Web-based Experiment Research Articles

Empathy and Emotional Contagion as a Link Between Recognized and Felt Emotions in Music Listening

Previous studies have shown that there is a difference between recognized and induced emotion in music listening. In this study, empathy is tested as a possible moderator between recognition and induction that is, on its own, moderated via music preference evaluations and other individual and situational features. Preference was also tested to determine whether it had an effect on measures of emotion independently from emotional expression. A web-based experiment gathered from 3,164 music listeners emotion, empathy, and preference ratings in a between-subjects design embedded in a music-personality test. Stimuli were a sample of 23 musical excerpts (each 30 seconds long, five randomly assigned to each participant) from various musical styles chosen to represent different emotions and preferences. Listeners in the recognition rating condition rated measures of valence and arousal significantly differently than listeners in the felt rating condition. Empathy ratings were shown to modulate this relationship: when empathy was present, the difference between the two rating types was reduced. Furthermore, we confirmed preference as one major predictor of empathy ratings. Emotional contagion was tested and confirmed as an additional direct effect of emotional expression on induced emotions. This study is among the first to explicitly test empathy and emotional contagion during music listening, helping to explain the often-reported emotional response to music in everyday life.

When do consumers buy online product reviews? Effects of review quality, product type, and reviewer’s photo

A web-based experiment (N=201) examined (a) how the quality of online product reviews affects the participants’ acceptance of the reviews as well as their evaluations of the sources and (b) how such effects vary depending on the product type and the availability of reviewers’ photos. For the product type, an experience good (computer game) whose quality is difficult to assess before firsthand experience and a search good (vitamin) whose quality can be easily evaluated by reading a product description were compared. After reading overall positive reviews, those exposed to the high-quality (vs. low-quality) reviews evaluated the product more positively, which in turn, led to a stronger purchase intention. However, review quality also had a negative direct effect on the purchase intention for the experience good, with no corresponding effect for the search good. High-quality reviews induced more positive evaluations of the reviewers (primary source), but they enhanced website evaluation (secondary source) only when the reviewers’ photos were present, suggesting that such visual cues may facilitate systematic message processing.

Content Use from Websites: Effects of Governance Mechanisms

This study investigates how people use content from websites when there are mechanisms that validate content on those sites. Specifically, we examine the effects of two governance mechanisms, expert- and community-governance, on content usage from two web pages. We draw upon the elaboration-likelihood model as the theoretical basis to postulate hypotheses for empirical testing. Data collected from student subjects through a web-based experiment show that credibility of a governance mechanism has a positive effect on individuals' use of content from web pages, while also influencing their perceptions of content quality. Research and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Stories can influence the self-concept

The present work examined the influence of stories on the self-concept of femininity. A mixed sample of female respondents (N = 689) participated in a web-based experiment. Self-reported femininity was assessed after reading a story that featured a protagonist with a traditional gender role (focused on motherhood) or a control story. The experimental story increased femininity only among readers who were more deeply transported into the story world. Moreover, the experimental story increased femininity among respondents who were unlikely to engage in social comparison (had no children of their own), whereas no such effect was observed for respondents who were demographically more similar to the protagonist (had children of their own).

Effects of nutrient content claims, sports celebrity endorsements and premium offers on pre‐adolescent children's food preferences: experimental research

To assess pre-adolescent children's responses to common child-oriented front-of-pack food promotions. Between-subjects, web-based experiment with four front-of-pack promotion conditions on energy-dense and nutrient-poor (EDNP) foods: no promotion [control]; nutrient content claims; sports celebrity endorsements (male athletes) and premium offers. Participants were 1302 grade 5 and 6 children (mean age 11 years) from Melbourne, Australia. Participants chose their preferred product from a randomly assigned EDNP food pack and comparable healthier food pack then completed detailed product ratings. Child-oriented pack designs with colourful, cartooned graphics, fonts and promotions were used. Compared to the control condition, children were more likely to choose EDNP products featuring nutrient content claims (both genders) and sports celebrity endorsements (boys only). Perceptions of nutritional content were enhanced by nutrient content claims. Effects of promotions on some product ratings (but not choice) were negated when children referred to the nutrition information panel. Premium offers did not enhance children's product ratings or choice. Nutrient content claims and sports celebrity endorsements influence pre-adolescent children's preferences towards EDNP food products displaying them. Policy interventions to reduce the impact of unhealthy food marketing to children should limit the use of these promotions.

Compared to a small, supervised lab experiment, a large, unsupervised web-based experiment on a previously unknown effect has benefits that outweigh its potential costs

Research on internet-based studies has generally supported their benefits. However, that research sometimes did not directly compare internet-based to traditional delivery, often used non-experimental methods and small samples, and has not used an entirely unknown effect for the comparison to completely rule out demand characteristics. Our lab experiment (N=180), in which participants were supervised by an experimenter, demonstrated previously unexamined effects. Both the frighteningness and disgustingness of insects made people want to kill them, and females wanted to kill the insects more than males did. There were also some interesting patterns of interaction with gender, but they were not statistically significant. However, an unsupervised, but larger, web-based experiment (N=1301) produced the same significant main effects as the lab study, and the same patterns of interaction that had occurred at a non-significant level in the lab study occurred at a statistically significant level in the web-based study. These results add support to the finding that although web-based studies may incur risks by being unsupervised, such as some participants not being genuinely motivated to follow the instructions correctly, the risks are compensated for by the much larger sample size afforded by the web-based approach.

Web-based Image Preference

Some experimenters have begun to carry out image preference experiments over the web, with observers completing the task in their own time and using their own display devices. This reduces the administrative overhead, and opens the possibility to huge numbers of potential observers. However, we have to surrender some control over viewing conditions. In previous work, we evaluated an existing web-based paired comparison experiment against a lab-based counterpart and found that, generally, the two variants did not correlate to a significantly high degree. In this work we extend that study with the development of our own web-based research platform with greater control over viewing conditions and much larger quantities of observers (over 1,000, with more than 26,000 individual observations). With this, we show much more positive correlation between the web- and lab-based variants. We also show the similarity or otherwise between the two variants as a function of time, which reveals how many web-based observations are required to achieve stable results.

Interpreting President Barack Obama's Facial Displays of Emotion: Revisiting the Dartmouth Group

Charismatic presidents like John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and now Barack Obama have been able to overcome stereotype‐based barriers to political power by connecting emotionally with viewers, particularly through their nonverbal skills. In this study we focus on the facial displays of emotion by President Obama and how participants interpret them. This study builds upon the pioneering research of the Dartmouth Group concerning response to displays of happiness‐reassurance by political leaders. It will first replicate and extend upon existing research by using Ekman and Friesen's Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to characterize facial displays by President Obama, specifically three neutral displays and three different types of smiles. Second, this study replicates research carried out over two decades ago concerning individual differences in sex, ethnicity, and age cohort on response to political candidates culturally defined as Black. Video focusing on the head and torso were FACS coded and presented in a web‐based experiment to 79 participants working at a southern institution of higher education. The participants identified the emotions felt by President Obama on a scale ranging from “not at all” to “extremely” focusing on the basic emotion terms of: “Happy” and “Playful” (happiness‐reassurance) and “Angry” and “Disgusted” (anger‐threat). Findings suggest participants differentiate between subtle facial‐display differences and that there are differences based upon ethnicity and support for President Obama when they interpret his facial displays of emotion.

Impact of tobacco-related health warning labels across socioeconomic, race and ethnic groups: results from a randomized web-based experiment.

BackgroundThe U.S. Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 requires updating of the existing text-only health warning labels on tobacco packaging with nine new warning statements accompanied by pictorial images. Survey and experimental research in the U.S. and other countries supports the effectiveness of pictorial health warning labels compared with text-only warnings for informing smokers about the risks of smoking and encouraging cessation. Yet very little research has examined differences in reactions to warning labels by race/ethnicity, education or income despite evidence that population subgroups may differ in their ability to process health information. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the potential impact of pictorial warning labels compared with text-only labels among U.S. adult smokers from diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups.Methods/FindingsParticipants were adult smokers recruited from two online research panels (n = 3,371) into a web-based experimental study to view either the new pictorial warnings or text-only warnings. Participants viewed the labels and reported their reactions. Adjusted regression models demonstrated significantly stronger reactions for the pictorial condition for each outcome salience (b = 0.62, p<.001); perceived impact (b = 0.44, p<.001); credibility (OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.22−1.62), and intention to quit (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.10−1.53). No significant results were found for interactions between condition and race/ethnicity, education, or income. The only exception concerned the intention to quit outcome, where the condition-by-education interaction was nearly significant (p = 0.057).ConclusionsFindings suggest that the greater impact of the pictorial warning label compared to the text-only warning is consistent across diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic populations. Given their great reach, pictorial health warning labels may be one of the few tobacco control policies that have the potential to reduce communication inequalities across groups. Policies that establish strong pictorial warning labels on tobacco packaging may be instrumental in reducing the toll of the tobacco epidemic, particularly within vulnerable communities.

Evaluation of Seafood Product Concepts by Young Adults and Families with Young Children from Denmark, Norway, and Iceland

This article describes the results of a study that tested the responses to 14 seafood concepts among young adults and families with young children in Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. This study was aimed at gaining insight into the evaluation of new seafood product concepts by individuals with low seafood consumption. Based on consumer-reported values and previous concept-testing, 14 seafood product concepts were tested by 296 consumers in a web-based experiment. Consumers' preferences depended on the size of fish, the presence of information, and the fish species offered. Young adult consumers evaluated the product concepts differently than parents of young children. Three consumer clusters, based on attitudinal variables, were identified explaining the differences in the evaluation of the product concepts. The outcome of this study will be used to develop a product for realistic in-home testing.

Multi-dimensional iterative reasoning in action: The case of the Colonel Blotto game

We introduce a novel decision procedure involving multi-dimensional iterative reasoning, in which a player decides separately on the various features of his strategy using an iterative process. This type of strategic reasoning fits a range of complicated situations in which a player faces a large and non-ordered strategy space. In this paper, the procedure is used to explain the results of a large web-based experiment of a tournament version of the Colonel Blotto game. The interpretation of the participants’ choices as reflecting multi-dimensional iterative reasoning is supported by an analysis of their response times and the relation between the participants’ behavior in this game and their choices in another game which triggers standard k-level reasoning. Finally, we reveal the most successful strategies in the tournament, which appear to reflect 2–3 levels of reasoning in the two main “dimensions”.

Are They Talking to Me? Cognitive and Affective Effects of Interactivity in Politicians' Twitter Communication

The present study investigated when and how the level of interactivity in politicians' Twitter communication affects the public's cognitive and affective reactions. In a Web-based experiment (n=264), participants viewed a high profile male politician's Twitter page, wherein he was either actively responding to his followers' questions (high interactivity) or mostly posting messages on his own (low interactivity). Exposure to the high-interactivity Twitter page induced a stronger sense of direct conversation with the candidate (social presence), but only among less affiliative individuals who usually avoid social interaction. Heightened social presence, in turn, led to more positive overall evaluations of the candidate and a stronger intention to vote for him. Although those in the high-interactivity condition generated more positive thoughts, they had fewer issue-related thoughts and exhibited poorer recognition of the issues mentioned by the candidate.

Integrating Aesthetic and Usability Factors in the Design of Mobile Phones

Modern society has come to rely on mobile phones, devices of great functional value and aesthetic importance. Interactive Genetic Algorithms (IGAs) have previously been used to allow individuals to design mobile phones based on aesthetic preference. Here, a multi-objective ergonomic “teammate”, in the form of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is added to the IGA. GAs and IGAs mimic evolution by iteratively refining a design by having users select designs they find most aesthetically pleasing (IGAs), or using a physical ergonomics model to select ergonomic designs (GAs), and using the selections to create a new generation of designs in a manner similar to natural selection. The web-based experiment had 32 participants, varying button spacing, screen size, and radius of phones over 10 trials (5 with an IGA alone, 5 with an IGA and a GA). The presence of a GA significantly improved the physical ergonomic rating of the final designs, but did not negatively impact the rated aesthetics. IGAs combined with GAs show promise as a tool for designers.

Designing persuasive destination websites: A mental imagery processing perspective

Existing research suggests that consumers’ choices of vacations may be significantly influenced by mental imagery processing, which is considered to be high elaboration cognitive processing. This study first aimed to identify imagery-eliciting Web site features, and second to test their influence on persuasion-related outcomes such as attitude strength, confidence, and attitude resistance. A total of 252 subjects participated in a Web-based experiment to examine the influence of selected Web site features on individual imagery processing and its effect on consumers’ attitudes and expectations. The data was analyzed primarily using a structural equation modeling methodology. Structural model results revealed that the mental imagery construct strongly influenced the measured communication effects. In terms of inducing mental imagery processing, only pictures were found to make a significant difference. The findings stress the importance of researching mental imagery processing in tourism and provide practical implications for the design of persuasive destination Web sites.

On the Socio-Indexicality of a Parisian French Intonation Contour

ABSTRACTThis study examines how intonation contours prevalent in a Parisian French urban youth vernacular (Conein and Gadet, 1998; Fagyal 2003, 2005) index sociolinguistic meanings for Parisian French listeners. In a web-based experiment, listeners placed recordings with stress patterns ranging from clearly penultimate (‘non-standard’) to clear phrase-final (‘standard’) in cities whose linguistic correctness they had previously evaluated. Stimuli with the most numerous and strongest cues to penultimate prominence were reliably identified with cities low in linguistic prestige. Sociolinguistic experience was shown to predict stimulus evaluations. The conclusions reached speak to the socio-indexicality of certain Parisian intonation contour types and the methodology used herein may lend itself to future studies of socially sensitive language variation.

Healthy Choices: Regulatory Design and Processing Modes of Health Decisions

This article demonstrates experimentally that individuals making decisions about their health management are affected by the decision making environment and that law and policy can serve important roles in improving the decision environment. With the support of a generous grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we conducted two series of experiments. First a lab experiment with approximately 700 respondents and next a web-based experiment with over 3000 respondents, including 300 medical doctors. In each of the experiments, in addition to manipulating the decision making environment and choice sets, we manipulated the state of the decision maker. In the first series of experiments we used the psychological mechanism of cognitive depletion and in the second series we tested the effects of cognitive overload. Most broadly, unlike past measures of risk aversion, our studies demonstrate that preferences for risk are not fixed in an individual but rather are highly sensitive to the role, context, and state of the decision maker in patterned ways. The project provides new evidence that cognitive processes affect decision making and judgment of risk, often leading to medically suboptimal choices. The lab studies suggest that often people process risk sub-optimally, e.g. favoring potentially harmful omissions over less harmful acts and being influenced by the order of warnings or choices, rather than their substantive value.

The influence of self- and other-deprecatory humor on presidential candidate evaluation during the 2008 US election

This study considers the effect of participants’ evaluation of self-deprecatory and other-deprecatory (attack) humorous comments made by presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain during the 2008 electoral season. Humor, by evoking laughter in an audience, provides evidence of support for competitors for a leadership position through social contagion, and can be used to attack competitors ( Alexander, 1986 ) while sanctioning behavior at odds with group norms, whereas humor focused on oneself may be seen as a way of attending to egalitarian norms while ascending the dominance hierarchy ( Boehm, 1999 ). A total of 185 participants analyzed here took part in a web-based experiment carried out 2 weeks before the 2008 presidential election. Short video excerpts of the presidential candidates making both self-deprecatory and other-deprecatory humorous comments serve as stimuli. Findings suggest previously held opinions about the presidential candidates influence participant evaluation of humorous comments by the candidates. These comments, in turn, influence how participants evaluate the candidate making the humorous comment.

A re-examination of the effect of contextual group size on people’s attitude to risk

AbstractUsing Kahneman and Tversky’s life-death decision paradigm, Wang and colleagues (e.g., Wang &amp; Johnston, 1995; Wang, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c, 2008; Wang et al., 2001) have shown two characteristic phenomena regarding people’s attitude to risk when the contextual group size is manipulated. In both positive and negative frames, people tend to take greater risks in life-death decisions as the contextual group size becomes smaller; this risk-seeking attitude is greater when framed positively than negatively. (This second characteristic often leads to the disappearance of the framing effect in small group contexts comprising of 6 or 60 people.) Their results could shed new light on the effect of contextual group size on people’s risk choice. However these results are usually observed in laboratory experiments with university student samples. This study aims to examine the external validity of these results through different ways of experimentation and with a different sample base. The first characteristic was replicated in both a face-to-face interview with a randomly selected sample of the Japanese general public, and a web-based experiment with a non-student sample, but not the second.

Smoking cues, argument strength, and perceived effectiveness of antismoking PSAs.

The study examines the effectiveness of antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) among adult smokers as a function of smoking cues and the argument strength of the PSAs. Consistent with the previous cue-reactivity studies, smoking cues are defined as one of the following visual scenes: (a) objects associated with smoking, (b) holding or handling cigarettes, and (c) actual smoking behaviors. Argument strength indicates smoker's judgments of perceived strength and persuasiveness of the arguments extracted from the PSAs. Data were collected through a web-based experiment of a random sample of general population of smokers (n = 566 adults aged 19 years or older). Each participant was shown 4 PSAs randomly selected from a set of 60. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling to assess the effects of smoking cues and argument strength. Effectiveness measures include perceived persuasiveness, transportation, valenced thought, negative emotion, and smoking-related thoughts. Argument strength is a significant predictor of outcome variables. Although there were no significant main effects of smoking cues on any outcome variables, smoking cues were found to interact with argument strength such that the association between argument strength and outcome variables became weaker for PSAs in the smoking cue condition compared with those in the no-cue condition. The interaction between smoking cues and argument strength suggests that smoking cues in antismoking PSAs undermine a significant part of what makes PSAs effective-their arguments against smoking. In designing antismoking messages, the inclusion of smoking cues should be weighed carefully.

Determinants of Investors’ Information Acquisition: Credibility and Confirmation

ABSTRACT: Psychology theory suggests that current investors are unlikely to be impartial in their acquisition of information regarding a currently held position after receiving information that casts doubt on the profitability of the position. This study examines whether the favorability of initial information an investor receives subsequent to taking an investment position moderates his acquisition of additional information regarding that position. A web-based experiment indicates that participants generally choose to view information based on its credibility. However, the majority of information chosen by participants initially receiving unfavorable information supports the investment position they chose at the beginning of the case. Moreover, participants receiving unfavorable information prefer to view lower-credibility, preference-consistent information at a similar rate to higher-credibility, preference-inconsistent information. Given a psychological need to support a previous investment decision, participants forgo a certain amount of credibility in the information they gather to confirm their belief in their investment position.