Role Of Skepticism Research Articles

The nature, causes, and effects of skepticism on technology diffusion

Although skepticism is involved in technical change and scientific revolutions, surprisingly, the literature lacks a systematic analysis of the different forms, causes, and roles of skepticism in the diffusion of innovation.This paper defines, identifies and models different types and causes of skepticism and their role in technology adoption. The paper identifies and studies: skepticism involving the characteristics of the technology and the producer; skepticism that induces to disbelieve market signal; and comparative skepticism i.e., skepticism produced by an unbalance relationship between the perceived complexity of the problem and the solution.Among the theoretical findings of the paper and regarding skepticism on market signals, we found that the non-differentiability and oscillation of diffusion rates occur if individuals use the information on diffusion rates as proxy of the probability of technology working and modify this probability according to their skepticism.

The Role of Skepticism and Transparency in Shaping Green Brand Authenticity and Green Brand Evangelism

Green brand evangelism builds an important psychological and behavioral basis on promoting the positive interaction between green brands and consumers, as well as on realizing the co-creation of green brand value. This study selects brand authenticity issues as the entry point and investigates brand authenticity on green brand evangelism. In particular, this study tests the effects of green transparency and green skepticism on brand authenticity, as well as the role of self-brand connection and the need for cognition on the relationship between brand authenticity and green brand evangelism. With a sample of 641 Chinese respondents of green building materials, the dimension and scale of green brand evangelism were acquired by utilizing the grounded theory, and the hypothesized relationships were tested by employing structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that green transparency and green skepticism yield an influence on brand authenticity, and brand authenticity exerts a great influence on green brand authenticity. Moreover, brand authenticity positively affects self-brand connection, which in turn positively influences green brand authenticity, and the relationship between brand authenticity and green brand evangelism is regulated by the need for cognition.

Young consumers’ purchase behaviour of sustainably-labelled food products. What is the role of scepticism?

This paper aimed to investigate consumer scepticism towards third-party sustainability labels in the context of food products, evaluating its role in the formation of the customer’s buying behaviour. A covariance-based structural equation model (CB-SEM) was developed, and it included the customer’s socio-environmental concern, scepticism toward sustainability labels, reported use of the socio-environmental commitment declared by the producer, and purchase behaviour of sustainably-labelled food products. The model was tested on a sample of 311 Italian high-educated young consumers, a group of sustainability-conscious individuals. The findings highlight that purchase behaviour is positively influenced by two reciprocally-related variables: socio-environmental concern and the reported use of the socio-environmental commitment declared by the producer. While other studies have ascertained that scepticism is an antecedent of purchase behaviour, this study findings highlight it can also be considered a mediator of the relationships between purchase behaviour and other antecedents considered in this model. In addition to advancing the study on the role of scepticism in the formation of purchasing decisions for food products, drawing on signalling theory, this study provides insights for practitioners and policymakers, highlighting the absolute necessity to reassure consumers about the credibility of third-party sustainability labels and providing them with the instruments needed to distinguish the truth from the fluff in sustainability communication.

Avoiding Covid-19 risk information in the United States: The role of attitudes, norms, affect, social dominance orientations, and perceived trustworthiness of scientists.

This study seeks guidance from the planned risk information avoidance model to explore drivers of risk information avoidance in the context of COVID‐19. Data were collected early during the pandemic. Among our most notable results is that participants who are more oriented toward social dominance and are more skeptical of scientists’ credibility have (1) more supportive attitudes toward risk information avoidance and (2) feel social pressure to avoid risk information. The findings of this study highlight how the role of skepticism in science and intergroup ideologies, such as social dominance, can have important implications for how people learn about health‐related information, even in times of heightened crisis.

Digital Resilience Through Training Protocols: Learning To Identify Fake News On Social Media

We explore whether training protocols can enhance the ability of social media users to detect fake news, by conducting an online experiment (N = 417) to analyse the effect of such a training protocol, while considering the role of scepticism, age, and level of education. Our findings show a significant relationship between the training protocol and the ability of social media users to detect fake news, suggesting that the protocol can play a positive role in training social media users to recognize fake news. Moreover, we find a direct positive relationship between age and level of education on the one hand and ability to detect fake news on the other, which has implications for future research. We demonstrate the potential of training protocols in countering the effects of fake news, as a scalable solution that empowers users and addresses concerns about the time-consuming nature of fact-checking.

Enlightenment and Education, Then and Now

Ideas about education and its power to transform people’s intellectual, social, political, and personal lives were central to Enlightenment thought. They were also central to the Enlightenment belief that new ways of thinking engendered new ways of living (and vice versa). Taken together, these points placed education at the heart of early modern debates over the constitution of society, the organization and administration of the polity, the nature and purpose of civil society, and the relations that govern everyday life. To understand this view of education and the Enlightenment debates to which it gave rise, this essay highlights the role of skepticism and uncertainty in Enlightenment thought, the philosophes’ interest in education as an instrument of moral and social improvement, and their commitment to the idea that both individual and collective progress stemmed from critical forms of social intercourse. As a result, we see that the Enlightenment’s educational legacy is not a particular platform or pedagogy, but an ongoing experiment in how the critical and collective pursuit of useful knowledge might reform or remake human society.

Exploring nuances of green skepticism in different economies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumers’ skepticism and green consumption in different economies by exploring antecedents and consequences of skepticism.Design/methodology/approachUsing a cross-country approach, with data from Brazil and France, the relationships between green skepticism and downstream consequences (e.g. intention to purchase green products) were analyzed using the partial least squares path modeling with the results of 996 questionnaires.FindingsContradicting previous research, the authors found that in France, green skepticism represents consumers’ increased green advertising elaboration, not a disbelief in companies’ claims, and it is associated with greater intentions to make green purchases. Meanwhile, in Brazil, green skepticism represents consumers’ disbelief, which is associated to consumers greater suspicion toward (and distance from) companies’ claims in such country. This study shows that the role of skepticism and the valence of its effect on green attitudes depend on market relationships.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors promote the importance of investigating the different meanings of skepticism across countries, what can spill over on research of other marketing aspects, such as advertising elaboration. Managers should consider the importance of consumers’ doubts and skepticism as a useful element that can be explored in green advertising effectiveness.Practical implicationsManagers should consider the importance of consumers’ doubts and skepticism as a useful element that can be explored in green advertising effectiveness.Originality/valueThis research examines an underexplored debate on the role of green skepticism in different economies and demonstrates the nuances green advertising impact on both markets.

Role of Skepticism and Message Elaboration in Determining Consumers’ Response to Cause-Related Marketing Claims on Facebook Brand Pages

This study explores whether the negative effects of consumer skepticism toward cause-related marketing communications can be lessened through emotional messaging and heuristic cues such as the number of likes and followers on a Facebook brand page. Results of an eye-tracking experiment (N = 197) indicated that although skepticism prohibited consumers’ message elaboration, (i.e., the extent to which a person carefully considers a message), highly skeptical consumers still considered the message credible through close attention to the heuristic cues. This study is among the first to validate consumers’ defense mechanisms by demonstrating how consumer skepticism prohibits their attention and cognitive elaboration.

Skepticism as a political orientation factor: A moderated mediation model of online opinion expression

ABSTRACTThis study examines the role of skepticism as a source of news media use and online opinion expression. Data from a national online panel of participants show that skepticism is related to increases in news media use, which in turn positively predicts online opinion expression. Data further indicate that this indirect link between skepticism and online opinion expression via news media use differs by age, such that this indirect link is stronger for younger respondents in the current sample. Implications are discussed for the role of skepticism in producing an engaged citizenry.

A theoretical review of consumer priming: Prospective theory, retrospective theory, and the affective–behavioral–cognitive model

ABSTRACTPrimes are pervasive in marketing. Despite frequent use in practice, there has yet to be a framework to categorize priming techniques that is inclusive of measurement challenges and methods for administering primes as well as provides insight for researchers on how to think about and construct research using priming. Prior researchers have provided reviews of priming research, which have set the stage for discussions of priming theories and challenges of using primes in survey research. We build from their review and contribute in four ways by (i) reviewing priming theories rooted in both prospective and retrospective models of memory; (ii) developing a priming framework based on the ABC model of attitudes (affective, behavioral, and cognitive priming) that incorporates lexical priming, priming fluency effects, and methods for administering primes; (iii) addressing priming challenges including discrepancies between the priming method and measurement method; and (iv) positing the influence of personal characteristics on priming, such as the role of skepticism in assimilation and contrast effects. The final model is offered and elaborated upon as a guide for future research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Prescription drug advertising and consumer stigma about depression: The moderating role of skepticism toward advertising

The current study was designed to explore how consumers’ exposure to direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of antidepressants would relate to the extent of stigma they hold toward clinical depression, and how such an association would be moderated by the level of skeptical attitudes toward the advertising category. The results showed that when skepticism was low, exposure to DTCA of antidepressants was positively associated with the extent of stigma toward depression. A negative relationship between DTCA exposure and endorsement of stigma was observed only when the level of skepticism was extremely high. In an exploratory analysis, the study further found that among individuals with personal and interpersonal experiences of depression, DTCA exposure might strengthen depression stigma, while such a relationship was not observed among those with a lower level of depression-related life experiences. This study concluded by discussing the implications of the findings for health professionals as well as the practice and social responsibility of DTCA.

Ceticismo ao valor e valor do ceticismo na interpretação do direito

O processo vivenciado na modernidade de complexificacao social e o surgimento do direito como sistema social autonomo mudam os termos da longa controversia entre direito e moral, na medida em que a pluralidade de visoes torna excentrica a defesa de um conteudo de justica valido em si mesmo, configurando a generalizacao social de um ceticismo em relacao aos valores. Na contramao desse fenomeno, teorias juridicas contemporâneas aglutinadas sob a insignia do “pos-positivismo” tem apostado na moralidade dos principios no sentido de alcancar uma resposta adequada ao ordenamento juridico. Diante desse cenario, o presente artigo procura identificar o papel que o ceticismo em torno dos valores adquire nas formulacoes teoricas sobre a interpretacao do direito, tendo como objeto, por um lado, a descricao feita pelas teorias positivistas classicas de Hans Kelsen e Herbert Hart sobre a interpretacao do direito e, por outro, a critica de Ronald Dworkin ao ceticismo e sua defesa da objetividade moral. Procurando responder sobre a possibilidade da verdade moral ser objetiva em sociedades complexas de maneira a limitar a interpretacao juridica, o trabalho procura desfazer algumas confusoes que tornam questoes de ponto de vista grandes desacordos teoricos. Por fim, aponta que o proprio ceticismo deve ser considerado um valor da pratica interpretativa do direito no Brasil.Palavras-chave: teoria do direito, hermeneutica, interpretacao do direito, ceticismo, valor.

Problems He Never Gets Anywhere Near: Wittgenstein's Reading of Beethoven as a View of His Later Philosophy

This article argues that a 1931 text by Wittgenstein discussing Beethoven, philosophy, and cultural history sheds a unique light on both Wittgenstein's later philosophy and the relationship between music and philosophical thought more broadly. The first part of the essay claims that in writing about Beethoven Wittgenstein is writing about his philosophical self as well, not only touching on what he believed to be the relationship between his project and Beethoven's, but also trying to identify the path for his later philosophy within his own cultural and historical context. The second part brings the insights of this minor text to bear on both the controversial “rule-following” paradox from Philosophical Investigations and the role of skepticism in Wittgenstein's late philosophy. I suggest two related analogies, or what Wittgenstein himself might have called “family resemblances.” First, skepticism in Wittgenstein's later work resembles dissonance in one of Beethoven's most profoundly historical works, Symphony No. 3 in E flat “Eroica.” Second, and by extension, the overall structure of argumentation in Part 1 of Philosophical Investigations resembles Beethoven's version of the sonata form. In explicating the rule-following paradox and the symphony, I assess the methodologies of prominent critical commentaries on Wittgenstein and Beethoven, in particular those of philosopher Saul Kripke and musicologist Richard Taruskin, whose approaches attempt to dramatize the process of reading a text or listening to a piece “as if” for the first time. Such an approach can refresh or enliven our understanding of a familiar work; it can also leave a difficult text or musical composition seeming stranger than before. Kripke's commentary on Wittgenstein and Taruskin's on Beethoven provide extreme cases of both the happy and more problematic possibilities of such an approach.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Antidepressant Advertising and Consumer Misperceptions About the Chemical Imbalance Theory of Depression: The Moderating Role of Skepticism

Based on a survey with members of an online consumer panel (N= 699), this study revealed that: (a) a substantial percentage of consumers held misperceptions about the chemical imbalance theory of depression; (b) personal and interpersonal experiences with depression positively related to such misperceptions; (c) overall, exposure to direct-to-consumer (DTC) antidepressant advertising did not significantly relate to misperceptions; and (d) DTC exposure magnified misperceptions when consumers were highly trustful of DTC advertising, whereas exposure diluted misperceptions when consumers were highly skeptical. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are discussed, especially in light of the social responsibility of DTC advertising.

Coaching psychology and research evidence: The role of scepticism

By virtue of their psychological background, coaching psychologists are trained in the perspective of scientific philosophy and this gives them a vital role in relation to the many approaches currently being used by coaches. This philosophical perspective is based on the acceptance or rejection of hypotheses at specified levels of confidence. Using the example of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) the limits of empirical evidence is discussed in relation to the need for a sceptical ‘stance’ in relation to coaching approaches more generally.

A Man is Conservative after Dinner: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michel de Montaigne and the Appetites of Moderation

What does it mean to be radically moderate? Moderation can act as a check on excess while still proudly exhibiting the strength of its own advocacy. In this essay, I think through the counter-intuitive possibilities of a radical moderatism by reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's chapter (published in Representative Men in 1850) on Michel de Montaigne. Emerson's moderate credentials, I suggest, are radical in their refusal to form exclusive alliances, a discursive hesitancy embodied in a style which constantly qualifies or undercuts itself in a resistance to settled thought. If one definition of moderatism is the desire to adjudicate between positions, to find common ground, to reach a settlement, Emerson's radicalism lies in his reluctance to choose, or at least in his desire to maintain an openness to the possibility of further consideration of a subject. ‘Montaigne’ is a complex meditation on the role of scepticism in the production of thought, and on the conditions that might be necessary for thinking to retain its validity in the face of the false comforts of extremism. Emerson maintains a sometimes precarious balance between scepticism and belief, keen to argue against our craving for easy certainty (the position we lazily slip into, he suggests, after a good meal) and yet also holding onto the notion that the abandonment of belief is a human impossibility. Emerson treads between and around these positions, at times reluctant to close a dialectic whose very existence speaks to his commitment to a moderatism that, in the words of Virginia Woolf (writing about Montaigne), follows the mind's ‘own vagaries, giving the whole map, weight, colour, and circumference of the soul in its confusion, its variety, its imperfection’.

Clustering Consumers According to Their Environmental Concerns and Scepticisms

In this study, authors aimed to measure the environmentally sensitive behaviour of consumers and to cluster them according to their environmental concerns and scepticisms. These two psychographic variables were selected by their diverse nature and importance for understanding the basic determinants of a continuously developing market segment. Since the studies about the role of scepticism on environmentally sensitive consumer behaviour are quite limited in marketing literature, this study is expected to contribute towards the efforts of filling the existing gap.

The Mpemba effect: When can hot water freeze faster than cold?

We review the Mpemba effect, where initially hot water freezes faster than initially cold water. Although the effect might appear impossible, it has been observed in numerous experiments and was discussed by Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Roger Bacon, and Descartes. It has a rich and fascinating history, including the story of the secondary school student, Erasto Mpemba, who reintroduced the effect to the twentieth century scientific community. The phenomenon is simple to describe and illustrates numerous important issues about the scientific method: the role of skepticism in scientific inquiry, the influence of theory on experiment and observation, the need for precision in the statement of a scientific hypothesis, and the nature of falsifiability. Proposed theoretical mechanisms for the Mpemba effect and the results of contemporary experiments on the phenomenon are surveyed. The observation that hot water pipes are more likely to burst than cold water pipes is also discussed.

The Role of Scepticism in Hegel's "Doctrine of the Concept"

A perennial controversy in the domain of speculative philosophy is how one should characterize the fundamental metaphysical position of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's system of Absolute Idealism. Certainly, there exists the naive but common misconception that Hegel's Absolute Idealism is simply the most extreme form of idealism, devoid of any reference to empirical reality. 1 Some scholars view Absolute Idealism as a form of transcendental idealism. And others view Hegel's position as more akin to an epistemological realism. 2 However, by re-reading the Logic with a focus on the role of scepticism and negation in the 'Doctrine of the Concept,' a novel way of comprehending Hegel's fundamental position becomes evident. For in the 'Doctrine of the Concept,' scepticism, articulated as a moment of the progression of the logical Concept, shows itself to be the 'moving soul' of Hegel's criterion of truth. In this paper, I demonstrate that it is due to Hegel's understanding of scepticism as a common presupposition of the attitudes of both idealism and realism that the notion of Absolute Idealism is meant to assert the primacy of the logical Concept (Begriff) over these opposed terms. Thus, I argue that Hegel's Absolute Idealism is neither meant as a one-sided idealism nor realism. Rather, I show how Hegel places emphasis on the working-out of the opposition between idealism and realism in virtue of the dialectical movement of the logical Concept. [End Page 77]

The Historicity of Philosophy and the Role of Skepticism

The Historicity of Philosophy and the Role of Skepticism