leads to violation unexpectedness and valence for Democrats and violation valence for Republicans. We also find an indirect positive effect of exposure to neutral news on attitudes toward an out-party outlet through violation valence for Democrats and Republicans. Unlike what can be expected of hostile media perceptions, these effects are more noticeable for stronger partisans. Our study also reveals different patterns of partisan reactions to neutral news from in-party outlets. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Misinformation does not reduce trust in accurate search results, but warning banners may backfire

People rely on search engines for information in critical contexts, such as public health emergencies–but what makes people trust some search results more than others? Can search engines influence people’s levels of trust by controlling how information is presented? And, how does the presence of misinformation influence people’s trust? Research has identified both rank and the presence of misinformation as factors impacting people’s search behavior. Here, we extend these findings by measuring the effects of these factors, as well as misinformation warning banners, on the perceived trustworthiness of individual search results. We conducted three online experiments (N = 3196) using Covid-19-related queries, and found that although higher-ranked results are clicked more often, they are not more trusted. We also showed that misinformation does not damage trust in accurate results displayed below it. In contrast, while a warning about unreliable sources might decrease trust in misinformation, it significantly decreases trust in accurate information. This research alleviates some concerns about how people evaluate the credibility of information they find online, while revealing a potential backfire effect of one misinformation-prevention approach; namely, that banner warnings about source unreliability could lead to unexpected and nonoptimal outcomes in which people trust accurate information less.

Shared representations in cognate comprehension and production: An online picture naming and lexical decision study with bilingual children

Abstract The cognate facilitation effect, a classic example of cross-language interaction in the bilingual lexicon, has mostly been studied in adults. We examined the extent to which such effects occurred in simultaneous bilingual children’s word processing, to what extent these were modulated by language dominance, and to what extent this differed between comprehension and production tasks. Simultaneous bilingual Dutch-Greek children, ranging from Dutch-dominant to Greek-dominant, performed auditory lexical decision and picture-naming tasks in an online experiment. Cognate facilitation effects emerged in both tasks but manifested themselves differently. In lexical decision, there was an interaction effect with language dominance in accuracy, while in picture naming there was a main effect in reaction times. These findings suggest that, similar to what has been found for adults, simultaneous bilingual children have an integrated lexicon, in which both languages are interactively connected. Effects may differ as a combined result of factors such as comprehension versus production and individual differences in language dominance. Importantly, despite such differences, our results show that cognate effects emerge across tasks and across a range of individual children’s language dominance, indicating that shared representations within the bilingual lexicon are accessed during both word comprehension and production.

Foraging in a non-foraging task: Fitness maximization explains human risk preference dynamics under changing environment.

Changes in risk preference have been reported when making a series of independent risky choices or non-foraging economic decisions. Behavioral economics has put forward various explanations for specific effects on risk preference in non-foraging tasks, but a consensus regarding the general principle underlying these effects has not been reached. In contrast, recent studies have investigated human economic risky choices using tasks adapted from foraging theory, which require consideration of past choices and future opportunities to make optimal decisions. In these foraging tasks, human economic risky choices are explained by the ethological principle of fitness maximization, which naturally leads to dynamic risk preference. Here, we conducted two online experiments to investigate whether the principle of fitness maximization can explain risk preference dynamics in a non-foraging task. Participants were asked to make a series of independent risky economic decisions while the environmental richness changed. We found that participants' risk preferences were influenced by the current and past environments, making them more risk-averse during and after the rich environment compared to the poor environment. These changes in risk preference align with fitness maximization. Our findings suggest that the ethological principle of fitness maximization might serve as a generalizable principle for explaining dynamic preferences, including risk preference, in human economic decision-making.

EXPRESS: Attention Spillovers from News to Ads: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Experiment

The authors investigate the impact of online news content on the effectiveness of display advertising. In a randomized online experiment, participants read news articles randomly paired with brand advertisements. Leveraging non-intrusive eye-tracking technology, the authors measure individual attention to both articles and ads. The authors then measure ad recall, and participants make choices between cash and brand-specific vouchers. Heightened attention to articles results in “spillover” attention to ads on the same page which, in turn, increases both brand recall and purchase probability. The authors also consider the effect of news content type, differentiating between “hard” and “soft” news. They find that advertising next to hard news is at least as effective as advertising next to soft news. This provides evidence against the blunt implementation of “block lists” for sensitive news topics by advertisers. The authors discuss the implications of attention spillovers for firms contemplating investments in engaging news content within the digital advertising landscape.

Can Generative AI improve social science?

Generative AI that can produce realistic text, images, and other human-like outputs is currently transforming many different industries. Yet it is not yet known how such tools might influence social science research. I argue Generative AI has the potential to improve survey research, online experiments, automated content analyses, agent-based models, and other techniques commonly used to study human behavior. In the second section of this article, I discuss the many limitations of Generative. I examine how bias in the data used to train these tools can negatively impact social science research—as well as a range of other challenges related to ethics, replication, environmental impact, and the proliferation of low-quality research. I conclude by arguing that social scientists can address many of these limitations by creating open-source infrastructure for research on human behavior. Such infrastructure is not only necessary to ensure broad access to high-quality research tools, I argue, but also because the progress of AI will require deeper understanding of the social forces that guide human behavior.

Sense of self in first-time pregnancy

Pregnancy is a time of profound upheaval of the self, when in addition to undergoing dramatic physical changes to accommodate a developing foetus, significant cognitive and social transformations occur in preparation for birth and parenthood. So far, research into cognitive constructions of the self has been either infant-centric or psychopathology-focused, so our understanding of the healthy, changing self in pregnancy remains relatively poor. This online experiment uses online questionnaires and two cognitive tasks to investigate how constructs relating to the mental self-model, including body representation, self-concept clarity, sense of agency, general self-efficacy and self-attribute learning, differ between first-time pregnant (n = 100) and never-been pregnant (n = 102) women. Results indicate that first-time pregnancy is associated with a significantly higher sense of body agency, body visibility, and body estrangement. Poorer accuracy for newly learned associations was also observed in the pregnant group. Whilst a typical self-processing bias was observed in both groups as expected, an intentional binding effect was absent. Notably, post-hoc exploratory analyses provide initial evidence for trimester effects, with a decisively higher self-reported sense of negative agency in the first trimester compared to the never-pregnant group and other trimesters. Further, body agency and self-efficacy were higher in the second-trimester group compared to the never-pregnant group, suggesting a period of relative recovery and consolidation of the new self. Taken together, our results suggest that aspects of self-representation and agency undergo significant shifts over the course of pregnancy and provide multiple exciting avenues for future research.

Risk and time preferences in individuals with lifestyle-related and non-lifestyle-related cardiovascular diseases: a pilot study

ObjectivesTo (1) pilot a study of behavioural characterisation based on risk and time preferences in clinically well-characterised individuals, (2) assess the distribution of preferences in this population and (3) explore...

Worlds apart? Investigating acceptance and usage demands of carbon-based cosmetics and clothing across European countries

BackgroundGlobal warming and the increasing risk of natural disasters force us all to act. As the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been proven effective but insufficient on its own, Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) technologies emerged to fill the gap. Using CCU technologies, CO2 is captured and further processed into valuable products instead of being emitted into the atmosphere.MethodThis study investigates the prevailing public perception of such CCU-based products by the example of clothing and cosmetics. We applied the method of conjoint measurement to experimentally examine context-related factors (= attributes) in different usage settings and explored the consumers’ decision profiles for or against the usage of CCU-based products (cosmetics and clothing). Conjoint measurements were realized as an online experiment, addressing acceptance patterns and preferences in four European countries (Germany, Norway, Spain, and Poland). In addition, we assessed general attitudes and affective assessments of the CCU products. A total of N = 828 participants took part in the study, and the international subsamples were comparable.ResultsResults revealed that health compatibility is the main adoption-driving factor in the decisions for or against the use of the products. Still, attributes like the environmental impact, product quality, and information flow play an important role as well, even though to a lesser extent. Participants from different countries significantly differ in their cognitive and affective evaluations of acceptance-related attributes.ConclusionsThe outcome provides insights into differences in Pan-European comparison and helps to understand the public motives and country-specific terms of use for CCU-based products, effectively establishing recommendations for policy and governance.

“Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.” How TikTok Videos from Different Sources Influence Clinical Trial Participation

ABSTRACT This study experiments with TikTok videos to promote clinical trial participation. More specifically, it examines how short-form video sources (doctors vs. prior volunteers for clinical trials) influence perceived source credibility, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention to participate in clinical trials. Findings from this online experiment (N = 396) showed that doctor sources led to greater behavioral intention through enhancing source credibility compared to prior volunteer sources. Alternatively, prior volunteer sources increased behavioral intention via enhanced self-efficacy for participants with low trust in doctors. These findings contribute to the understanding of how short-form video sources act as heuristic cues, leading to persuasion outcomes. Overall, we recommend featuring doctors when using video-based messages to promote clinical trial participation. Also, this study emphasizes the need for health communication practitioners to consider prior volunteers as spokespersons when targeting populations with low baseline trust in doctors.

“It’s My Moral Responsibility to Protect Others!” Examining the Effects of Moral Framing and Message Format on Influenza Vaccination Attitude and Intention

ABSTRACT Vaccinations serve a dual purpose: safeguarding the vaccinated individuals while also preventing potential transmission to others. However, the pro-vaccine message has primarily emphasized the personal health risks and harms of not getting vaccinated, while rarely highlighting the moral responsibility of getting vaccinated to protect others. Guided by the Model of Intuitive Morality and Exemplars (MIME) along with the narrative persuasion framework, the current study conducted a 2 (moral framing: vaccination to protect oneself vs. protect others) X 2 (message format: statistical vs. narrative) between-subject online experiment to examine the effects of moral framing and message format on vaccination decision-making. The results revealed that individuals exposed to a pro-vaccine message framing vaccination as a moral responsibility to protect others from harm reported significantly higher levels of perceived moral responsibility and elevation, more positive attitudes toward the flu vaccine, and an increased intention to get vaccinated compared to a pro-vaccine message emphasizing vaccination for self-protection. Counterintuitively, presenting the moral responsibility of receiving the flu vaccine to safeguard others in a statistical format was discovered to be more effective in fostering favorable attitudes toward vaccination and increasing the intention to get vaccinated. This study offers a valuable insight: promoting vaccination as a moral duty could be a promising strategy for motivating individuals to get vaccinated.

Taste over waste: How seller type affects consumer purchase intention toward imperfect produce

Although imperfect produce may not differ from regular produce in the dimensions of taste or nutrition, most of consumers unwilling to purchase them, thus, reducing the waste of imperfect produce is crucial for both environmental preservation and food conservation. Through four online experiments in China (covering in total 888 respondents), we provided evidence that consumers are more willing to purchase imperfect produce sold by producers compared to those sold by professional sellers. Pilot study (N = 300) shows that individuals held the lay belief that producers (e.g., farmers) provide natural and healthy produce, while professional sellers (e.g., sales clerks) focus on presale selection. Furthermore, Study 1 (N = 200) found that the sale of imperfect produce by producers elicits a greater purchase intention than that by professional sellers in the context of live streaming shopping. Study 2 (N = 200) then replicated the finding of Study 1 and found that this effect is mediated by the dual mechanism of perceived health and perceived effort in the offline retailing context. Additionally, Study 3 (N = 188) reveals that adding a claim of imperfection causes augments the sales performance of professional sellers in the online shopping context. This finding suggests that adding a claim of imperfection causes can enhance the efficacy of professional sellers in marketing imperfect produce.

From personal to corporate social responsibility: (de)individuation in luxury retailing

PurposeThe New York Times has suggested replacing sustainable fashion with responsible fashion, emphasizing the need for joint efforts by both individual consumers and retailers to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions. This study seeks to investigate the mechanism that activates individuals' personal social responsibility (PSR) and its association with their perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a responsible luxury fashion retailer.Design/methodology/approachAn online experiment was conducted with a nationwide US sample of luxury consumers who were randomly assigned to either individuation or deindividuation groups. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and multi-group SEM were employed to test the hypotheses.FindingsIndividuals' universalism positively affected PSR, which then enhanced their recognition of a responsible luxury retailer’s CSR and led to a greater willingness to pay a premium. More importantly, the positive effect of universalism on PSR was strengthened when consumers’ unique individuality, rather than their deindividuated state, was emphasized. Moreover, the moderating effect of individuation was indirectly transmitted through PSR to perceived CSR, hence reinforcing the relationship between PSR and CSR.Originality/valueThis study significantly advances existing scholarship on sustainable luxury retailing and adds rigor to deindividuation theory by demonstrating the central role of PSR and the moderating effect of individuation in enhancing recognition of a luxury fashion retailer’s CSR commitments. The findings provide luxury fashion retailers with communication and marketing strategies that highlight consumers' unique individuality to more effectively activate their sense of personal responsibility and thereby increase their recognition of the retailer’s CSR.

It is a match! The effect of regulatory fit on new products recommendations

AbstractOnline retailers often recommend new products to consumers. The present study examined the influence of regulatory fit on consumers' click‐through intentions of new products recommended by online retailers. We proposed that regulatory fit resulting from aligning the product's regulatory focus and recommendation message's regulatory orientation positively influences click‐through intention of new product recommendations. In a laboratory study (Study 1), we found that regulatory fit increase consumers' click‐through behaviors of new product recommendations. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 in a controlled online experiment and found support for regulatory fit—click‐through intentions relationship. Study 3 found that regulatory fit increases click‐through intentions for new products but not for existing products. Study 4 supported the mediating role of perceived efficacy and boundary condition of consumer innovativeness in the relationship between regulatory fit and click‐through intentions. This study contributes to the literature on new product adoption, regulatory focus, and product recommendation strategies. Furthermore, it helps online retailors develop effective recommendation strategies for new product recommendations.

Advergames and Consumer Brand Engagement: Experiential Satisfaction as a Mediator of Gamified Advertising Effects

Gamified advertising formats are increasingly used to facilitate consumer interactions with a brand. Advergames in particular are believed to be an effective type of gamified advertising. This study examined the effects of advergaming on consumer brand engagement, in terms of cognitive processing, affection, and activation, and to what extent consumers’ experiential satisfaction can explain these effects. To test our hypotheses, we conducted an online experiment (N = 200) with a single-factor (Type of ad: Advergame vs. Static ad) between-subjects design. Experiential satisfaction was measured as a mediator. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results show that, overall, advergaming leads to higher levels of engagement on all three consumer brand engagement dimensions (i.e., cognitive processing, affection, activation). Also, experiential satisfaction was found to mediate these effects.

Affective prediction errors in persistence and escalation of aggression.

People generally empathize with others and find harm aversive. Yet aggression, for example, between groups, abounds. How do people learn to overcome this aversion in order to aggress? Many models of learning emphasize outcome prediction errors-deviations from expected outcomes in the environment-but aggression may also be fueled by affective prediction errors (affective PEs)-deviations from how we expect to feel. Across five preregistered online experiments that hold outcome prediction errors constant (N = 4,607), participants choosing aggressive or nonaggressive actions aggressed more against disliked group members and often escalated or persisted in taking actions that felt better than expected (positive affective PE), especially when those actions were aggressive. Crucially, inducing incidental empathy toward the group of the target rendered affective PE signals sensitive to group identification-participants escalated aggression that felt better than expected relatively less toward liked versus disliked group members. That said, affective PEs did not always add explanatory power beyond levels of postoutcome affect alone; we discuss the importance and implications of these results. In summary, we reveal affective PE integration as a candidate algorithm facilitating exceptions to harm aversion in intergroup conflict. More broadly, we highlight for affective science and decision-making researchers the necessity of appropriately testing separable components of affective signals in predicting subsequent behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploration of factors affecting webcam-based automated gaze coding.

Online experiments have been transforming the field of behavioral research, enabling researchers to increase sample sizes, access diverse populations, lower the costs of data collection, and promote reproducibility. The field of developmental psychology increasingly exploits such online testing approaches. Since infants cannot give explicit behavioral responses, one key outcome measure is infants' gaze behavior. In the absence of automated eyetrackers in participants' homes, automatic gaze classification from webcam data would make it possible to avoid painstaking manual coding. However, the lack of a controlled experimental environment may lead to various noise factors impeding automatic face detection or gaze classification. We created an adult webcam dataset that systematically reproduced noise factors from infant webcam studies which might affect automated gaze coding accuracy. We varied participants' left-right offset, distance to the camera, facial rotation, and the direction of the lighting source. Running two state-of-the-art classification algorithms (iCatcher+ and OWLET) revealed that facial detection performance was particularly affected by the lighting source, while gaze coding accuracy was consistently affected by the distance to the camera and lighting source. Morphing participants' faces to be unidentifiable did not generally affect the results, suggesting facial anonymization could be used when making online video data publicly available, for purposes of further study and transparency. Our findings will guide improving study design for infant and adult participants during online experiments. Moreover, training algorithms using our dataset will allow researchers to improve robustness and allow developmental psychologists to leverage online testing more efficiently.

Motivated beliefs, Independence and Cooperation

Humans are social beings but sometimes stay alone. This paper theoretically investigates the connection between an intraperson game and an interperson interaction. Motivated beliefs supplied from memory management due to present bias in the individual investment problem yields positive spillovers on others through social interactions. This suggests that frequent social interactions may reduce an individual’s inclination to cooperate, exacerbating the free-riding problem. Additionally, the paper establishes a positive correlation between overconfidence and prosocial attitudes, both of which may emerge and persist through life experiences. Evidence from cross-country psychological surveys at the country level and an online experiment at the individual level largely aligns with our theoretical implications.

“R” you getting this? Factors contributing to the public’s understanding, evaluation, and use of basic reproduction numbers for infectious diseases

BackgroundWe (1) examined the effects of evaluative labels and visual aids on people’s understanding, evaluation, and use of the COVID-19 reproduction number (or “r-number”), (2) examined whether people’s perceived susceptibility and (intended) adherence to preventive measures changed after being exposed to the r-number, and (3) explored whether these effects and changes depended on people’s numeracy skills.MethodsIn an online experiment, participants from a large Dutch representative sample (N = 1,168) received information about the COVID-19 r-number displayed on the corona dashboard of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The r-number was either presented with or without a categorical line display (i.e., evaluative label) and with or without an icon-based tree diagram (i.e., visual aid) explaining how the number works. Regarding people’s use of the statistic, we measured perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 and adherence (intention) to five preventive measures before and after exposure to the r-number. After exposure, we also measured participants’ understanding, perceived usefulness, affective and cognitive evaluation, and objective numeracy.ResultsAbout 56% of participants correctly interpreted the r-number, with highly numerate people having better understanding than less numerate people. Information about the r-number was perceived as more useful when presented with a visual aid. There were no differences across experimental conditions in people’s understanding, affective, and cognitive evaluations. Finally, independent of experimental conditions, intention to adhere to preventive measures was higher after seeing the r-number, but only among highly numerate people.ConclusionsAlthough evaluative labels and visual aids did not facilitate people’s understanding and evaluation of the r-number, our results show that the statistic is perceived as useful and may be used to stimulate adherence to preventive measures. Policy makers and public health communicators are advised to clearly explain why they are giving these numbers to – especially – the less numerate people, but also how people could use them for behavior change to combat the spread of virus during a pandemic.

Brand transgressions in advertising related to diversity, equity and inclusion: implications for consumer–brand relationships

Purpose Considering the ongoing discourse on diversity, equity and inclusion, brands aim to develop marketing campaigns that demonstrate respect for all individuals. Despite these intentions, many advertisements still provoke strong negative reactions from consumers due to brand transgressions in social media marketing campaigns that violate these values. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the repercussions that such social media marketing campaigns have on brands, categorizing these campaigns as brand transgressions in social media advertising. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a mixed-method design that includes semi-structured interviews (Study 1), a content analysis (Study 2) and an online experiment (Study 3). Findings This paper clarifies the elements that qualify as brand transgressions in advertising within the diversity, equity and inclusion discourse. The negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) associated with brand transgressions in advertising comprises negative emotions (e.g. anger, contempt, disgust and hate) and behavioural intentions to penalize the brand (e.g. negative word-of-mouth, brand avoidance and protest behaviours). The negative e-WOM stemming from these transgressions amplifies the adverse consequences for consumer–brand relationships by negatively influencing other consumers through sympathy towards the offended parties. Research limitations/implications This paper offers brand managers guidelines for preventing and managing negative consumer reactions towards brands based on their responses to marketing campaigns that contradict the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on brand transgressions related to diversity, equity and inclusion values by exploring their impact on consumer–brand relationships and highlighting the pivotal role of sympathy in perpetuating negative consequences.