Regulatory Focus Research Articles

“Human or not?” The Effect of Using Different Types of Anthropomorphic Virus on Sense of Fear and Behavior Intention: The Moderating Effect of Regulatory Focus

<p>Covid-19在短時間內透過口沫傳染迅速傳播導致了許多國家經濟大亂、恐慌並引起了人民的恐慌。病毒帶來的威脅性與高風險傳染使得人心惶惶更加恐懼且公衛宣導效果不彰。本研究欲以病毒外觀擬人化與人類外觀擬人化探討不同類型的擬人化會如何對恐懼感以及行為意圖產生影響，同時探討調節焦點對病毒擬人化之恐懼感影響。本研究採用實驗法進行，病毒擬人化 (病毒外觀擬人化vs人類外觀擬人化)之單因子實驗設計，有效樣本為191份，干擾變數調節焦點為量表檢測調節焦點類型。結果為人類外觀擬人化較容易引起高度恐懼感且對於行為意圖會有較顯著之影響。最後當自我調節焦點為促進型焦點，人類外觀擬人化會引起較高程度之恐懼感則與本研究之預期走向相反。以上結果期許可以用於未來公衛宣導以及學術研究上能有進一步之探討上有所幫助。</p> <p> </p><p>In a short period, Covid-19 rapidly spread through droplet transmission, causing economic turmoil and panic in many countries, leading to widespread fear among the public. The threatening and highly contagious nature of the virus intensified people’s anxiety, and public health campaigns showed limited effectiveness. This study aims to explore how different types of anthropomorphism, the appearance with human traits and the appearance with virus traits, impact sense of fear and behavioral intentions. Additionally, the study investigates the moderating effect of regulatory focus on the fear induced by anthropomorphizing the virus. The research adopts a single-factor experimental design (virus appearance: appearance with human traits vs. appearance with virus traits). The study includes 191 valid samples, with regulatory focus as the moderating variable, measured by a scale to identify the type of regulatory focus. Results indicate that human anthropomorphism is more likely to evoke a high level of sense of fear and significantly influence behavioral intentions. Unexpectedly, when the regulatory focus is promotion-oriented, human anthropomorphism causes a higher level of fear, contrary to the anticipated direction of the study. These findings are expected to contribute to future public health campaigns and academic research by providing insights for further exploration.</p> <p> </p>

The influencing mechanism of pro-environmental behaviors in the private domain on those in the public domain

From the perspective of regulatory focus theory, the influencing mechanism of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in the private domain on behaviors in the public domain were analyzed by revealing the mediating effect of the status quo maintenance and the moderating effect of the prevention focus orientation. The study results show that PEBs in the private domain significantly promote individuals’ PEBs in the public domain. The status quo maintenance partially mediates the relationship between PEBs in the private and public domains. Specifically, individuals with a high-level prevention focus orientation strengthen the relationship between the PEBs in the private domain and the status quo maintenance, and that of the PEBs in the public domain. Therefore, individuals with high-level prevention focus will more likely engage in subsequent PEBs in the public domain after their initial PEBs in the private domain due to their increased status quo maintenance degree. Policymakers and practitioners should pay attention to the prevention-repetition effect and use the PEBs in the private domain to promote those in the public domain.

Emotional labor among team members: do employees follow emotional display norms for teams, not for customers?

Emotional labor is typically conceptualized as a process in which individuals regulate their emotions in response to display rules. Most research on emotional labor has focused on the influence of display rules at individual-level perceptions but is rarely examined at the team level. We examine the influence of the shared display rules in teams as emotional display norms. This study considers emotional dissonance as the difference between the positive emotional display norm at the team level and positive emotion at the individual level. To examine the purpose of this study, data were collected from leader-follower pairs within teams and based on a three-wave design. Thus, this study conducted a multi-level polynomial regression analysis and used the response surface methodology to interpret the incongruence effect. The results show that the incongruence effect of emotional dissonance is positively related to surface acting. In addition, the moderating effect of regulatory focus significantly strengthens the positive relationship between emotional dissonance and emotion regulation strategies. The results also show that surface acting strategy is negatively related to selfless Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). These findings highlight that emotional display norms play an important role as the standard for emotional experience in teams, and especially with the moderating effect of self-regulatory focus, emotion regulation strategies affect the selfless OCB rating of observers.

Exploring the Potential of Using Marine-Derived Ingredients: From the Extraction to Cutting-Edge Cosmetics.

The growing understanding and knowledge of the potential of marine species, as well as the application of "blue biotechnology" have been motivating new innovative solutions in cosmetics. It is widely noted that that marine species are important sources of compounds with several biological activities that are yet to be discovered. This review explores various biological properties of marine-derived molecules and briefly outlines the main extraction methods. Alongside these, it is well known the legislative and normative framework of cosmetics is increasingly being developed. In this research segment, there is a growing concern with sustainability. In this sense, "blue biotechnology", together with the use of invasive species or marine waste products to obtain new active ingredients, haven been emerging as innovative and sustainable solutions for the future's cosmetics industry. This review also examines the regulatory framework and focus on the recent advancements in "blue biotechnology" and its relevance to the sustainable development of innovative cosmetics.

Consumers' promotion focus mitigates the negative effects of chatbots on purchase likelihood

AbstractMarketers and consumers are adopting chatbots widely. However, the benefits of this technology remain unclear due to a lack of understanding about individual differences in consumers' purchase decisions when interacting with chatbots. This research investigates the influence of individual differences in promotion focus on purchase likelihood for the products recommended by chatbots. Two experiments demonstrated that consumers generally report a lower purchase likelihood for products recommended by chatbots (vs humans). However, compared to consumers with a low promotion focus, consumers with a high promotion focus report a higher purchase likelihood for the products. The findings also suggest that the relationship between consumer individual differences in promotion focus and purchase likelihood is mediated by engagement. By applying both regulatory focus and regulatory fit theories, the present study provides insights into how promotion focus influences purchase likelihood for products recommended by chatbots. Marketers can utilise both chronic and situational promotion focus to improve consumers' reactions to chatbots using segmentation and promotion‐focus‐related words, respectively.

The Effects of Message Quotes on Tax Compliance

ABSTRACT This paper examines the effects of regulatory focus and regulatory fit theories on taxpayer compliance when taxpayers are exposed to predetermined quotes by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or other tax authority officials. A promotion-oriented regulatory focus is concerned with advancement, growth, and accomplishment, whereas a prevention-oriented regulatory focus is concerned with protection, safety, and responsibility. Using an experimental approach, we find that promotion-oriented (prevention-oriented) individuals are more likely (less likely) than prevention-oriented (promotion-oriented) individuals to self-report income for tax purposes. We also find that (1) promotion-oriented (prevention-oriented) individuals are less (more) likely to self-report income when presented with prevention-focused and neutral quotes as compared to messages with no quotes, and (2) promotion-oriented individuals who read promotion-focused quotes are more likely to self-report income than those reading prevention-focused message quotes. The results suggest theoretical and practical implications for tax compliance.

Time-of-day effects on speed and accuracy performance during simulated shiftwork

ABSTRACT Performance on tasks involving speed and accuracy fluctuate throughout the 24-h day negatively affecting shift workers and organizations. Two simulated work shifts common in occupational settings were used to assess performance on a vigilance and math task. In study 1, 33 sleep-deprived participants completed a nightshift. In study 2, 32 partially sleep-deprived participants completed a dayshift. These studies found that performance differed between the type of task and the type of simulated shift where performance during the nightshift was worse than during the dayshift. In addition, collapsing speed and accuracy on the math task into inverse efficiency scores provided a unique measure that captured the impact of circadian rhythms during shiftwork. The current study also indicated that participants adopted cognitive strategies including speed-accuracy tradeoff and regulatory foci regarding work motivation (prevention focus and promotion focus) when completing the tasks depending on time-of-day, type of shift, circadian rhythms, and amount of sleep deprivation. This suggests that researchers and organizations should consider cognitive strategies in addition to the physiological components of sleep deprivation and circadian rhythms when investigating and documenting the impact of time-of-day due to different types of shiftwork conditions on performance and safety.

Pay it back or pay it forward? How emotions and regulatory focus shape employees’ repaying behaviors after receiving help

Pay it back or pay it forward? How emotions and regulatory focus shape employees’ repaying behaviors after receiving help

Gig worker's perceived algorithmic management, stress appraisal, and destructive deviant behavior.

With the advance of data technologies, gig platforms have applied data and algorithms to their management and put more stringent requirements on gig workers through algorithmic management. Gig workers might perform destructive deviant behavior when coping with algorithmic management. It is meaningful to examine how the algorithmic management applied to gig platforms could lead to gig workers' destructive deviant behavior. Based on the challenge-hindrance framework, we developed a research model and validated it with survey data collected from 423 food delivery riders. We employed multi-level linear regression analysis in data analysis and found that perceived algorithmic management was appraised as both a hindrance and a challenge. As a hindrance, it elicits working/family deviant behavior; as a challenge, it helps reduce working/family deviant behavior. Regulatory focus (a prevention focus vs. a promotion focus) moderates the effect of perceived algorithmic management on stress appraisals (hindrance appraisals vs. challenge appraisals). This study explains algorithmic management's impact on gig workers' destructive deviant behavior through the appraisal of algorithmic management as both a challenge and a hindrance. It also provides practical advice to gig platforms, gig workers and policymakers on how to balance the challenge and hindrance roles of algorithmic management in gig work.

Consumers' intention to adopt plant‐based meat

AbstractThe consumption of plant‐based meat is increasing, reflecting consumers' concerns about health, animal welfare, the environment, and sustainability. However, plant‐based meat consumption remains low owing to the barriers to shifting consumers to this nonmeat diet. We evaluate consumers' intentions to consume plant‐based meat from the perspectives of exploratory behavior and the regulatory focus theory. We collect 642 valid responses and use structural equation modeling to explore the relationship between exploratory behavior, regulatory focus values, and plant‐based meat purchase intention. exploratory behaviors encompass risk‐taking, variety‐seeking, and curiosity, while regulatory‐focus values comprise promotion‐ and prevention‐focus values. The results show that exploratory behaviors affect plant‐based meat purchase intention. Promotion‐focus value has a greater impact on purchase intention than prevention‐focus value. Promotion‐focus value mediates the relationship between exploratory behaviors and purchase intention, whereas prevention‐focus value mediates the relationship between risk‐taking and purchase intention. Drawing on consumers' consumption values, we reveal distinct managerial implications, such as providing important information and adopting online selling to attract buyers [EconLit Citations: Q01, Q13, Q55, Q56].

Informational cascade, regulatory focus and purchase intention in online flash shopping

Online flash shopping has continued to gained popularity since its emergence. From the perspective of informational cascade, our study explores the psychological processes of consumer purchase decision-making in online flash sales. We investigate how external environment influences user purchase intention, as well as the psychological variables and cognitive aspects involved. Our analysis demonstrates that consumers’ propensity to imitate others and their positive perceptions of value markedly enhance their purchase intention, and that preorder size and consistency of product reviews significantly strengthen the psychology of imitation. Moreover, consumers’ regulatory focus moderates the effects of imitation, weakening self-information, and perceived value on purchase intention. Introducing the informational cascade perspective into online flash sales research, our study provides new insights into how information elements and perceived value influence consumers' impulse purchase intention. Using these insights, e-commerce retailers can develop strategies that foster a sense of urgency and excitement among consumers in online flash shopping. By ensuring consistency in customer reviews, and tactically highlighting essential product details such as pre-sale quantities, retailers can enhanced the perceived value of their products. Furthermore, meticulous management of sale duration, product assortment, and information visibility can strengthen purchase intention during flash sales. Our study enriches the understanding of consumer decision-making under the influences of herding and informational cascades.

The influence of daily life events on learning crafting and the intervening roles of academic emotions and regulatory focus in high school students.

The adaptation of students to academic challenges in high school is crucial for academic performance. This study proposes the concept of "learning crafting," a previously under-researched area, and investigates its associated variables. Using a diary method, we studied 187 Chinese high school students (64% female; Mage = 15.57) over a 9-day period. We examined the effect of daily life events on learning crafting, and considered academic emotions as mediators and regulatory focus as moderators. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that daily positive events were positively correlated with learning crafting at both within-person and between-person levels. Positive academic emotions served as mediators of this relationship. Furthermore, promotion focus had a positive moderating effect on the relationship between daily positive events and positive academic emotions. Conversely, daily negative events were only negatively correlated with learning crafting at the between-person level, and no additional significant relationships were identified. This study elucidated the effect of daily life events on learning crafting, its mediating mechanisms, and conditional factors. These results not only contribute to crafting theory, but also provide theoretical underpinnings for future interventions targeting high school students'learning crafting.

Taking Charge as a Contextual Cue: How New CEO Regulatory Focus Influences Strategic Change

Becoming CEO is an emotionally charged event that is characterized by a sharp increase in visibility, responsibilities, expectations, and job vulnerability. Thus, rather than a “honeymoon” period, new CEOs are extremely busy learning about each aspect of the firm, developing relationships with stakeholders, and determining the firm's strategic direction. We suggest that the increased job demands associated with leading the firm, coupled with accentuated job vulnerability, alter the regulatory fit new CEOs experience, thus eliciting unique reactions depending on their regulatory foci. We argue that the increased vigilance and responsibility associated with becoming CEO fit the preferred goal pursuit means of CEOs high in prevention focus, increasing their motivation to engage in strategic change during the first 3 years of their tenure. Conversely, promotion-focused new CEOs engage in less change because they experience a misfit. We also consider how dynamics of the succession event further increase job demands and job vulnerability, moderating these relationships. Using a panel dataset of more than 800 public firms from 2000–2020, we find broad support for our hypotheses. Our primary contribution is showing that the sharp increase in job demands and job vulnerability that executives experience when they first become CEO shifts their regulatory fit and subsequent motivation to engage in strategic change in ways that prior theory would not predict.

When do stock options affect CEO risk‐taking? The moderating role of CEO regulatory focus

AbstractExecutive stock options are provided to risk‐averse CEOs to encourage risk‐taking. We show that the efficacy of such stock options is moderated by CEOs’ regulatory focus—their intrinsic motivations to avoid losses or achieve gains. We show that stock options have a negligible impact on the risk‐taking behavior of CEOs who are intrinsically motivated to avoid losses or take on risks. The impact of stock options on firm risk is strongest among CEOs whose regulatory focus is moderate and whose behavior is thus more malleable. Our paper shows that CEO intrinsic risk‐taking motivations have important implications for the effectiveness of extrinsic risk‐taking incentives provided by stock options.

What Does Leaders’ Abuse Mean to Me? Psychological Empowerment as the Key Mechanism Explaining the Relationship Between Abusive Supervision and Taking Charge

We integrate the cognitive theory of empowerment and regulatory focus theory to suggest that abusive supervision, from which employees draw negative achievement and security implications, discourages employees from engaging in taking charge by damaging their psychological empowerment. We propose that this negative influence is more saliently experienced by both promotion-focused and prevention-focused employees, albeit for different reasons. To test our model, we conducted a field study (Study 1) and a scenario-based experiment (Study 2). In Study 1, we found that psychological empowerment stood as a key mechanism linking abusive supervision and taking charge. Further, promotion focus magnified the negative effects of abusive supervision on psychological empowerment, and in turn, taking charge. Yet, prevention focus did not influence these effects. In Study 2, we replicated these findings and revealed that the anticipations of both career success and job insecurity (representing employees’ achievement and security implications) are critical in linking abusive supervision and psychological empowerment. We also found that promotion focus strengthened the negative indirect effect of abusive supervision on psychological empowerment via anticipated career success, ultimately resulting in a greater negative impact on taking charge. As in Study 1, there was limited support for the moderating effects of prevention focus. Our research highlights the importance of adopting a cognitive view in understanding the impact of abusive supervision on employees’ taking charge.

How temporal contiguity cues influence tourists' purchase intentions: Regulatory focus and double-entry mental accounting perspectives

This study explores the impact of temporal contiguity cues on tourists' purchase intention through three experiments. The findings reveal that review valence can moderate the relationship between temporal contiguity cues and purchase intention, while regulatory focus can further moderate the moderating role of review valence, and double-entry mental accounting plays a mediating role. This study resolved the related dispute about the moderating effect of review valence between temporal contiguity cues and purchase intention from the perspective of regulatory focus theory and found a new mechanism based on double-entry mental accounting theory. It helps companies grasp tourist psychology and provide reviews containing different temporal contiguity cues for tourists with different types of regulatory focus to increase performance.

Similarity as a safe haven: Similarity leads to satisfaction in prevention focus

Despite its association with attraction and liking, similarity fails to reliably predict relationship satisfaction in marriage. This study suggests that individual differences in relationship regulatory focus, i.e., the motivation to prevent negative outcomes or promote positive outcomes in relationships, might address this inconsistency. Specifically, the comforting nature of similarity could potentially enhance marital satisfaction among relationship prevention-focused individuals by fostering a stronger interconnectedness with their partner, compared to relationship promotion-focused individuals. We tested this hypothesis using an online survey with 1,792 participants from Korea and 1,531 participants from the U.S. The results confirmed that relationship prevention-focused individuals experiencing higher self–partner similarity felt a stronger interconnectedness and, consequently, higher marital quality. However, self–partner similarity had a less pronounced effect on relationship promotion-focused individuals. These findings indicate that the perception of similarity plays a more significant role in the marriages of prevention-focused individuals.

Evaluation of the reliability and validity of the health regulatory focus scale in Chinese samples.

This study sought to validate the psychometric properties of the Health Regulatory Focus Scale (HRFS), emphasizing its manifestation and association with personality traits in a Chinese context. Originally developed by Ferrer, the HRFS gauges individuals' inclinations either to avoid negative health outcomes (prevention focus) or achieve positive health outcomes (promotion focus). Our cross-sectional analysis involved a diverse sample of 652 Chinese participants, averaging 39.6 years in age (SD = 9.39). Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS, and both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were employed to assess the HRFS's factor structure. Additionally, we evaluated convergent and discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, internal consistency reliability, and test-retest reliability. The CFA results (CFI = 0.985, TLI = 0.971, RMSEA = 0.059, and SRMR = 0.047), combined with McDonald's omega value (0.916) and the test-retest correlation coefficient (0.78) for the HRFS, underscore its robust construct validity and reliability. Furthermore, the promotion dimension of the HRFS exhibited significant positive correlations with all dimensions of the Chinese Adjectives Short Scale of Big-Five Factor Personality (BFFP-CAS-S). In conclusion, the HRFS's Chinese adaptation offers a reliable and valid instrument for assessing health regulatory focus.

Why is a modest gentleman cruel and ruthless? A study on the dark side effect of humble leadership – from the perspective of low-status compensation theory

Purpose The purpose of this study is to reveal the mechanism of humble leadership inducing abusive supervision from the low-status compensation perspective, examining the mediation role of leader perceived thread to status. Besides, the moderation effect of regulatory focus on the mediation path is discussed. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a three-wave longitudinal survey. The data was collected from 438 leaders and their employees in five Chinese enterprises. This study used Mplus 7.4 and adopted a bootstrapping technique for data analysis. Findings Humble leadership has a positive effect on leader perceived threat to status. Leader perceived threat to status plays a mediation role between humble leadership and leader abusive supervision. Leader regulatory focus is the “gate valve” that humble leadership fosters leader abusive supervision. That is, when the leader promotion focus is high, leader perceived threat to status bred by humble leadership is low, resulting in less abusive supervision. When the leader prevention focus is high, humble leadership brings relatively more abusive supervision through perceived threat to status. Originality/value This study explores why humble leadership breeds abusive supervision behaviors and reveals the mechanism behind the negative effect of humble leadership based on low-status compensation theory. This study not only promotes the continuous development of the field of humble leadership research through empirical research but also provides guidance for effectively suppressing the negative effects of humble leadership, promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses and suppressing inappropriate management behaviors in management practice.

The importance of organization type: Construction sector perceptions of low-carbon policies and measures

To facilitate decarbonization in the EU’s building sector, the regulatory focus is shifting towards a life cycle perspective of emissions. The EU’s path in tackling embodied emissions is under development in the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which is utilizing Level(s) framework and EN 15879 as a methodological foundation. Member States are at different stages in their building life cycle regulation plan and Finland is preparing normative regulations to limit the carbon footprints of new buildings. We conducted a survey on how the different actors in the construction sector perceive new low-carbon policies under development in Finland. Our findings indicate that carbon footprint policies were generally seen as functional. However, perceptions differed significantly depending on the respondent’s organization type. The respondents involved in the construction design stage generally seemed more positive about the proposed regulations, whereas advocates (associations and interest groups) were more cautious than the organizations they represented. These findings help clarify the implementation and development needs of low-carbon policies.