Ivar E. Vermeulen

• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

span>Replication is generally considered a keystone of the scientific enterprise. Unfortunately in communication science, there is a lack of clarity on what a replication actually entails, and to what extent replicators can deviate from original studies. In order to facilitate researchers to conduct, evaluate, and justify the set-up of replications...

Health-related misinformation, especially in times of a global health crisis, can have severe negative consequences on public health. In the current studies, we investigated the persuasive impact of COVID-19-related misinformation, and whether the valence of the misinformation and recipients' degree of overconfidence affect this impact. In two pre-...

In the last 10 years, many canonical findings in the social sciences appear unreliable. This so-called “replication crisis” has spurred calls for open science practices, which aim to increase the reproducibility, replicability, and generalizability of findings. Communication research is subject to many of the same challenges that have caused low re...

The success of home-sharing platforms like Airbnb has introduced the role of sharing providers, i.e. those users who list their properties on the website and share them in exchange for an income. Different from micro-entrepreneurs within other types of peer-to-peer platforms such as e-marketplaces, the experience of home-sharing often presumes face...

Humorous video genres (e.g. comedy/skits, pranks, or humorous vlogs and gaming videos) are among the most popular on online platforms like YouTube. The most common way for brands to advertise in these videos is by means of overlay ads. The current paper investigates the effectiveness of such in-video ads. Based on prior studies on multi-modal infor...

Background: Online tests enable efficient self-administered assessments and consequently facilitate large-scale data collection for many fields of research. The Amsterdam Cognition Scan is a new online neuropsychological test battery that measures a broad variety of cognitive functions. Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the psyc...

Introduction: To facilitate large-scale assessment of a variety of cognitive abilities in clinical studies, we developed a self-administered online neuropsychological test battery: the Amsterdam Cognition Scan (ACS). The current studies evaluate in a group of adult cancer patients: test-retest reliability of the ACS and the influence of test setti...

Objective: Online neuropsychological test batteries could allow for large-scale cognitive data collection in clinical studies. However, the few online neuropsychological test batteries that are currently available often still require supervision or lack proper psychometric evaluation. In this paper, we have outlined prerequisites for proper develo...

Can single pairing of background music with an advertised product condition choice behavior? Gorn's (1982) demonstration of this effect remains controversial given his unconventional conditioning procedure, unusual data analyses, probably confounded stimuli, and possible demand artifacts. We review prior criticism and conduct three conceptual repli...

Publication bias promotes papers providing “significant” findings, thus incentivizing researchers to produce such findings. Prior studies suggested that researchers’ focus on “p <.05” yields—intentional or unintentional—p-value misreporting, and excess p-values just below.05. To assess whether similar distortions occur in communication science, we...

Building on terror management theory, three experiments tested whether advertisements with a mortality reminder increase purchase intentions for products that provide an (un)important source of self-esteem. Study 1 tested the effects of mortality salience in advertisements (mortality reminder: yes vs. no) for art library and newspaper subscriptions...

Three studies replicated a classroom experiment on single-exposure musical conditioning of consumer choice (Gorn, 1982), testing whether simultaneous exposure to liked (vs. disliked) music and a pen image induced preferences for the shown (vs. a different) pen. Experiments 1 and 2 employed the original music, Experiment 3 used contemporary music. E...

Active sharing in online cancer communities benefits patients. However, many patients refrain from sharing health information online due to privacy concerns. Existing research on privacy emphasizes data security and confidentiality, largely focusing on electronic medical records. Patient preferences around information sharing in online communities...

Using both manual and automatic content analysis we analyzed 100 collected screen plays of 50 users of the IS system Façade, coding the extent to which users stayed “in character”. Comparing this measure for first and second exposure to Façade revealed that users stay significantly less in character during second exposure. Further, related to a set...

To understand the impact of personality, one needs to know how personality differences manifest themselves in language use. The present study investigates the link between extraversion and language abstraction. Participants’ spontaneous verbal utterances in face-to-face interactions were analyzed for language abstraction by applying the linguistic...

Effects of movement synchrony on ingroup perceptions and cooperation among high school children Effects of movement synchrony on ingroup perceptions and cooperation among high school children Synchronous movement (e.g., marching, clapping) is a well-established practice to strengthen social bonds. Nevertheless, research on its effectiveness is scar...

Organizational ecology models of market dynamics emphasize the competition-inducing role of inter-organizational niche overlap—targeting similar market niches increases competitive pressure and thus reduces organizations’ fitness. Recent studies, however, have suggested that moderate niche overlap may positively influence organizational viability b...

Although increasing attention is directed at identifying biological mechanisms underlying cognitive changes observed in cancer patients without central nervous system disease following chemotherapy, psychological factors that can contribute to these cognitive changes are much less studied. In an online experiment, the influence of informing patient...

Abstract Interactive storytelling (IS) is a promising new entertainment technology synthesizing preauthored narrative with dynamic user interaction. Existing IS prototypes employ different modes to involve users in a story, ranging from individual avatar control to comprehensive control over the virtual environment. The current experiment tested wh...

Interactive Storytelling (IS) is a promising new entertainment technology synthesizing pre-authored narrative with dynamic user interaction. Research on user experiences in IS is sparse. The current experiment tested whether different player expectations regarding the impact of their actions yield different user experiences by framing user agency a...

While replay value is a common term in interactive entertainment, psychological research on its meaning in terms of user experiences is sparse. An exploratory experiment using the interactive drama "Façade" was conducted (n=50) to examine shifts and continuities in entertainment-related user experiences between first and second exposure to the same...

Advances in gaming and other entertainment technologies are evolving rapidly and create new conceptual challenges for understanding and explaining the user experiences they can facilitate. The present article reports a prospective study on a particularly promising entertainment technology of the future: Interactive storytelling (IS). Integrating va...

IVAR VERMEULEN & ESTHER WEIJKAMP Effects of movement synchrony on ingroup perceptions and cooperation among high school children Synchronous movement (e.g., marching, clapping) is a well-established practice to strengthen social bonds. Nevertheless, research on its effectiveness is scarce. We investigate effects of synchronous group movement on soc...

Prior research on predictors of social network site (SNS) use has mainly focused on the Big Five, narcissism, and self-esteem. Results have been inconsistent, and variance explained was rather low. Need for popularity (NfP) might be a better predictor of SNS use, because SNSs are ideal venues for people with a high NfP. Study 1 tested NfP, self-est...

This workshop has been dedicated to discussing the user experience of Interactive Digital Stories (IDS) and the empirical measurement of it. Although technology development has made substantial progress, theory and empirical studies on the user perspective have not received much attention in the community so far. The workshop has introduced a measu...

At the intersection of multimedia, artificial intelligence, and gaming technology, new visions of future entertainment media arise that approximate the “Holodeck” ® idea of interactive storytelling. We report exploratory experiments on the user experience in a ‘classic', foundational application of interactive storytelling, “Façade” (Mateas & Stern...

This workshop is dedicated to discussing the user experience of an emerging new type of entertainment computing: Interactive stories. Technology development in Interactive Storytelling (IS) has made substantial progress recently, but theory and empirical studies on the user perspective have not received much attention in the entertainment computing...

Networks of Practice (NoPs) facilitate knowledge sharing among geographically dispersed organization members. This research tests whether social influence in NoPs is reinforced by actors’ embeddedness in practice (knowledge about informal content), organizational embeddedness (knowledge about formal organizational content), structural embeddedness...

With the increasing number of prototypes and market applications of interactive storytelling, the understanding and optimization of how end users respond to computer-mediated interactive narratives is of growing importance. Based on a conceptual model of user experiences in interactive storytelling, a measurement instrument for empirical user-base...

Most research on humor effects in TV commercials compares humor to non-humor. Instead, we distinguish different humor forms, in terms of humor complexity and humor relatedness, and test how they affect viewers’ processing of TV commercials. Two experimental studies assess recall and recognition of implicatures. Results show that moderately complex...

Internet advertising has become big business. Online advertising revenues were estimated at $23 billion for the U.S. market alone in 2008 (IAB 2009). Whether or not advertisers’ money is spent effectively is hard to determine (Dreze and Hussherr 2003). Although click-through or conversion rates may give some indication of an ad’s impact on Internet...

Although desirable brands may positively affect impressions of its owner, brand ownership may also evoke negative reactions if a brand’s image is seen as incongruent with the brand owner. An experimental study tests the influence of physical attractiveness of a brand owner and observers’ level of materialism on the transference of brand sophisticat...

Narrative-rich game genres such as role playing games and adventure games aim at specific dimensions of user enjoyment. Technology development in "Interactive Storytelling" will enrich such narrative-based player experiences in the near future, yet the conceptualization and empirical assessment of how players respond to interactive narrative and th...

Three studies tested predictions derived from terror management theory (TMT) about the effects of terrorism news on prejudice. Exposure to terrorism news should confront receivers with thoughts about their own death, which, in turn, should increase prejudice toward outgroup members. Non-Muslim (Studies 1–3) and Muslim (Study 3) participants were ex...

Density delay theory, which predicts that higher levels of competition at founding will lead organizations to have persistently higher failure rates throughout their existence, has traditionally been among the least contested theories in organizational ecology. A growing number of empirical studies, however, have failed to support the theory's pred...

Many consumers consult online reviews before making (online) travel arrangements. Yet, little is known about the impact of these reviews on consumer decision making. This research applies consideration set theory to model the impact of online hotel reviews on consumer choice. An experimental study (N = 168) that includes review valence (positive vs...

Science information professionals need to make choices through which media they want to communicate with the public. In reaching large audiences outside the domain of formal diffusion of knowledge, the choice may be between the old medium television and the new medium Internet. It seems that general scientific research is focused more and more on t...

Diffuse competition due to niche overlap between actors without (direct) ties with each other, constrains their structural autonomy. This is not dealt with in Burt’s mathematical model of his well-known structural holes theory. We fix his model by introducing a network measure of niche overlap.

The social sciences have achieved highly sophisticated methods for data collection and analysis, leading to increased control and tractability of scientific results. Meanwhile, methods for systematizing these results, as well as new ideas and hypotheses, into sociological theories have seen little progress, leaving most sociological arguments ambig...

Resource partitioning theory claims that “Increasing concentration enhances the life chances of specialist organizations.” We systematically think through this theory, specify implicit background assumptions, sharpen concepts, and rigorously check the theory's logic. As a result, we increase the theory's explanatory power, and claim—contrary to rec...