People's Decision-making Process Research Articles

A Comprehensive Review of Impacts of Social Media and Information Technology on Decision Making of General People

Social media platforms and information technology have revolutionized the way individuals obtain, use, and share information in the digital age. This has affected people's decision-making processes in a variety of fields. This thorough analysis investigates the complex effects of information technology and social media on the way the public makes decisions. The impact of social media and information technology on decision-making in domains like politics, healthcare, education, consumer behavior, and interpersonal relationships is examined in this review, which draws on an extensive array of scholarly literature, empirical investigations, and theoretical frameworks. According to the research, information technology and social media can influence decisions in both favorable and unfavorable ways. On the one hand, these platforms give users access to a multitude of information, empowering them to take part in social movements, activism, and civic engagement with greater knowledge and understanding. Social media platforms also enable peer-to-peer communication, cooperation, and knowledge sharing, giving people the confidence to ask their social networks for guidance, affirmation, and support. In the digital age, the review emphasizes how psychological variables, cognitive biases, and sociocultural influences shape decision-making processes. In online environments, people's information processing, judgment-making, and decision-making processes are greatly influenced by social comparison, confirmation bias, FOMO, and social validation, among other factors. This thorough analysis advances our knowledge of the intricate interactions among decision-making, information technology, and social media. Informed decision making, digital literacy, and the moral application of social media and information technology in society are all goals of this review, which synthesizes the literature and highlights new trends to guide future research, legislative efforts, and hands-on interventions.

Unveiling the process of phishing precautions taking: The moderating role of optimism bias

Phishing has emerged as a critical security threat to individuals and organizations. Academics and practitioners have developed various methods to convince individuals to take preventive measures against phishing attacks. However, people are not rational decision makers. One important factor influencing one's risk decision making is optimism bias, which refers to people's tendency to believe that they are less likely to experience negative events and more likely to experience positive events than others. It is well indicated in the literature that optimism bias may hinder one's efforts to develop and implement risk-reducing behaviors. To the best of our knowledge, the important role played by optimism bias in people's decision-making process with respect to phishing has not been fully explored in previous studies. Drawing on the theory of reasoned action, our research explored how optimism bias moderates the relationship between phishing risk and attitude toward the adoption of preventive measures against phishing attacks. The results indicate that phishing risk determines the attitude toward preventive measures against phishing attacks, and that optimism bias weakens this relationship.

The social and socio-political embeddedness of COVID-19 vaccination decision-making: A five-country qualitative interview study from Europe.

The uptake ofCOVID-19 vaccines has varied considerably across European countries. This study investigates people's decision-making process regarding vaccination by analyzing qualitative interviews (n=214) with residents from five European countries: Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. We identify three factors that shape vaccination decision-making: individual experiences and pre-existing attitudes towards vaccination, social environment, and socio-political context. Based on this analysis, we present a typology of decision-making regarding COVID-19 vaccines, where some types present stable stances towards vaccines and others change over time. Trust in government and relevant stakeholders, broader social factors, and people's direct social environment were particularly relevant to these dynamics. We conclude that vaccination campaigns should be considered long-term projects (also outside of pandemics) in need of regular adjustment, communication and fine-tuning to ensure public trust. This is particularly pertinent for booster vaccinations, such as COVID-19 or influenza.

Anchoring Effect in Capital Market

Anchoring effect refers to a bias phenomenon in which an individual's decision-making in an uncertain situation is influenced by the initial irrelevant information (anchor), which biases subsequent judgment decisions to this information (anchor). As one of the most robust cognitive biases, the anchoring effect is pervasive in people's decision-making process. This paper systematically reviews and sorts out the domestic and foreign research literature on the impact of anchoring effect in the field of economic management, and summarizes the application of anchoring effect in domestic and foreign financial markets, in order to inspire future research.

The Effects of Social Media and Micro Celebrities on Touristic Purchase

Sosyal medya insan hayatının her alanına nüfuz etmekte ve her yaştan bireyi kendi içinde barındırmaktadır. Kişiler veya kitleler arası etkileşimin hızlı gerçekleşmesi ve anlık haber kaynağı olarak insanları kendine çekmektedir. Sosyal medya internetin gelişerek Web 2.0 olarak günlük hayatımıza girmesi sonucu çeşitli sosyal ağ platformları ile karşımıza çıkmıştır. Teknolojinin de gelişmesi ile beraber artan ve gelişen bu platformlar, insanlara kendilerini ifade edebilecekleri bir alana daha kolay sahip olabilme olanağı vermektedir. Aynı zamanda kendileri gibi olduğunu düşündükleri ve adlarına fenomen denilen bireyleri de takip etmeye ve onların paylaşımları ile etkileşime girmeye başlamıştır. Bu da işletmelerin dikkatini çekmiş ve sosyal platformlar üzerinden takip edilen bu kişilere reklam vererek tanıtımlarını yapmaya başlamışlardır. 
 
 İnsan yaşamının bir parçası haline gelen internet ve bununla beraber sosyal medya turistik yer ve ürünleri tanıtmak için de cazip bir alan haline gelmiştir. Sosyal medya aracılığı ile kitlelere erişimin kolay olması dikkat çekici bir özelliktir. Bu çalışmada ise anket çalışması yardımı ile sosyal medya ve fenomenlerinin insanların karar alma süreçlerindeki etkileri ölçülmeye çalışılmıştır. Çıkan sonuçlar doğrultusunda sosyal medyanın insanlar üzerindeki etkisi görülmektedir.

I could but I don't: What does it take to adopt pro-environmental behaviors in the United States?

Today's individual and collective actions, and their effects on climate change, will have a profound impact on the future. Yet, the precise path to societal change remains unclear. Policymakers and environmental organizations can benefit by understanding people's decision-making process. This study investigated the predictors for four adoption levels of 18 transportation, energy, food, and activism behaviors. In addition to answering questions about adoption, participants responded to questions about demographics, attitudes, self-efficacy, moral foundations, and guilt and shame proneness. Multinomial logistic regressions indicated predictors differed between adoption levels. However, the most consistent predictor was self-efficacy. The results suggest that predictors differ between intention and implementation of a behavior in addition to adoption or rejection. Results also support existing evidence that self-efficacy is an important predictor of pro-environmental behavior adoption and suggest guilt and shame play a role.

Love, sex, and commitment: relationship choices and trajectories among unmarried youth in India

There is limited research in India to understand young people's decision-making processes about intimate relationships before marriage. This paper, adopting a life course perspective, explains relationship choices and diachronic trajectories of relationships from adolescence to young adulthood. Retrospective data were collected from 1240 never married 20–29-year-old men and women living in Pune using a relationships history calendar. All the relationships from 10 years of age onwards were plotted on the calendar, and information on predictor variables was collected through structured questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Sequence analysis approach was used to identify different typologies. Overall, 76% of the participants reported having at least one relationship. More women compared to men (84% vs 70%) ever had a relationship. The median age of starting the first relationship was 17 years for women and 18 for men. Different relationship types were reported, such as “serious”, casual, “friends with benefit”, and “exploring”. The level of emotional involvement, commitment, and physical intimacy significantly differed in different relationship types with significant gender differences. Four typologies of relationships were observed, labelled as (1) Commitment–No sex (N = 187); (2) Commitment–Sex-Some exploration (N = 189); (3) No commitment–Exploration (N = 281), and (4) No relationship (N = 583). Compared to men, women were more likely to follow the trajectory of “Commitment-No sex” (RR 2.13, CI 1.5–3.03). Family environment was significantly related to young people's relationship choices. The findings strongly suggest the need to adopt a developmental perspective towards intimate relationships to understand and address the vulnerabilities of young people across the life course.

Seismic experience and structural preparedness of residential houses in Aotearoa New Zealand

Previous experience has been identified as a distinctive variable that can influence people's decision-making process for adopting earthquake preparedness actions. This study analysed data from a survey of 565 homeowners in the region of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, to examine the influence of previous earthquake experiences on awareness and use of strengthening for existing wooden-framed houses for future major earthquakes. The results indicate that previous earthquake experience can influence the first and second phases of preparedness (the motivation and intention phases) but is not enough to directly trigger the final implementation phase. The study also analysed different types of earthquake experiences and their effects on the decision-making process. It was found that observations of damage or loss raised people's awareness of strengthening but did not trigger implementation. On the other hand, people who stated that they had family or friends that experienced damage, were more likely to adopt structural strengthening. The results of this study indicate that prior earthquake experience cannot be relied upon alone to trigger the adoption of structural strengthening. Consequently, other support must be provided, which also has to align with people's beliefs.

Co-use of methamphetamine and opioids among people in treatment in Oregon: A qualitative examination of interrelated structural, community, and individual-level factors

BackgroundRates of methamphetamine use and methamphetamine-related deaths have increased steadily in the United States in recent years. Methamphetamine is increasingly present in opioid-related deaths. An initial study of de-identified urine specimens (n = 102) collected at a drug treatment program between 2017 and 2018 indicated that 61% of specimens contained methamphetamine; of the specimens containing methamphetamine, people were, on average, five years younger than those who tested negative for methamphetamine; and non-fentanyl opioids were more than three times as common in methamphetamine positive specimens. The National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) Coordinating Center initiated a HotSpot Study to assess whether there was an emerging dynamic in the area, or if enhanced data collection could give insights into the co-use of methamphetamine and opioids. MethodsA qualitative study, grounded in principles of rapid ethnographic assessment and a social science/anthropological framework was conducted and used methodological complementarity to contextualize results from the initial urinalysis study. Targeted sampling was conducted at two treatment sites. Program staff and patients were recruited to participate in focus groups and semi-structured interviews to assess structural, community, and individual-level factors impacting methamphetamine and opioid co-use. ResultsWithin our broader framework of structural, community, and individual-level factors intersecting co-use, our data yielded three sub-themes: 1) the circulation of stigma regarding methamphetamine use was consistently described by both patients and staff and this intersected structural changes in treatment policy and suggested compounded stigma; 2) community-level factors and temporality were important for understanding patterns of methamphetamine use and for further interpreting the initial urinalysis; 3) patient rationales regarding the co-use of methamphetamine and opioids included strategies to mitigate the harms of heroin, as well as to detox or titrate the effects of heroin. Conclusion and implicationsUsing an ethnographically-oriented and social science/anthropological approach and methodological complementarity to contextualize the prior urinalysis study demonstrates how behavioral variables cannot be abstracted from larger socio-structural and community contexts which impact people's decision-making process regarding co-use of methamphetamine and opioids. Further, by grounding our analysis in the meaning-centered and experiential narratives of people who use drugs, our research demonstrates the importance of considering the expertise of people who co-use opioids and methamphetamine as central for informing future sustainable program planning to address co-use that also accounts for the interrelationship between structural, community, and individual-level factors.

Is homo oeconomicus an extinct species, and does it matter for EUropean integration? Attitudes towards free trade and populism

The latest Nobel Prize winner in economics, Richard Thaler, was rewarded 'for his contributions to behavioural economics'. Thaler and Sustain claim that there are 'nudges', not pure rationality, that drive people decision-making processes. A 2017 CEPR report reveals that economic factors do matter with regards to trust in the political institutions of the EU but they do not play the main role. Therefore, it seems quite natural to ask: what is an explanatory power of economics in grasping the recent social behaviour dynamics, including the European integration processes and actual rise of radicalism and populism? Can economics contribute to a better understanding of those issues and can it come up with some practical solutions? To answer these questions I explore both theoretical backgrounds in economics and some empirical studies. I also refer to the results of my recent research on the Polish social perception of free trade agreements. I investigate how much the limits of EUrope are related to the limits of economics.

Understanding Popularity Dynamics: Decision-Making With Long-Term Incentives

With the explosive growth of big data, human's attention has become a scarce resource to be allocated to the vast amount of data. Numerous items such as online memes, videos are generated everyday, some of which go viral, i.e., attract lots of attention, whereas most diminish quickly without any influence. The recorded people's interactions with these items constitute a rich amount of popularity dynamics , e.g., hashtags mention count dynamics, which characterize human behaviors quantitatively. It is crucial to understand the underlying mechanisms of popularity dynamics in order to utilize the valuable attention of people efficiently. In this paper, we propose a game-theoretic model to analyze and understand popularity dynamics. The model takes into account both the instantaneous incentives and long-term incentives during people's decision-making process. We theoretically prove that the proposed game possesses a unique symmetric Nash equilibrium (SNE), which can be computed via a backward induction algorithm. We also demonstrate that, at the SNE, the interaction rate first increases and then decreases, which confirms with the observations from real data. Finally, by using simulations as well as experiments based on real-world popularity dynamics data, we validate the effectiveness of the theory. We find that our theory can fit the real data well and also predict the future dynamics.

Dynamic Route Decision Model-based Multi-agent Evacuation Simulation - Case Study of Nagata Ward, Kobe

In this research, involving local people's concerns in the decision on the evacuation route, a dynamic route deci- sion model is proposed by explicitly considering group evacuation, landmarks & evacuation signs, and familiarity with the local environment. A spatial relationship-dependent approach is used to measure the difference in resi- dents regarding local knowledge. To understand the people's decision-making process for evacuation routes, a survey was conducted with members of the Zonta Club in Japan. Based on the survey, a prototype version of a multi-agent simulation (MAS) system is developed for the case area, Nagata Ward, Kobe.

The habit of holidays

Generally, people's decision-making processes leading to their going on holiday are defined as complex processes characterized by high degrees of uncertainty and risk; substantial expenditure; and elaborate pre-purchase information search. However, the series of qualitative interviews which this article reports suggest that it is too simplistic to define up-front holiday decision-making processes as extensive problem-solving. The interviews reveal three patterns of holiday decision-making among the Danish informants. For those informants who view holidays away from home as central to their lives, decision-making processes are `habitualized'. Those informants for whom holidays are of lesser importance rely on ad-hoc, low involvement, decision-making. Only the final group of informants, who have recently started to go on new types of holidays, engage in extensive problem-solving. Drawing on Berger and Luckman's discussion on institutionalization, this article explores why extensive problem-solving is only one of the different decision-making processes that people rely on when planning their holidays.

Biased Forecasting of Postdecisional Affect

Although anticipated postdecisional regret is a significant contributor to people's decision-making processes, the accuracy of people's regret forecasts has yet to be assessed systematically. Here we report two studies to fill this lacuna. In Study 1, we found that subjects who made reasonably high offers overpredicted the regret that they experienced after they unexpectedly failed at a negotiation. In Study 2, we found that subjects overpredicted the rejoicing and marginally underpredicted the regret that they experienced when they received higher marks than they had expected for their course work. Systematic affective misprediction implies that people making decisions should discount the regret and rejoicing that they anticipate will be associated with potential outcomes arising from those decisions.

Promoting new public transport systems

Concerns about the impact of the car on the environment, on quality of life and on congestion levels have led to increased recognition among transport engineers that alternatives to the car must be promoted. This means that public transport has to form a core part of any sustainable transport system. One form of public transport that is seen as an alternative to the car in towns and cities is light rail. However, there are problems involved with promoting these systems and in anticipating their impacts on travel behaviour. In the past, forecasts of the patronage figures on these systems have been much higher than the actual patronage figures achieved. Transport experts must find a way to make these systems more successful by discovering what the public want from the systems. This paper describes a series of interviews carried out with potential users of Croydon Tramlink. It outlines their attitudes and the concerns they held about using Tramlink. In particular, the surveys examine the impact that publicity from the relevant authorities had on people's modal choices. The paper shows that people were very unimpressed by the publicity and in some cases it had a negative impact on their decisions. The conclusions of the paper have some interesting implications for transport policy and public transport promotion. Suggestions are made on how the lessons learned about people's decision-making processes regarding new light-rail systems could be used to more effectively promote future systems.

Promoting new public transport systems

Concerns about the impact of the car on the environment, on quality of life and on congestion levels have led to increased recognition among transport engineers that alternatives to the car must be promoted. This means that public transport has to form a core part of any sustainable transport system. One form of public transport that is seen as an alternative to the car in towns and cities is light rail. However, there are problems involved with promoting these systems and in anticipating their impacts on travel behaviour. In the past, forecasts of the patronage figures on these systems have been much higher than the actual patronage figures achieved. Transport experts must find a way to make these systems more successful by discovering what the public want from the systems. This paper describes a series of interviews carried out with potential users of Croydon Tramlink. It outlines their attitudes and the concerns they held about using Tramlink. In particular, the surveys examine the impact that publicity from the relevant authorities had on people's modal choices. The paper shows that people were very unimpressed by the publicity and in some cases it had a negative impact on their decisions. The conclusions of the paper have some interesting implications for transport policy and public transport promotion. Suggestions are made on how the lessons learned about people's decision-making processes regarding new light-rail systems could be used to more effectively promote future systems.