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On Doing the Decision: Effects of Active versus Passive Choice on Commitment and Self-Perception
Abstract
Two studies demonstrate that making a volunteer decision by doing something results in more commitment to it than making the identical decision by doing nothing. Undergraduates were asked to volunteer for a university committee (Study l a) or a sex and AIDS awareness education project (Study 2) and indicated their choice either by affirming it on two items or by skippping two items that affirmed the opposite choice. Subjects who responded actively were more extreme in the degree of their decision than passive respondents. This effect persevered over 6 weeks (Study lb) and had behavioral consequences (Study 2). Attributional analyses in both studies suggest that active and passive choice may result in unique construals of oneself and of the decision: Active agreement results in citing more types of reasons for one's decision, and active refusal heightens one's perceived resistance to social influence.
... According to Ellemers, N., Kortekaas, P., & Ouwerkerk, J. W. (1999) the main key factor in social identity theory is that the extent to which people relate themselves to the group and their commitment towards the activity (i.e. emotional component) (Cioffi& Garner, 1996). The social categorization with respect to Pakistan can be observed by the member of the organization who are not happy with their job and social groups. ...
... Following the line of commitment towards the group, a person would develop self-esteem because of membership of that group. It has been argued that these two concepts co vary (self-esteem and affective commitment) (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, Cioffi & Garner, 1996. The argument was that affective commitment is stronger with more positively evaluated groups. ...
... In our conceptual analysis this illustrates that self-categorization as the cognitive component and affective commitment to a particular social group as an emotional component can be categorized separately from the group self-esteem that is basically derivative of an evaluative component. Moreover, this distinction would help us to understand how individuals are influenced by the particular group characteristic in which the group is for (Mlicki & Ellemers, 1996, Cioffi& Garner, 1996. ...
The primary objective of this review is to understand and reveal the underlying the theoretically distinctive facts about the social identity of the individuals in Pakistan’s context. The human behavior scholars are finding new theoretical concepts that are useful in understanding the group behavior. There are three critical aspects that underpin the concept of social identification cognitive, evaluative and affective. These constructs are further explained in diagrams using groups, in group dynamics, related performance and commitment. The CLD shows that how individual’ social identification is related to commitment. This paper helps to understand the factors that are more associated with the social identification and social grouping of employees within the organizations in Pakistan’s context. The methodology is based on system dynamics. System dynamics causal loop approach stage wise is applied to identify the unique dimensions that are associated with the distinctive underlying structure of human behavior that forms the social identity of employees within the organization. System dynamic methodology consists of three steps, the first step is CLD diagram, followed by Stock and flow maps and finally software-based simulations. This paper reveals that naturally made groups are more cohesive and individuals in natural or achieved groups are more committed emotionally towards each other. The significance of this paper lies in understanding the causal structure that influences the formation of social groups in Pakistan organization. Theoretical construct that underpin the notion of social identification of an individual includes the cognitive, evaluative, and affective components that help us to understand, how an individual adapts to the social identity.
... The alignment of interventions to individuals' perspectives can support individuals in making more deliberate and autonomous choices in which they make trade-offs between different choice aspects and consider their value priorities [19][20][21]. Such active and value-congruent choices are considered increasingly important in public health and medical healthcare [22,23] and are assumed to increase individuals' commitment toward healthrelated goals (e.g., being more physically active or less sedentary); consequently, active choices could induce more permanent behaviour change [21,24,25]. ...
... This is assumed to increase individuals' commitment toward the chosen behaviour (e.g., becoming more physically active/ less sedentary). Consequently, such choices may induce more permanent behaviour change [21,24,25]. ...
Background
Office workers spend a significant part of their workday sitting. Interventions that aim to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity might be more effective if greater attention is paid to individual perspectives that influence behavioural choices, including beliefs and values. This study aimed to gain insight into office workers' perspectives on physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
Methods
Sixteen Dutch office workers (50% female) from different professions participated in semi-structured face-to-face interviews in March 2019. To facilitate the interviews, participants received a sensitizing booklet one week before the interview. The booklet aimed to trigger them to reflect on their physical activity and sedentary behaviour and on their values in life. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and coded following codebook thematic analysis.
Results
Six themes were identified: 1) beliefs about health effects are specific regarding physical activity, but superficial regarding sedentary behaviour; 2) in addition to ‘health’ as a value, other values are also given priority; 3) motivations to engage in physical activity mainly stem from prioritizing the value ‘health’, reflected by a desire to both achieve positive short/mid-term outcomes and to prevent long-term negative outcomes; 4) attitudes towards physical inactivity and sedentary behaviour are diverse and depend on individual values and previous experiences; 5) perceived barriers depend on internal and external factors; 6) supporting factors are related to support and information in the social and physical environment.
Conclusions
The great value that office workers attach to health is reflected in their motivations and attitudes regarding physical activity. Increasing office workers' knowledge of the health risks of prolonged sitting may therefore increase their motivation to sit less. Although ‘health’ is considered important, other values, including social and work-related values, are sometimes prioritized. We conclude that interventions that aim to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity among office workers could be improved by informing about health effects of sedentary behaviour and short/mid-term benefits of physical activity, including mental health benefits. Moreover, interventions could frame physical activity as congruent with values and support value-congruent choices. Finally, the work environment could support physical activity and interruption of sedentary behaviour.
... It is also important to point out that suggested alternatives-at least as currently applied-have the unattractive feature in that they steer people to the predefined alternatives (Altmann, Falk, Heidhues, Jayaraman, & Teirlinck, 2020), which are unlikely to capture the underlying preferences and constraints in a heterogeneous population (Carroll, Choi, Laibson, Madrian, & Metrick, 2009). Since research has found that making independent choices has an intrinsic value which increases satisfaction and commitment, there is potentially large gains to increasing the perceived autonomy in public good contributions (Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Bown, Read, & Summers, 2003;Botti & McGill, 2006;Bartling, Fehr, & Herz, 2014). Finally, on the methodological level, it is important to emphasize that laboratory research has shown that the compromise effect is significantly reduced when adding one market element at a time-e.g., consequential choices (Müller, Kroll, & Vogt, 2012), a no-choice option (Dhar & Simonson, 2003), and brand loyalty (Sinn, Milberg, Epstein, & Goodstein, 2007). ...
... That is, people prefer a particular outcome when it is determined by their own choice over the exact same outcome determined exogenously. Furthermore, it has been shown that affirmatively making a decision increases a decision maker's satisfaction (Botti & McGill, 2006) and commitment (Cioffi & Garner, 1996) above and beyond what the same decision maker would exhibit if the decision was made passively. In addition, it has been shown that people's valuation of a product is affected by their level of involvement in the production process-referred to as the IKEA-effect (Norton, Mochon, & Ariely, 2012). ...
In a large-scale field experiment, I study the impact of intermediate suggested donations, and the absence of them, on charitable giving. In line with a compromise effect, transforming $100 from the highest suggested donation to the intermediate suggested donation tripled the likelihood to donate $100, and increased the average donation. However, it was the introduction of a higher maximum suggestion—not the change in the intermediate suggestion per se—that was decisive: Faced with only the two extreme suggested donations, people turned to the write in category to select an individual compromise donation. I refer to this finding as the (un)compromise effect, because it highlights that people gravitate towards compromise alternatives also in the explicit absence of them. A follow-up experiment confirms that time pressure moderates the (un)compromise effect, which suggests that the underlying mechanism is cognitive rather than an instinctive response to avoid extreme alternatives. Overall, the study adds to our understanding of why people prefer intermediate options in general, and how suggested donations shape public good contributions in particular.
... For instance, the decision to invest could be of higher importance for the agent's self-image compared to the decision not to invest. Many studies document the power of action to alter self-views and provide evidence for an asymmetry between the influence of action and non-action on self-perception (Cioffi and Garner, 1996;Allison and Messick, 1988;Fazio, Chen, McDonel, and Sherman, 1982). ...
... Moreover, the first columns (columns 1-4) illustrate that while subjects who invested in the stock show a significant memory bias for investment outcomes, subjects who did not invest do not display a memory bias. This is in line with studies suggesting that the decision to do something is of higher importance for one's self-image compared to the decision not to do something (Cioffi and Garner, 1996;Allison and Messick, 1988;Fazio, Chen, McDonel, and Sherman, 1982). ...
How does memory shape individuals' financial decisions? We provide experimental evidence of a self-serving memory bias. Individuals over-remember positive investment outcomes of their chosen investments and under-remember negative ones. In contrast, individuals who did not choose their investments or did not invest but merely observed outcomes do not have this bias. The memory bias affects individuals' beliefs and decisions to re-invest. After investing, subjects form overly optimistic beliefs about their investment and re-invest even when doing so leads to a lower expected return. Our findings contribute to the understanding of how people learn from their experiences in financial markets. More generally, the documented memory bias offers a consistent explanation for stylized facts about investor behavior as well as dynamic risk taking in many economic domains.
... Various mechanisms can explain why individuals would renege or follow through. A pledge can produce an internal commitment that individuals with preferences for moral consistency (Cioffi and Garner, 1996;Cialdini and Trost, 1998) or promise-keeping (Charness and Dufwenberg,1 A well known example is The Giving Pledge (givingpledge.org), which encourages wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. In the domain of human tissue donations, the pharmaceutical company Abbott has been conducting a global media campaign to promote blood donations. ...
... While our experiment was not designed to disentangle them, future field experiments could systematically vary the psychological costs of reneging on pledges, for example by varying the time lag between pledge and donation or by varying the framing of the initial pledge. 21 Additional laboratory-based work could help shed light of the relative importance of moral consistency (Cioffi and Garner, 1996;Cialdini and Trost, 1998) and promise-keeping (Charness and Dufwenberg, 2006) as underlying reasons for not wanting to break a promise to donate. ...
... A focus on values activates an abstract mindset, which has been associated with increased self-control, meaning that individuals can better pursue long-term desires and suppress immediate, concrete temptations (Fujita & Han, 2009Sweeney & Freitas, 2014). Previous research has shown the potential of active, value-congruent decisionmaking and self-determination in fostering commitment to behavioural change (Brinthaupt et al., 2013;Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Deci & Ryan, 2000;Landais et al., 2022a). Moreover, value-congruent decisions promote individual autonomy (Landais et al., 2022a), a basic psychological need according to self-determination theory. ...
Background:
Intrinsic values and priorities influence decision-making and are, therefore, important to consider explicitly in intervention development. Although health is generally considered an important value, individuals often make unhealthy choices, indicating a values disconnect.
Study aim:
To investigate how becoming aware of a disconnect between the value assigned to health and the effort devoted to health is related to intentions and commitment for behavioural change and physical activity among inactive adults.
Methods:
We performed a secondary exploratory analysis on previously collected data. The intervention included a values exercise based on the Disconnected Values Model (DVM) that made disconnected values explicit to participants in two study arms. We compared participants with a disconnect (n = 138) with participants without a disconnect (n = 101) regarding intentions and commitment for behavioural change and physical activity and sitting time 2-4 weeks follow-up. Logistic and linear regression analyses were performed to analyse the data.
Results:
Between-group differences were found for the intention to devote more effort to health (OR = 3.75; 95%CI: 2.05; 6.86) and for the intention to become more physically active (OR = 2.21; 95%CI: 1.10; 4.46), indicating that significantly more participants with a disconnect were motivated to change, compared to participants without a disconnect. No between-group differences were found for commitment, intention strength, follow-up physical activity and sitting time.
Conclusion:
Making explicit a disconnect regarding health in an active choice intervention was associated with intentions to become more physically active. Still, it did not translate in significant behaviour change at 2-4 weeks follow-up.
Trial registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04973813. Retrospectively registered.
Trial registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04973813..
... Third, an outcome can be viewed as a result of either action or inaction (Gilovich and Medvec 1995;Kahneman and Tversky 1982), and the decision frame could influence perceptions of whether another's decision is an action or inaction-choosing an option may seem like an action, whereas not choosing an option may seem like inaction (Yaniv and Schul 2000). Based on the existing literature, it seems unlikely that a perception of action versus inaction contributes to the framing effect on conformity given that action signals greater commitment than inaction (Cioffi and Garner 1996) and therefore makes a prediction opposite to the effect we demonstrate. Nevertheless, we test the possibility empirically by measuring the extent to which participants perceived the Procedure. ...
Every day, we learn about others’ decisions from various sources. We perceive some of these decisions as choices and others as rejections. Does the mere perception of another’s decision as a choice versus as a rejection influence our own behavior? Are we more likely to conform to another’s decision if we view it in one way or the other? The current research investigates the social influence of decision frames. Eight studies, including a field study conducted during a livestreaming event hosted by an influencer with over 1.5 million followers, find that people are more likely to conform to another’s decision if it is perceived as a rejection than if it is perceived as a choice. This effect happens because consumers are more likely to attribute another’s decision to product quality as opposed to personal preference, when consumers perceive another’s decision as a rejection than as a choice. The inference about quality versus personal preference in turn increases conformity. This research bridges the existing literatures on decision framing, social influence, and perceptions of quality and personal preference, and it offers important implications for marketers and influencers.
... Although, the opt-out policy seems to engage higher levels of consumer consent [74], it is less likely to stimulate a persistent followup, as its superiority depends on consumer inaction [39,82]. The opt-in policy and the forced choice, by requiring an affirmative consumer decision for e-mail notifications, are likely to result in higher levels of commitment [14]. ...
Opt-in, opt-out, and forced choice are the three policies most frequently used to engage consumers’ willingness to receive e-mail communication. This research examines the effectiveness and the persistence of these policies in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication, while the effects of consumer mood and personality traits are embedded in the research framework. Three experiments served as the vehicle for data collection. Interaction effects between the default policies and consumer mood and personality traits are examined using logit and multiple regression models. Results show that opt-out is more effective than opt-in and forced choice in engaging consumer consent to receive e-mail communication. Interestingly, opt-in is the most effective policy in engaging a more permanent consumer consent. Although negative mood results in a higher consumer consent rate for e-mail notifications, positive mood results in a higher consent rate for future engagement. Higher levels of neuroticism lead to higher willingness to receive e-mail notifications, but higher extraversion leads to higher future engagement. The article contributes to the literature on defaults, mood, and personality traits. The findings advance the theory and have important managerial implications.
... Whether individuals can make informed choices depends on multiple factors, including the quality of information or decision support and individuals' own information-processing motivation and skills [29]. Thirdly, choices that align with people's values increase satisfaction and commitment, inducing greater behavioural persistence [5,30,31]. If individuals experience ambivalence between 'health' and conflicting valuesincluding social and work-related values [32,33] -this ambivalence can be resolved by tools that help individuals to reflect on their values [34,35]. ...
Background
Promoting active (i.e., conscious, autonomous, informed, and value-congruent) choices may improve the effectiveness of physical activity interventions. This web-based four-arm experimental study investigated the effect of promoting an active versus passive choice regarding physical activity on behavioural and psychological outcomes (e.g., physical activity intentions and behaviours, autonomy, commitment) among physically inactive adults.
Methods
Dutch inactive adults were randomized into four groups: physical activity guideline only (control group G), guideline & information (GI), guideline & active choice (GA), or guideline & active choice & action planning (GA +). GA and GA + participants were stimulated to make an active choice by weighing advantages and disadvantages of physical activity, considering personal values, and identifying barriers. GA + participants additionally completed action/coping planning exercises. Passive choice groups G and GI did not receive exercises. Self-reported behavioural outcomes were assessed by a questionnaire pre-intervention (T0, n = 564) and at 2–4 weeks follow-up (T2, n = 493). Psychological outcomes were assessed post-intervention (T1, n = 564) and at follow-up. Regression analyses compared the outcomes of groups GI, GA and GA + with group G. We also conducted sensitivity analyses and a process evaluation.
Results
Although promoting an active choice process (i.e., interventions GA and GA +) did not improve intention (T1) or physical activity (T2 versus T0), GA + participants reported higher commitment at T1 (β = 0.44;95%CI:0.04;0.84) and more frequently perceived an increase in physical activity between T0 and T2 (β = 2.61;95%CI:1.44;7.72). GA participants also made a more active choice at T1 (β = 0.16;95%CI:0.04;0.27). The GA and GA + intervention did not significantly increase the remaining outcomes. GI participants reported higher intention strength (β = 0.64;95%CI:0.15;1.12), autonomy (β = 0.50;95%CI:0.05;0.95), and commitment (β = 0.39;95%CI:0.04;0.74), and made a more active choice at T1 (β = 0.13;95%CI:0.02;0.24). Interestingly, gender and health condition modified the effect on several outcomes. The GA + intervention was somewhat more effective in women. The process evaluation showed that participants varied in how they perceived the intervention.
Conclusions
There is no convincing evidence of a beneficial effect of an active versus passive choice intervention on physical activity intentions and behaviours among inactive adults. Further research should determine whether and how active choice interventions that are gender-sensitized and consider health conditions can effectively increase physical activity.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04973813. Retrospectively registered.
... In addition, we use a false choice manipulation (Langer & Rodin, 1976) to give participants a feeling of agency over whether they provided in-person support. If people do not actively choose whether to provide support, they may feel their actions are not diagnostic of their feelings toward the recipient (Cioffi & Garner, 1996). Therefore, as a conservative test of our hypotheses, participants had the illusion of choosing whether to provide in-person support. ...
Providing social support is a critical part of being in a relationship with someone, but people often struggle to support loved ones in person. In this paper, we show how givers can use gifts to compensate for not providing in-person social support. Study 1 shows that when it is prohibitively difficult for givers to provide in-person support, they give more expensive gifts. Study 2 replicates this effect for likelihood to give a gift and shows it is not due to social desirability. Studies 3, 4a, and 4b find that guilt over not having provided adequate support drives people to give gifts, and that giving gifts partially relieves givers' feelings of guilt. Studies 5 and 6 examine moderation. In Study 5, people only compensate for a lack of in-person support with a gift when they have a strong obligation to support the recipient because they are close to them. Study 6 shows that money does not substitute for in-person support. We show the role of gifts in enhancing givers' wellbeing and provide new customer insights to managers on reasons people purchase gifts.
... Commitment refers to the active and public confirmation to others to perform a certain behavior (Cialdini, 2009). Commitment can facilitate execution of a desired behavior as demonstrated in such different domains as volunteering (Cioffi & Garner, 1996), weight loss (Nyer & Dellande, 2010), recycling (Bryce et al., 1997), or use of sustainable transportation (Matthies et al., 2006). The facilitating effect of commitment has been explained by individuals' need for consistency (Cialdini, 2009;cf. ...
Research on procrastination covers a variety of individual factors (e.g., conscien-tiousness) and this focus is reflected in interventions against procrastination. Less emphasis is put on situational and social factors that may help students reduce procrastination , such as social interdependence. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between interdependence with academic procrastination and affective variables. Two vignette studies with student samples (N 1 = 320, N 2 = 193) were conducted and data was analyzed with regression analyses and analyses of covariance. Results of both studies show lower state procrastination in group work with interdependence compared to individual work, especially in participants with high trait procrastination. This difference is more pronounced when interdependence is accompanied by an active commitment to finish the task on time. Further, interdependent group work is related to increased positive affect and decreased negative affect. The results demonstrate the relevance of situational and social factors for academic procrastination , and point toward new approaches for intervention.
... In the pledge condition, participants were additionally invited to engage in 28 days of meat-free eating. Effective pledges generally involve mechanisms that bind an individual to the intended act, for example, through signed pledges or public declarations (Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Lokhorst, Werner, Staats, van Dijk, & Gale, 2013). However, pledges that place rigid or inflexible demands on people can cause reactance or a sense of coercion (Spelt et al., 2019). ...
Pledges are a popular strategy to encourage meat reduction, though experimental studies of their efficacy are lacking. Three-hundred and twenty-five participants from three different countries (UK, Germany, Australia) were randomly assigned to pledge 28 days meat-free or not, and their behavior was tracked via smartphones. Participants answered daily surveys regarding their eating behavior, meat cravings, and shared photos of their meals. Baseline data was collected prior to the pledge, after the 28 days, and one-month post-intervention. Participants assigned to the pledge condition ate less meat across the 28 days, compared to control participants. Meat reductions, observed at outtake, did not endure one-month post-intervention. Overall, German participants ate the least amount of meat, and showed the sharpest decrease in consumption when pledging. Meat cravings tended to increase among pledgers, relative to control participants. Pledgers who reported high starting intentions and conflict about meat tended to eat less meat and reported fewer cravings. All participants reported reduced meat-eating justifications one-month post-intervention. These findings provide experimental evidence that pledges can encourage meat consumers to reduce their intake, though additional mechanisms are needed to sustain commitments.
... Such active and value-congruent choices are considered increasingly important in public health and medical healthcare (21,22) and are assumed to increase individuals' commitment toward health-related goals (e.g. being more physically active or less sedentary); consequently, active choices could induce more permanent behaviour change (20,23,24). ...
Background
Office workers spend a significant part of their workday in a sedentary position. Interventions that aim to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity insufficiently take into account individual perspectives – including beliefs and values – that influence behavioural choices. This study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of office workers' perspectives on physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
Methods
Sixteen Dutch office workers (50% female) from different professions consented to participate in semi-structured face-to-face interviews in March 2019. To facilitate the interviews, participants received a sensitizing booklet one week before the scheduled interview. The booklet aimed to trigger them to reflect on their physical activity and sedentary behaviour and on their values in life. All interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and coded following codebook thematic analysis.
Results
Six themes were identified: 1) beliefs about health effects are specific regarding physical activity, but superficial regarding sedentary behaviour; 2) in addition to health, social- and work-related values are also given priority; 3) motivations are related to the value 'health' and the valence and time frame of outcomes; 4) attitudes are diverse and depend on previous experiences, underlying values, and the situation; 5) perceived barriers depend on internal and external factors; 6) supporting factors are related to the social-, physical- and information environments.
Conclusions
Office workers' perspectives on physical activity and sedentary behaviour are related to beliefs about health effects, the prioritization of personal values, short- and long-term motivations, attitudes, perceived barriers, and supporting factors. Together, these factors seem to play a role in office workers' behavioural choices. Interventions that aim to reduce sedentary behaviour and increase physical activity among office workers could be improved by emphasizing short-term positive effects – including mental health effects – of physical activity, providing information about long-term health effects of sedentary behaviour, framing physical activity as congruent with values, and supporting value-congruent choices.
... Pre-commitment is a strategy in which people are asked to commit today to engage in a future target behavior, harnessing people's desire to act consistently with public statements and their prior active choices. [23][24][25][26] We expected that having patients pre-commit to their doctor that they will obtain the influenza vaccine should increase their follow-through when later encouraged to do so. ...
Background
Adult influenza vaccination rates are low. Tailored patient reminders might raise rates.
Objective
Evaluate impact of a health system’s patient portal reminders: (1) tailored to patient characteristics and (2) incorporating behavioral science strategies, on influenza vaccination rates among adults.
Design
Pragmatic 6-arm randomized trial across a health system during the 2019–2020 influenza vaccination season. The setting was one large health system—53 adult primary care practices.
Participants
All adult patients who used the patient portal within 12 months, stratified by the following: young adults (18–64 years, without diabetes), older adults (≥65 years, without diabetes), and those with diabetes (≥18 years).
Interventions
Patients were randomized within strata to either (1) pre-commitment reminder alone (1 message, mid-October), (2) pre-commitment + loss frame messages, (3) pre-commitment + gain frame messages, (4) loss frame messages alone, (5) gain frame messages alone, or (6) standard of care control. Patients in the pre-commitment group were sent a message in mid-October, asking if they planned on getting an influenza vaccination. Patients in loss or gain frame groups were sent up to 3 portal reminders (late October, November, and December, if no documented influenza vaccination in the EHR) about importance and safety of influenza vaccine.
Main Measures
Receipt of 1 influenza vaccine from 10/01/2019 to 03/31/2020.
Key Results
196,486 patients (145,166 young adults, 29,795 older adults, 21,525 adults with diabetes) were randomized. Influenza vaccination rates were as follows: for young adults 36.8%, for older adults 55.6%, and for diabetics 60.6%. On unadjusted and adjusted (for age, gender, insurance, race, ethnicity, and prior influenza vaccine history) analyses, influenza vaccination rates were not statistically different for any study group versus control.
Conclusions
Patient reminders sent by a health system’s patient portal that were tailored to patient demographics (young adults, older adults, diabetes) and that incorporated two behavioral economic messaging strategies (pre-commitment and loss/gain framing) were not effective in raising influenza vaccination rates.
Trial Registration
This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04110314).
... 13 Some studies have argued that the higher participation rate may be caused by the increased perceived responsibility with the decision and anticipated regret. 13,23,24 The finding that active choice improved CRC screening acceptance and participation among men, specifically, is highly important. Men have higher risk of CRC and CRC death compared with women. ...
Opt-out strategies have been shown to improve participation in cancer screening; however, there are ethical concerns regarding the presumed consent. In this study, we tested an alternative opt-in strategy, called: “enhanced active choice,” in which the response options summarize the consequences of the decision. The study was conducted as part of the Maltese colorectal cancer screening program, which offers men and women, aged 60–64, a “one-off” fecal immunochemical test (FIT). A total of 8349 individuals were randomly assigned to receive either an invitation letter that featured a standard opt-in strategy (control condition), or an alternative letter with a modified opt-in strategy (enhanced active choice condition). Our primary outcome was participation three months after the invitation was delivered. Additionally, we also compared the proportion who said they wanted to take part in screening. We used multivariable logistic regression for the analysis. Overall, 48.4% (N = 4042) accepted the invitation and 42.4% (N = 3542) did the screening test. While there were no statistically significant differences between the two conditions in terms of acceptance and participation, enhanced active choice did increase acceptance among men by 4.6 percentage points, which translated to a significant increase in participation of 3.4 percentage points. We conclude that enhanced active choice can improve male screening participation. Given the higher risk of CRC in men, as well as their lower participation screening, we believe this to be an important finding.
... private), and voluntary (vs. coerced) [61,62]. These strategies are integrated throughout BASIS. ...
Background
More than two-thirds of youth experience trauma during childhood, and up to 1 in 5 of these youth develops posttraumatic stress symptoms that significantly impair their functioning. Although trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy (TF-CBT) has a strong evidence base, it is rarely adopted, delivered with adequate fidelity, or evaluated in the most common setting where youth access mental health services—schools. Given that individual behavior change is ultimately required for successful implementation, even when organizational factors are firmly in place, focusing on individual-level processes represents a potentially parsimonious approach. Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools (BASIS) is a pragmatic, motivationally focused multifaceted strategy that augments training and consultation and is designed to target precise mechanisms of behavior change to produce enhanced implementation and youth clinical outcomes. This study protocol describes a hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation trial designed to concurrently evaluate the main effects, mediators, and moderators of both the BASIS implementation strategy on implementation outcomes and TF-CBT on youth mental health outcomes.
Methods
Using a cluster randomized controlled design, this trial will assign school-based mental health (SMH) clinicians and schools to one of three study arms: (a) enhanced treatment-as-usual (TAU), (b) attention control plus TF-CBT, or (c) BASIS+TF-CBT. With a proposed sample of 120 SMH clinicians who will each recruit 4–6 youth with a history of trauma (480 children), this project will gather data across 12 different time points to address two project aims. Aim 1 will evaluate, relative to an enhanced TAU condition, the effects of TF-CBT on identified mechanisms of change, youth mental health outcomes, and intervention costs and cost-effectiveness. Aim 2 will compare the effects of BASIS against an attention control plus TF-CBT condition on theoretical mechanisms of clinician behavior change and implementation outcomes, as well as examine costs and cost-effectiveness.
Discussion
This study will generate critical knowledge about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of BASIS—a pragmatic, theory-driven, and generalizable implementation strategy designed to enhance motivation—to increase the yield of evidence-based practice training and consultation, as well as the effectiveness of TF-CBT in a novel service setting.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov registration number NCT04451161 . Registered on June 30, 2020.
... The dataset used in this study is for UC Irvine datasets (UCI ML Repository),21 various types of attributes, There are actually 2 dependent variables Yes and No. The other variables have been different, all of which have a common-separate value (CSV) file [24] [25]. The data sets are autonomous. ...
Customer churn refers to the number of customers switching from one service provider to another service provider. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy that focuses on the needs of our customers by using advanced technologies. The goal is to improve business relationships and help companies to stay connected to customers. The main objective is to have an accurate churn prediction model that prevent churners, reduce churn rate, increase customer acquisition and increase retention of valuable customers. This will allow organizations to become proactive, anticipating outcomes and behaviors based upon the data. Combining the multiple classifiers in the existing system to create hybrid classifiers is a big challenge and designing the best ensemble to perform prediction is imprecise in this sector. The HYBRID FIREFLY algorithm exhibits higher accuracy of 86.34% by using random forest algorithm and gradient boosting method.
... First, making a commitment publicly increases the likelihood one will remain consistent with that commitment (Burn & Oskamp, 1986;Deutsch & Gerard, 1955). Second, consistency with commitments is more likely with the commitment is made actively rather than passively (e.g., volunteering by actively checking a box rather than by leaving the box blank; Cioffi & Gardner, 1996). Finally, people behave more con sistently with commitments if the commitments were made voluntarily (Linder, Cooper, & Jones, 1967). ...
It is through the influence process that people generate and manage change. As such, it is important to understand fully the workings of the influence processes that produce compliance with requests for change. Fortunately, a vast body of scientific evidence exists on how, when, and why people comply with influence attempts. From this formidable body of work, one can extract six universal principles of influence that generate compliance in the widest range of circumstances. Reciprocation states that people are more willing to comply with requests (for favors, services, information, concessions, etc.) from those who have provided such things first. Commitment/Consistency states that people are more willing to be moved in a particular direction if they see it as consistent with an existing commitment. Authority states that people are more willing to follow the directions or recommendations of a communicator to whom they attribute relevant expertise. Social Proof states that people are more willing to take a recommended action if they see evidence that many others, especially similar others, are taking it. Scarcity states that people find objects and opportunities more attractive to the degree that they are scarce, rare, or dwindling in availability. Finally, Liking states that people prefer to say yes to those they like, such as those who are similar to them and who have complimented them.
... The commitment poster targets a generalized behavioral insight that humans are motivated to act in line with their public commitment to achieve self-consistency as viewed by the self and others [38][39][40], as opposed to directly targeting any of the known influences on antibiotic prescribing (e.g., perception of a limited consultation time and high workload, concern about adverse patient events, fear of legal issues, lack of skills to reassure and educate patients, diagnostic uncertainty, and patient expectations) [41][42][43], although it may have supported GPs in communicating to patients reasons for not prescribing. Whilst many of these reported barriers to prudent antibiotic prescribing are similar in England and the US, one important difference is the consultation length, with a norm of 10 min in England compared to 20 min in the US. ...
Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing contributes to Antimicrobial Resistance posing a major public health risk. Estimates suggest as many as half of antibiotics prescribed for respiratory infections may be unnecessary. We conducted a three-armed unblinded cluster randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN trial registry 83322985). Interventions were a commitment poster (CP) advocating safe antibiotic prescribing or a CP plus an antimicrobial stewardship message (AM) on telephone appointment booking lines, tested against a usual care control group. The primary outcome measure was antibiotic item dispensing rates per 1000 population adjusted for practice demographics. The outcome measures for post-hoc analysis were dispensing rates of antibiotics usually prescribed for upper respiratory tract infections and broad spectrum antibiotics. In total, 196 practice units were randomized to usual care (n = 60), CP (n = 66), and CP&AM (n = 70). There was no effect on the overall dispensing rates for either interventions compared to usual care (CP 5.673, 95%CI −9.768 to 21.113, p = 0.458; CP&AM, −12.575, 95%CI −30.726 to 5.576, p = 0.167). Secondary analysis, which included pooling the data into one model, showed a significant effect of the AM (−18.444, 95%CI −32.596 to −4.292, p = 0.012). Fewer penicillins and macrolides were prescribed in the CP&AM intervention compared to usual care (−12.996, 95% CI −34.585 to −4.913, p = 0.018). Commitment posters did not reduce antibiotic prescribing. An automated patient antimicrobial stewardship message showed effects and requires further testing.
... In line with this proposal, Ross (1977: 196) posited that the typical person "attends to actions or occurrences in forming inferences but neglects to consider the information conveyed when particular responses or events do not occur." Scholars have built on this notion to argue that behavior, in comparison to a lack of behavior, tends to have more informational value and is more likely to affect subsequent perceptions (Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Fazio, 1987;Nisbett & Ross, 1980;Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1987). Thus, the action required of a supervisor to achieve high-high fit may be more strongly related to perceptions of overall fairness than is the relative inaction inherent in low-low fit. ...
Many of society’s pressing challenges — conflict, discrimination, well-being — can be linked to injustice within organizations. Effectively addressing workplace injustice requires scholars to broaden our understanding of what it means to “do justice” in organizations. In this symposium, we aim to “broaden our sight” (Academy of Management, 2020) by bringing together a diverse panel of leading scholars who are tackling critical questions related to the obstacles and challenges associated with fostering justice and fairness in the workplace. Using disparate methodologies (e.g., experiments, field studies, interviews) and theoretical frameworks (e.g., appraisal theory, fairness theory, goal prioritization, moral disengagement), our presenters provide insight into (a) the situational factors that can impact whether managers act justly, (b) who is likely to enact justice and the role of emotions in the process of enactment, (c) how managers make sense of having acted unjustly, (d) how perceptions of unfairness can stem from a mismatch between the amount of trust one desires and receives, and (e) the process by which managers are personally blamed and held accountable for unfair situations. The symposium will conclude with an interactive discussion that highlights key themes and directions for future research as well as practical insights into how managers and organizations might promote fairer workplaces by encouraging justice enactment among managers and effectively managing fairness for employees.
... The extent to which one's commitments are made actively and publicly is a powerful determinant of the likelihood of request compliance. For example, Cioffi and Garner (1996) solicited volunteers for an AIDS awareness project by asking participants to indicate their decisions on a form in either an active or passive manner. Irrespective of their choice, participants who made an active rather than passive choice took a more extreme position toward their decision when ask to justify it later on. ...
Much of the research surrounding social influence investigates its effects in specifically non-moral situations while almost no research has looked at its effects during moral emergencies. At the same time, studies of moral psychology tend to focus on the intricacies of moral decision-making during the responses of individual participants. This thesis aims to bridge this gap between social influence and moral psychology by having participants respond to moral dilemmas while under the duress of social influence. In order to investigate the effects of social influence on moral behaviours, immersive virtual reality (IVR) was used, allowing participants to be placed in a life-like virtual simulation of events that they would normally only read about in a text-based vignette, probing their observed moral behaviours instead of just their abstract moral judgments. The benefits of using IVR include the ethical and controllable nature of questionnaires along with the verisimilitude of real-life. Another focus of this thesis is to compare moral judgments to moral behaviours. In two out of the three studies presented in this thesis, the virtual moral dilemma was replicated in a text-based questionnaire in order to compare the results from the two media. Moral judgments in response to text-based moral dilemma can miss out key contextual information such the motoric feedback of having to physically act out a movement. These factors can lead to a divergence between moral judgments and behaviours. The thesis starts with a literature review on IVR technology and moral decision-making and social influence research. After this, the three studies conducted as part of this thesis are described. The major findings from these studies include the demonstration of a preference to take action regardless of outcome only when in IVR and the inability for compliance attempts to influence specifically moral behaviour.
... In line with this proposal, Ross (1977: 196) posited that the typical person "attends to actions or occurrences in forming inferences but neglects to consider the information conveyed when particular responses or events do not occur." Scholars have built on this notion to argue that behavior, in comparison to a lack of behavior, tends to have more informational value and is more likely to affect subsequent perceptions (Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Fazio, 1987;Nisbett & Ross, 1980;Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1987). Thus, the action required of a supervisor to achieve high-high fit may be more strongly related to perceptions of overall fairness than is the relative inaction inherent in low-low fit. ...
... This revealed preference, witnessed by decision makers, signals to themselves a commitment to the chosen option, enhancing the determination with which they execute the task. These and other studies (e.g., Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Keller, Harlam, Loewenstein, & Volpp, 2011) support the idea that the means by which people make choices can exert powerful effects on decisions seen as a beginning rather than an end. ...
Whether guided by feelings or deliberation, most decisions entail selecting an option and then living with it. Beyond simply investigating which option people select and how they evaluate it right away, the present research examines the extended issue of how people think and act in the service of that choice as a function of how they decided in the first place. We propose that reliance on feelings over deliberation in making an initial decision will strengthen postchoice protection of chosen options against threats. Seven studies provide evidence that feeling-focused deciders prove more mentally, emotionally, and behaviorally staunch in their defense of chosen options in response to a range of different campaigns against them. Together, a focus on feelings emerges as a decision strategy with broad relevance for the extended issue of how decision makers navigate the postchoice course. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... Previous research has shown that having people commit to performing an action increases the chance of them performing that action [5,6]. For example, Milkman et al. [7] found that prompting employees to commit, in writing, to being vaccinated against influenza at a particular time and date increased the number of employees that were vaccinated by 13% relative to when they were not prompted to make a commitment. ...
The current study investigated whether we could encourage Australian residents to become better prepared for floods by inviting them to make a specific commitment to do so. We sampled 374 residents of the state of Victoria (56% male, 81% metropolitan) and 400 residents of the state of New South Wales (45% male, 59% metropolitan) who lived in locations that were potentially at risk of floods. They residents were sampled so that their distributions of ages, genders and living locations were as representative as possible of the population of those two states. These residents completed two surveys that ascertained their preparedness for floods at two points in time, separate by a two-week period. At the end of the first survey all residents received information about how they could better prepare for floods. In addition, approximately half the residents were randomly selected to be invited to commit to becoming better prepared for floods. We found that 74% of residents who were invited to commit to becoming better prepared for floods, were willing to make this commitment. We found that the group that was invited to commit to become better prepared for floods increased their preparedness for floods over the two-week period that separated the two surveys more than the group that was not invited to make this commitment, F(1, 772) = 4.53, p = .034, η2 = .006. We conclude that when emergency services inform residents of flood-prone areas how to better prepare for floods, they should also attempt to elicit from the residents a commitment to become better prepared for floods.
... Strategies to induce cognitive dissonance operate on the premise that individuals strive for consistency between their attitudes and actions. Thus, desired behaviors can be increased by evoking commitments that are active (rather than passive), public (rather than private), and voluntary (rather than coerced) [48,49]. In BASIS, clinicians set public goals for the upcoming training and for EBP implementation, and collaboratively generate potential solutions to overcome common barriers to implementation (e.g., time; lack of supervisor support). ...
Background:
Individual-level implementation determinants, such as clinician attitudes, commonly influence the successful adoption of evidence-based practices, but few explicit strategies have been tested with regard to their ability to impact these key mechanisms of change. This paper reports on an initial test of a blended, theoretically informed pre-implementation strategy designed to target malleable individual-level determinants of behavior change. Beliefs and Attitudes for Successful Implementation in Schools (BASIS) is a brief and pragmatic pre-implementation strategy that uses strategic education, social influence techniques, and group-based motivational interviewing to target implementation attitudes, perceived social norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intentions to implement among mental health clinicians working in the education sector.
Methods:
As part of a pilot trial, 25 school mental health clinicians were randomized to BASIS (n = 12) or an attention control placebo (n = 13), with both conditions receiving training and consultation in an evidence-based intervention for youth experiencing trauma (the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools). Theorized mechanisms of change (attitudes, perceived social norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intentions) were assessed at baseline, post-training, and 4-month follow-up. Clinician participation in post-training consultation and intervention adoption were also tracked.
Results:
A series of regression models and independent sample t tests indicated that BASIS had significant, medium to large effects on the majority of its proximal mechanisms from baseline to post-training. BASIS was also associated with a greater latency between initial training in the intervention and discontinuation of participation in post-training consultation, with clinicians in the BASIS condition persisting in consultation for an average of 134 days versus 32 days for controls, but this difference was not statistically significant. At 4-month follow-up, most differences in the theorized mechanisms had attenuated, and approximately the same small number of BASIS clinicians adopted the trauma intervention as controls.
Conclusion:
Findings suggest that the brief BASIS pre-implementation strategy had a significant influence on its proximal mechanisms of change, but that these changes did not persist over time or translate into adoption of the trauma intervention. Implications for theory refinement, revisions to the BASIS protocol, and next steps for research surrounding individual-level implementation strategies are discussed.
Trial registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03791281 . Registered 31 December 2018-Retrospectively registered.
... However, people have a natural tendency to believe that what is written represents the true attitude of the author (Gawronski, 2003). Therefore, written or symbolically registered commitments (Freedman & Fraser, 1966), as well as commitments that are actively expressed (Cioffi & Garner, 1996) or assumed publicly (Burger & Cornelius, 2003), appear to increase the probability of consistency of the subsequent behavior. ...
Commitment to consistency (CC) theories have been widely studied in the field of social influence. However, studies on CC effect have examined only the decisions consumers make for themselves and have neglected the decisions made for others. Prior studies have indicated that the difference between decisions made for oneself and others can be explained by the psychological distance from construal level theory (CLT). Other studies have demonstrated the moderating effect of psychological distance (in the temporal dimension) on CC. The present study analyzed the effect of CC on consumers’ decisions made for themselves and for others and assessed whether the social dimension of psychological distance moderates CC. For this purpose, a study with a 2 (prior commitment: yes vs. no) × 2 (type of decision: for himself/herself vs. for others) experimental design evaluated 180 participants (between-subjects) living in the United States. The members of the experimental group were manipulated toward a commitment to healthy food products, and the participants’ choices for healthy versus unhealthy food products were analyzed. The results indicated that CC effect occurred not only on choices made for oneself but also when choices were made for others. However, the results did not confirm that the social dimension of psychological distance moderated CC. The results and implications of the use of CC as a strategy to influence consumers’ choice to eat healthy foods are discussed.
... In animal perception and learning, pigeons form better associations between a reward and an observed pigeon that moves, than they do with pigeons that are standing still (Dittrich & Lea, 1993). In human self-perception, an active response to express agreement leads to more later agreement than a passive response (Allison & Messick, 1988;Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Fazio, Sherman, & Herr, 1982). That is, the presence of an action weighs more heavily than an equally informative absence of an action. ...
This chapter presents a model of the cognitive, motivational, and behavioral implications of the concepts of action and inaction. The action or inaction nature of a behavior is a judgment, a subjective and variable construal, made by the actor or an observer based on concepts of action and inaction. In other literatures, action and inaction concepts entail affirming or negating of any behavior, but we posit that they are best defined in terms of level of effort and intentionality. People define action as more intentional and effortful than inaction and consequently establish default evaluations of action as more positive than inaction. In this chapter, we discuss how action and inaction are set as goals, how these goals differ from active and inactive means, and how these goals are implemented and considered complete. The chapter integrates disparate work on general action biases, action and inaction goals, and process models of goals. We describe specific principles that guide goal systems containing action and inaction goals, and the principles summarizing action-goal dominance at the stages of goal setting, implementation, and monitoring/completion.
... Why? One reason is that actively making a choice, as opposed to passively being opted into a choice, enhances postdecisional goal commitment (Cioffi & Garner, 1996). Of course, one limitation of active-choice interventions is that they will produce a socially efficient outcome only if the decision maker chooses well, which may require knowledge, selfawareness, or self-regulation that the decision maker lacks to begin with. ...
Almost everyone struggles to act in their individual and collective best interests, particularly when doing so requires forgoing a more immediately enjoyable alternative. Other than exhorting decision makers to "do the right thing," what can policymakers do to reduce overeating, undersaving, procrastination, and other self-defeating behaviors that feel good now but generate larger delayed costs? In this review, we synthesize contemporary research on approaches to reducing failures of self-control. We distinguish between self-deployed and other-deployed strategies and, in addition, between situational and cognitive intervention targets. Collectively, the evidence from both psychological science and economics recommends psychologically informed policies for reducing failures of self-control.
... Previous studies on user technology acceptance have found that a different set of adoption mechanisms relate to mandatory vs voluntary usage settings (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000). Based on voluntary vs mandatory adoption, certain distinctions between active and passive customers have been studied (Cioffi and Garner, 1996). In the mandatory usage setting, behavior intention to use enterprise resource planning systems has been examined through an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) model (Amoako-Gyampah and Salam, 2004). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate users’ continuous adoption behaviors on mobile game playing from the perspective of situational habit formation.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the literature research, a continuous adoption model for situational mobile game is proposed. And the research model is assessed based on data gathered from a sample of 226 mobile game players by employing the structural equation model methodology.
Findings
The results show that situational cues represented by availability, perceived ease of use and diversion lead to repeated performance that can be represented by flow experience and satisfaction in the situational mobile game playing context. But only flow experience and diversion influence continuous usage directly. Additionally diversion, as a critical situational variable, not only indirectly affects continuous usage intention through flow experience, but also directly affects continuous usage intention for situational mobile game playing.
Originality/value
Mobile game adoption has been studied from different perspectives, but most research is based on the technology acceptance model. They could not explain the common fact that young people tend to be highly motivated by mobile games and can be regarded as pro-active mobile game players, but many people play mobile games only when they are bored and need a diversion. So this study attempts to illustrate the phenomena to fill the gaps.
... Another way to potentially influence affective ties to the university is to emphasize the volitional or earned aspects of membership (Festinger, 1957). Studies have shown that people who chose or earn membership in a group are more committed to the group (Ellemers, Wilke, & van Knippenberg, 1993) and are more likely to follow group norms (Cioffi & Garner, 1996). There are undoubtedly numerous other factors that could be examined along these lines. ...
... In animal perception and learning, pigeons are better able to associate rewards with video images of other pigeons that are moving than with other pigeons that are standing still (Dittrich & Lea, 1993). In human self-perception, people who signal agreement by producing a response later agree with a behavior more than people who signal agreement by avoiding a response (Allison & Messick, 1988;Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Fazio, Sherman, & Herr, 1982). In general, in making decisions, the presence of any attribute weighs more heavily than the absence of an attribute (Kardes, Cronley, & Kim, 2006). ...
Four experiments uncovered an action dominance error by which people’s natural focus on actions hinders appropriate responses to social and nonsocial stimuli. This surprising error comprises higher rates of both omission (misses) and commission (false alarms) when, in responding to action and inaction demands, people have higher numbers of action targets. The action dominance error was verified over four experiments using an analog that required responses to words and to target individuals. Experiments 1 and 2 tested our hypotheses and distinguished the action error effect from the effects of practicing action or inaction responses. Experiment 3 linked the error to the greater cognitive load imposed by the higher proportion of action over inaction targets. Furthermore, Experiment 4 demonstrated that (a) there is a default tendency to pay more attention to action (vs. inaction) targets and (b) shifting focus to inaction targets reduces the action dominance error.
... An example of this is the need to be consistent to previous behaviours and commitments. For example, Cioffi and Garner (1996) found that making an active and open choice in written form tends to be consistent with holding extreme views on that position later in time when the respondent is asked again. Thus public commitment tends to be more persistent than a private one. ...
Do you know where to start with digital marketing? This user-friendly text book provides an engaging introduction to digital marketing to help you understand of the impact of digital channels on marketing operations. It introduces the essential terms, and practices of digital marketing and applies theory to explain the rationale for choosing to use a specific approach in a given context. It provides an overview of digital marketing challenges and opportunities by defining the field, explaining the structure of digital marketing management and introducing the digital marketing mix. It explains how to use digital marketing to enhance the customer experience and how to integrate digital marketing into existing channels. It also examines new digital business models including crowd sourcing and crowd funding. Finally it examines the key performance indicators of technology acceptance, customer satisfaction and customer engagement and the choice of analytics that can be used for measuring these outcomes.
... Compared to inactions, actions receive more attention (Kahneman & Miller, 1986) and elicit stronger emotional reactions (Landman, 1987;Zhou, Yu, & Zhou, 2010). In animal perception and learning, for example, pigeons are better able to associate rewards with video images of other pigeons that are moving than with other pigeons that are standing still (Dittrich agree with a behavior more than people who signal agreement by avoiding a response (Allison & Messick, 1988;Cioffi & Garner, 1996;Fazio, Sherman, & Herr, 1982). ...
Persuasive communications and interventions are often designed to change behavior, as when religious ministers solicit financial contributions, campaign managers strive to obtain votes for a candidate, or marketers seek to increase purchase. To be successful, communications to change behaviors require a scientific understanding of the contents that maximize behavioral impact and the degree to which communications are successful in trying to induce actions or inactions. We begin this chapter with a discussion of action and inaction judgments that may affect one’s disposition towards behaviors, such as those recommended in persuasive communications. We then follow with the notion of actionability, or the degree to which a communication or intervention is likely to influence behavior. Specifically, we propose a framework to analyze the factors that make persuasive communications actionable. We define actionability as the property of enabling and motivating recipients to make behavioral decisions based on the intervention content. Actionability comprises the inclusion of behavioral recommendations, the relevance of those recommendations within the context of behavior execution, and the influence of the message on the recipient’s ability and motivation to carry out the recommendations. An intervention is actionable if it includes at least one behavioral recommendation, the recommendation is appropriate for the context, and the intervention promotes recipients’ willingness and ability to carry out the recommendation.
... Additionally, Ajzen and Fishbein's (2000) theory of planned behavior (TPB) suggests that the frequent performance of a certain behavior (in this case active usage) leads to the formation of habit, which influences subsequent behavior without conscious cognitive negotiation. By implication, an active customer is more likely to remain in a relationship because such a customer has accumulated more (conscious) reasons for remaining in the relationship (Cioffi & Garner, 1996). Further, Roos and Gustafsson (2011) established that individual switching histories are longer in case of passive customers, and that switching is less frequent when customers are more active (Roos & Gustafsson, 2011).Thus, to effectively enhance the explanation of continuance usage behavior as far as staying with service providers are concerned, trust and active usage of mobile money are added to Bhattacherjee's (2001) post-acceptance model of IS continuance in the current paper, as indicated in Figure 1. Figure 1 illustrates the proposed relationships between satisfaction, trust, active mobile money usage, and customer continuance intention. ...
The paper examines the influence of mobile money usage on customer continuance intention (CCI). The study conveniently sampled 507 mobile money users to test the research model using PLS-SEM. Satisfaction, trust and active usage of mobile money were found to influence CCI. Active usage of mobile money was also confirmed as a mediator in the relationship between satisfaction and trust, on customer continuance. The study thus validated a theoretical model of customer continuance intention as it relates to mobile money usage. It has also provided a new perspective on managing customer churn in an emerging market.
Background
Scalable, positive, behaviourally informed interventions may help people remember to attend their primary care appointment or cancel in good time, but have not yet been implemented long term.
Aim
To examine effects of social norms and making active commitments on missed and cancelled appointments in primary care over 12 months and explore implementation factors.
Design and setting
A mixed-methods design evaluation and implementation study led by a Patient Participation Group (PPG) member in a large GP practice in the West Midlands.
Methods
Following a 6-month baseline, waiting room notices were redesigned to emphasise positive social norms for desired behaviours. When booking appointments, receptionists were trained to invite patients to (i) verbally actively commit to cancelling if needed; (ii) write down their own appointment details. Monthly missed appointments (MAs) and cancellations were statistically compared with baseline averages and seasonally equivalent months. To explore implementation, reception staff completed a knowledge, attitude, and behaviour questionnaire at 9 months, analysed descriptively. Study team field notes were thematically analysed.
Results
Across 12 intervention months there was a mean of 37.67 fewer MAs per month (20% reduction) and 102.66 more cancellations (21.07% increase) compared with 6-month baseline means [MAs t(11) = −6.15, P < 0.001; cancellations t(11) = 3.637, P = 0.004] with statistically significant differences in seasonally equivalent months [MAs t(5) = −4.65, P = 0.006; cancellations t(5) = 3.263, P = 0.022]. Receptionists (n = 12) reported implementing the strategies except when facing pressures; knowledge and attitudes varied.
Conclusions
Behaviourally informed interventions reduced primary care MAs longer term; PPGs and practice teams can work together on quality improvement projects with support from leaders to prioritise and embed new practices.
Group works provide a highly convenient learning and development setting for university students as it helps them to develop innovative solutions by utilizing multiple perspectives and orientations, and deriving integrated insights. However, some reasons such as group size, task meaningfulness, the belief that one's contribution will not make much of a difference, and group members with diverse backgrounds/experiences may lead group members to lower their physical or cognitive effort and/or trigger them to loaf. The behaviors, identified as 'social loafing' in behavioral sciences literature and arise in the forms of slowdowns, carelessness , putting forth less effort, neglecting, withdrawal, inattention and self-limiting, may have direct effect on the group and its members' performance. Regarding this, the aim of the current study was to investigate the opinions of university students on social loafing behaviors observed and experienced in group works. The Survey of Social Loafing in Classroom Teams of Jassawalla, Malshe and Sashittal (2008), consisting of three scales and three questionnaires, was utilized as the data collection tool after Turkish validity and reliability studies were conducted. A total of 374 university students from seven faculties and 26 different programs of a public university participated to the study. Results of the study indicated that being mostly silent during group meetings and not participating in group's final presentation were the most disruptive loafing behaviors; those behaviors mostly wasted other group members' time and caused them to do more than their share of work; group members mostly tried indirect ways of letting social loafer that they did not approve of his/her behavior, and university students wished faculty members to evaluate individual effort on groups in more ways like making the group report mid-semester on 'who is doing what'.
We use a field experiment to study how social image concerns affect a commonly used strategy to attract new donors: pledges to engage in a charitable activity. While waiting for their appointment, visitors to a local government office are offered sign-ups for blood donations in a crowded waiting room. We randomly vary the visibility of the pledge to donate and the organization for which blood donations are solicited (charitable vs. commercial). Our setting provides natural variation in who observes the pledge. We do not find that visibility increases pledges to donate. Exploring heterogeneity in treatment effects, we find that visibility increases pledges when participants are observed by friends or family. Almost all subjects renege on their pledge.
The current research tested the effects of active choice on memory (i.e., the self-choice effect). Across 14 experiments (N = 1100) we found that memory for choice alternatives was improved by choosing versus being assigned information to remember. A subset of 3 experiments found a bigger self-choice effect for more difficult choices. And a subset of 6 experiments found that prior acts of self-control reduce the self-choice effect. These findings represent unbiased estimates of the self-choice effect (d = 0. 62), the magnitude of the self-choice effect for easy (d = 0.35) versus more difficult (d = 0.87) choices, and the effect of ego depletion on choice memory (d = 0.39). Discussion centers on the role of cognitive control.
The extant literature presents antecedents of loyalty into four groups: characteristics of the environment, characteristics of the dyadic relationship, characteristics of the consumer, and consumer perceptions of the relationship with the marketing firm. However, it pays little to no attention to the antecedents of loyalty in small island economies. Prior research on small island economies is heavily focused on cultural, environmental, and macro-economic issues. Thus, the focus of this chapter is to capture antecedents that are cognizant of the distinct market conditions that potentially impact customer loyalty within the telecommunications sector. It seeks to advance understanding of loyalty in Business-to-Business (B2B) relationships in the context of a small island economy and identify triggers and determinants to convert passively loyal customers into actively loyal customers.
Customer churn as a common but extremely harmful phenomenon haunts service operators in telecommunications industry for a long time. Discriminating customers prone to churning in the early stage and taking precaution measures can mitigate customer churn effectively. Unlike previous works which mainly considered the inter-operator customer churn, we focus on a new problem of intra-operator customer churn, that is, customers abandon their fourth generation (4G) mobile communication services and switch to third generation/second generation (3G/2G). Due to quite different mechanism and causes, previous studies cannot tackle this new problem well. In this paper, we propose a novel profit maximizing framework to solve this special customer churn problem. Specifically, we first build a profit maximizing classifier to predict whether a customer is prone to churn or not, in which profitable customers have more probability to be classified correctly. Then, we describe and quantify the switching behaviors of 4G customers by introducing a notion of switching score. Finally, we investigate relation between operators and customers, finding that some features of 4G service plans provided by operators indeed affect switching behaviors of 4G customers remarkably. This provides insight into reasonable design of 4G service plans for operators in the future. Our framework uncovers the root causes of intra-operator customer churn and solve the problem well. Experimental results based on real data demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework.
Antibiotic stewardship aims to better patient outcomes, reduce antibiotic resistance, and decrease unnecessary health care costs by improving appropriate antibiotic use. More than half of annual antibiotic expenditures for antibiotics in the United States are prescribed in the ambulatory setting. This review provides a summary of evidence based strategies shown to improve antibiotic prescribing in ambulatory care settings including: providing education to patients and their families, providing education to clinicians regarding best practices for specific conditions, providing communications training to clinicians, implementing disease-specific treatment algorithms, implementing delayed prescribing for acute otitis media, supplying prescribing feedback to providers with peer comparisons, using commitment letters, and prompting providers to justify antibiotic prescribing for diagnoses for which antibiotics are not typically recommended. These various mechanisms to improve stewardship can be tailored to a specific practice's work flow and culture. Interventions should be used in combination to maximize impact. The intent with this review is to provide an overview of strategies that pediatric providers can take from paper to practice.
Pediatric clinical practice often involves improving child health by changing parents' behavior. Strategies from behavioral economics - a field that leverages predictable patterns in human decision-making to overcome barriers to behavior change - can improve health outcomes in adults. Though more research is needed, the application of these approaches to parent behavior change in pediatric settings has the potential to improve the clinical effectiveness of child healthcare. We review the foundational concepts of behavioral economics and identify the unique role of pediatricians in motivating parent behavior change. We then discuss how to apply four key strategies in practice - message framing, use of defaults, enhanced active choice, and harnessing social forces - to support parent decision-making to improve child health. Leveraging behavioral economic principles around parental decision-making has the potential to supercharge program effectiveness and improve patient and family health.
The chapter discusses the role of the manner of attitude formation. It focuses on the development of an attitude through direct behavioral experience with the attitude object and examines whether such attitudes better predict subsequent behavior than attitudes formed without behavioral experience. The chapter provides an overview of the attitude-behavior consistency problem and describes the effect of the manner of attitude formation through the “housing” study, the “puzzle” experiment, and the “subject pool” study. The prior-to-later behavior relation is also discussed in the chapter, wherein it has described the self-perception of past religious behaviors, attitudes and self-reports of subsequent behavior, an individual difference perspective, and a partial correlation analysis. The chapter discusses attitudinal qualities—namely, confidence and clarity, the persistence of the attitude, and resistance to attack. The reasons for the differential strength are also explored in the chapter—namely, the amount of information available, information processing, and attitude accessibility. The chapter briefly describes the attitude-behavior relationship, personality traits, and behavior.
Publisher Summary Individuals come to “know” their own attitudes, emotions, and other internal states partially by inferring them from observations of their own overt behavior and/ or the circumstances in which this behavior occurs. Thus, to the extent that internal cues are weak, ambiguous, or uninterpretable, the individual is functionally in the same position as an outside observer, an observer who must necessarily rely upon those same external cues to infer the individual's inner states. This chapter traces the conceptual antecedents and empirical consequences of these propositions, attempts to place the theory in a slightly enlarged frame of reference, and clarifies just what phenomena the theory can and cannot account for in the rapidly growing experimental literature of self-attribution phenomena. Several experiments and paradigms from the cognitive dissonance literature are amenable to self-perception interpretations. But precisely because such experiments are subject to alternative interpretations, they cannot be used as unequivocal evidence for self-perception theory. The reinterpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena and other self-perception phenomena have been discussed. The chapter highlights some differences between self-perception and interpersonal perception and shift of paradigm in social psychology. It discusses some unsolved problems, such as the conceptual status of noncognitive response classes and the strategy of functional analysis.
This chapter outlines the two basic routes to persuasion. One route is based on the thoughtful consideration of arguments central to the issue, whereas the other is based on the affective associations or simple inferences tied to peripheral cues in the persuasion context. This chapter discusses a wide variety of variables that proved instrumental in affecting the elaboration likelihood, and thus the route to persuasion. One of the basic postulates of the Elaboration Likelihood Model—that variables may affect persuasion by increasing or decreasing scrutiny of message arguments—has been highly useful in accounting for the effects of a seemingly diverse list of variables. The reviewers of the attitude change literature have been disappointed with the many conflicting effects observed, even for ostensibly simple variables. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) attempts to place these many conflicting results and theories under one conceptual umbrella by specifying the major processes underlying persuasion and indicating the way many of the traditionally studied variables and theories relate to these basic processes. The ELM may prove useful in providing a guiding set of postulates from which to interpret previous work and in suggesting new hypotheses to be explored in future research.
Copyright © 1986 Academic Press Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Presents a summary and synthesis of the author's work on attribution theory concerning the mechanisms involved in the process of causal explanations. The attribution theory is related to studies of social perception, self-perception, and psychological epistemology. Two systematic statements of attribution theory are described, discussed, and illustrated with empirical data: the covariation and the configuration concepts. Some problems for attribution theory are considered, including the interplay between preconceptions and new information, simple vs. complex schemata, attribution of covariation among causes, and illusions in attributions. The role of attribution in decision making and behavior is discussed. (56 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In two studies, students contacted by telephone were asked to predict whether they would perform a particular behavior (registering to vote or voting, respectively) in the next few days. The proportion who predicted that they would do these socially desirable behaviors exceeded the proportion of control subjects who performed the behavior without first being asked to predict whether they would. Further, in the voting study these errors of overprediction were self-erasing in the sense described by S. J. Sherman (
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1980,
39). That is, subjects who were asked to predict whether they would vote—all of whom predicted that they would—actually did vote with substantially greater probability than did the no-prediction control subjects. (Actual voting was verified by consulting official voter rolls.) Asking people to predict whether they will perform a socially desirable action appears to increase their probability of performing the action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To test the assumption that Ss formulate attitude responses from information available to them when responding to an attitude question, 2 experiments were conducted in which the availability of information was manipulated with a linguistic device. In Exp I, 70 undergraduates were asked to indicate whether statements of religious behavior applied to them or not. The endorsement of pro- and antireligious behaviors was manipulated, and it was found that Ss for whom proreligious behaviors were made salient expressed more favorable attitudes toward being religious than did Ss for whom antireligious behaviors were made salient. In Exp II, a similar manipulation was used to study Ss' behavior in a university course. However, the saliency of pro- and anticourse behaviors affected only Ss for whom the course was part of their major. For majors, the endorsement of procourse behaviors resulted in a more procourse attitude and the endorsement of anticourse behaviors resulted in a less favorable attitude toward the course. The attitudes of nonmajors were primarily a function of the grade received in the course. Results suggest that Ss use behavioral information to derive their attitude judgments when the information is both salient and relevant to their judgments. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Addresses the problem of incongruity between beliefs and behaviors. The theories of attribution and cognitive dissonance are briefly discussed, and their implications for behavior are noted. Issues that arise from obtaining behavioral effects in the absence of effects on beliefs and evaluations are delineated, and previous theories to account for these results are reviewed. Studies cited by R. E. Nisbett and T. D. Wilson (see record
1978-00295-001), by Wilson (1983), and by D. J. Bem (1972) are scrutinized with respect to the present author's critical and theoretical objectives, and a similar analysis is applied to more recent experiments on overjustification. It is concluded that (a) self-report effects are significant and congruent with behavior more frequently than previous reviewers have indicated, (b) behavior may interfere with inferential processes and thereby erase or prevent from occurring internal state changes that would otherwise be found, and (c) incongruity and other problems are symptomatic of there being no sophisticated theoretical account of how internal states mediate behavior. Basic facts about studies reviewed by Nisbett and Wilson are appended. (109 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Questions the criminal justice system's practice of treating eyewitness lineup identifications (IDs) of suspects (SUs) as highly informative while treating nonidentifications (NIDs) (i.e., no choice responses or choices of foils) as uninformative. A Bayesian model of information gain is used to mathematically prove that (a) if an eyewitness ID of an SU increases the probability that the SU is the criminal, then an NID must decrease the probability that the SU is the criminal; and (b) the
relative diagnosticity of IDs vs NIDs is determined by the probability of obtaining an ID vs NID, with NIDs being more diagnostic if they are relatively less frequent than IDs. An application of the model to previously published data shows NIDs to be more than 150% as diagnostic as IDs regarding the probability that the SU is the criminal. A breakdown of NIDs into 2 types, eyewitness choices of a lineup foil vs no-choice decisions, suggests that the latter is more informative than the former regarding the probability that the SU is innocent. Cognitive mechanisms that may be responsible for criminal justice investigators discounting of NIDs are discussed in relation to research on human judgment. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Privately self-conscious people may resist social pressures because (a) they tune out the social matrix and express their beliefs irrespective of how they make them appear to an audience (the social obliviousness hypothesis) or (b) they prefer to create an identity of being autonomous and will monitor and control their self-presentations to construct this image for audiences (the autonomous identity hypothesis). The results of three studies supported the latter. The self-identifications of privately self-conscious subjects emphasized autonomy and personal identity, whereas those of publicly self-conscious subjects emphasized conformity, social identity, and social trepidations. An experiment found that privately self-conscious subjects publicly changed their attitudes if by so doing they protected the appearance of autonomy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A number of philosophers and psychologists stress the importance of disconfirmation in reasoning and suggest that people are instead prone to a general deleterious "confirmation bias." In particular, it is suggested that people tend to test those cases that have the best chance of verifying current beliefs rather than those that have the best chance of falsifying them. We show, however, that many phenomena labeled "confirmation bias" are better understood in terms of a general
positive test strategy. With this strategy, there is a tendency to test cases that are expected (or known) to have the property of interest rather than those expected (or known) to lack that property. We show that the positive test strategy can be a very good heuristic for determining the truth or falsity of a hypothesis under realistic conditions. It can, however, lead to systematic errors or inefficiencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examines various interpretations of cognitive dissonance. A review of the conditions which have reliably produced dissonance indicates that the phenomenon will occur whenever an individual can be held intentionally responsible for his behaviors and is concerned with the attributions others make about him. A social-psychologically based theory of impression management is offered to account for the results of dissonance studies. According to the theory, an individual learns that he must appear consistent in order to maintain his credibility as a social communicator. Additionally, he is constrained by normative considerations. Dissonance reduction will only be observed when a person believes that an outside o imputes intentionality to both of 2 contradictory statements or actions, and the 2nd action is believed to be counternormative or harmful in nature. The theory integrates the various viewpoints of L. Festinger, D. Bem, V. Allen, and M. Rosenberg, is supported by the existing dissonance literature, is rooted in socialization processes, and offers an alternative to the traditional intrapsychic explanations of dissonance. (50 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Conducted 3 experiments with 129 undergraduates to test the discounting and augmenting principles proposed by H. H. Kelley (1972). Overall findings suggest that these principles were less straightforward than their wide, and largely uncritical, acceptance would imply. Two conclusions were evident: (1) Discounting was more potent than augmentation. The addition of coactors weakened the inferred strength of a force more than the addition of an equal number of opponents strengthened it. (2) The magnitude of an effect produced by facilitative forces opposed by inhibitory forces was construed as more diagnostic of facilitative force strength than of inhibitory force weakness. A wide margin winner was judged more likely than a narrow margin winner to win again in the future, but a wide margin loser was judged no more likely than a narrow margin loser to lose again in the future. Implications for organizational performance evaluation and for understanding the way people make sense out of competitive events and predictions about the future outcomes of competitors are discussed. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Self-presentations are more likely to be internalized when they can be justified as representative of self. As predicted, when the behavior fell in their latitude of acceptance rather than rejection, Ss with strong prior self-beliefs (defined by self-perceived behavioral variability on the trait dimension) took greater responsibility for their self-perceptions, viewed them as more justifiable, and changed their later self-appraisals more. In contrast, Ss with weak prior self-beliefs were more influenced by extreme self-presentations (in the latitude of rejection) and viewed their behavior as equally justifiable irrespective of the latitude in which it fell. It was also found that negative arousal plays a role in guiding people's reactions to out-of-character behavior. These findings have implications for conceptualizations of the self-concept (e.g., as stable vs. unstable) and the relation between the private and public sides of self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Hypothesized that self-relevant values (C. Steele, 1988) may be an antecedent variable that predicts commitment (CM) in the face of adversity (AD). Study 1, a cross-sectional study of students' ongoing personal projects, revealed that the perceived value relevance (VR) of the projects interacted with the degree of experienced AD in predicting felt CM. Whereas VR was unrelated to CM under low AD, it was positively related to CM under high AD. This interaction accounted for significant variance independent of C. E. Rusbult's (e.g., see record
1981-10400-001) investment model of CM in the face of AD. Study 2 was a longitudinal investigation of students engaged in term-long volunteer projects. VR and initial reports (IR) of CM were measured at the beginning of the term, and AD and subsequent reports of CM were measured at the end of the term. VR at the outset subsequently predicted CM in the face of AD. Moreover, IRs of CM did not account for the variance explained by the interaction of IRs of VR and subsequent reports of AD. Thus, VR predicted, in a positive direction, latent differences in CM that were manifest in the face of AD. Those who saw their projects as value relevant at the outset were more likely to feel committed in the face of AD at the end of the term. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
85 undergraduates with well or poorly defined prior attitudes toward being an environmentalist/conservationist were identified by assessing the structural consistency between the affective and cognitive components of their attitudes. After Ss completed 1 of 2 versions of a questionnaire designed to make salient either past pro- or anti-ecology behaviors, their final attitudes were assessed. The hypothesis that the self-perception account of attitude expression holds primarily for individuals with poorly defined prior attitudes was supported: Low-consistency Ss, with presumably poorly defined attitudes, expressed postmanipulation environmentalist attitudes that were congruent with the pro- or anti-ecology behaviors made salient by the questionnaire manipulation. The additional finding that high-consistency (vs low-consistency) Ss' beliefs on 5 ecology-related issues were more highly intercorrelated supports the assumption that the consistency construct appropriately indexes the degree to which individuals possess well-defined attitudes. A comparison of theory and research on self-schemata with research on the affective–cognitive consistency variable suggested that the latter may be a useful measure of attitude schematicity. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the hypothesis that individuals would infer less extreme attitudes from the nonoccurrence of a behavior than from the occurrence of a behavior. 52 Ss rated cartoons for humor or lack of humor under 4 conditions: 2 similar responses, 2 different types of response, response to humorous cartoon, and response to nonhumorous cartoon. Results confirm the prediction. Relevant investigations from the self-perception literature are discussed in light of this feature-positive effect. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Studies 1 and 2 showed that identical behaviors had greater impact on the self-concept when performed publicly rather than privately. That is, the self-concept is more likely to change by internalizing public behavior than by internalizing behavior that is identical but lacks the interpersonal context. The self-concept change extends even to behavioral changes and occurs even when participants are unaware of being observed. In addition, those who are high in self-monitoring are more likely to internalize their behavior than those who are low in self-monitoring. Study 3 provided evidence about what components of a public situation affect the internalization of behavior. Choice about making the self-portrayal, drawing on episodes from one's own past rather than relying on a yoked script, and expecting future interaction with the audience all increased the internalization of a public behavior.
Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, and Kardes (1986) demonstrated that Ss were able to evaluate adjectives more quickly when these adjectives were immediately preceded (primed) by attitude objects of similar valence, compared with when these adjectives were primed by attitude objects of opposite valence. Moreover, this effect obtained primarily for attitude objects toward which Ss were presumed to hold highly accessible attitudes, as indexed by evaluation latency. The present research explored the generality of these findings across attitude objects and across procedural variations. The results of 3 experiments indicated that the automatic activation effect is a pervasive and relatively unconditional phenomenon. It appears that most evaluations stored in memory, for social and nonsocial objects alike, become active automatically on the mere presence or mention of the object in the environment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly assumed the functional equivalence of different sized juries (at least in the range of 6- to 12-person groups). Several formal models of jury decision making predict that larger juries should hang more often, particularly for very close cases. Failures to confirm this prediction in several previous studies were attributed to inadequate sample sizes or to insufficiently close cases. An experimental simulation study that minimized these problems was undertaken to test the models' prediction. Social decision scheme and social transition scheme analyses permitted comparisons of the decision-making processes of the different-sized mock juries. The effect of the method used to poll group members' verdict preferences was also examined. As group size increased, the observed probability of a hung jury increased significantly. No process differences between 6- and 12-person groups were detected, but 3-person groups did exhibit several process differences from the larger groups. When cases were very close, the likelihood of a hung jury for typically sized juries was found to be lower when the group was polled by secret ballot than when a show-of-hands polling method was used.
Presents a theoretical model for the role of commitment, defined as a binding of the individual to behavioral acts, in attitude change. The derivation tested is: the greater the inducement offered S for performing an act consistent with his beliefs, the less committed he is to that act, and the less the resistance to subsequent countercommunications. Ss were differentially paid for performing an act consistent with their prior beliefs: later all Ss received a strong countercommunication on the same topic. The hypothesis was confirmed: Ss receiving the greater payment for performing the consonant act later showed greater attitude change in the direction advocated by the countercommunication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
2 experiments were conducted to test the proposition that once someone has agreed to a small request he is more likely to comply with a larger request. Exp. I demonstrated this effect when the same person made both requests; Exp. II extended this to the situation in which different people made the 2 requests. Several experimental groups were run in an effort to explain these results, and possible explanations are discussed.
Previous experiments with animals and young children have shown that discriminations based on the presence versus absence of a single feature are learned more easily when the feature appears on reinforced rather than nonreinforced displays. Six experiments demonstrated an analogous effect in college students, across a range of stimulus materials, general procedures, kinds of feedback, pacing of trials, and instructions to the subject. The results were analyzed in terms of the exceptionally strong control of behavior by events that are present on positive trials. These findings have implications for theoretical interpretations of human concept learning and decision making, and offer additional examples of the difficulty organisms experience in using "nonoccurrence" as a cue.
Study 1 demonstrated that information about healthy functioning can amplify health concerns and erode diagnostic confidence. Undergraduate Ss received a hypothetical test showing some level of cells associated either with pathology or with its absence. The moderate wellness result produced low confidence in one's health estimate and was distressing to receive. Wellness information may represent an ambiguous nonevent when testing for disease. Study 2 tested this thesis by adding Ss who adopted a recovering role to those adopting an illness role. Judgmental uncertainty was greatest--and equivalent--among recovering Ss given the moderate illness result and among ailing Ss given a moderate wellness result, and both groups were most willing to consider taking a risky treatment for the disease.
It is tempting to draw a sharp line of demarcation between the private and public sides of the self. The private self has been afforded a prestigious status within psychology. It is usually regarded as both a structure, containing the organized, relatively stable contents of one’s personal experiences, and an active process that guides and regulates one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. It is the core of one’s inner being: basic, enduring, distinctive, genuine, and a worthy subject for examination by psychologists.
This chapter discusses the social psychologists study “top of the head” phenomena in their experimental investigations. Attention within the social environment is selective. It is drawn to particular features of the environment either as a function of qualities intrinsic to those features (such as light or movement) or as a function of the perceiver's own dispositions and temporary need states. These conditions are outlined in the chapter. As a result of differential attention to particular features, information about those features is more available to the perceiver. Relative to the quantity of information retained about other features, more is retained about the salient features. When the salient person is the self, the same effects occur, and the individual is also found to show more consistency in attitudes and behaviors. These processes may occur primarily in situations which are redundant, unsurprising, uninvolving, and unarousing. They seem to occur automatically and substantially without awareness, and as such, they differ qualitatively from the intentional, conscious, controlled kind of search which characterizes all the behavior.
In this study we examined the impact of multiple communication contexts on subjects' encoding of information about a target person and on their subsequent impressions of and attitudes toward that person. Eighty male subjects were given the task of communicating their impressions of a target person they had read about to successive audiences in face-to-face interactions. Both audiences were described as either liking or disliking the target person the subjects were communicating about. Subjects produced two messages separated by either a brief or a long intermessage delay. Subjects in the Brief Intermessage Delay condition modified their messages for both audiences. In contrast, subjects in the Long Intermessage Delay condition modified their messages only for their first audience, and these initial messages then influenced the content of their second messages. Subjects' message modification involved producing descriptions of the target person that were evaluatively consistent with their audience's attitud...
In previous studies, Jones and Harris found that persons who wrote a favorable or unfavorable essay about Fidel Castro were judged as holding attitudes that corresponded to the essay's position, even when they had been compelled to endorse the position. The present research tested the robustness of this correspondence bias. In Study 1, subjects read two essays about Castro that they believed were written 9 months apart by the same author under forced-choice conditions. The correspondence bias emerged in subjects' judgments of the author's attitudes toward Castro at the time each essay was composed. Essay writers who endorsed two opposite positions were judged to have undergone greater attitude change than writers who twice endorsed the same position. Study 2 demonstrated the effect with an interval as brief as 1 week between constrained behaviors. These data underscore the robustness of the correspondence bias.
Message recipients' recall of attitude-relevant beliefs and experiences was expected to affect message processing such that high-retrieval recipients base their opinions relatively more on an analysis of message validity, whereas recipients who could recall few beliefs and experiences base their opinions on noncontent features such as source cues. Indeed, high-retrieval recipients were unaffected by the likability of the message source, they demonstrated relatively good recall of the message position and arguments, and cognitive response data indicated that persuasion was enhanced by positive rather than negative reactions to message content. In contrast, low-retrieval recipients were more persuaded by likable and by expert sources than unlikable and nonexpert ones. Further, these recipients showed relatively poor recall of the message position and arguments, and cognitive response data suggested that persuasion was enhanced by positive rather than negative reactions to the communicator.
The chapter presents the two very different basic processes that link attitudes and behavior, along with variants that amount to a mixture of the essentials of each process. Conditions that promote one process or the other also are discussed in the chapter. This discussion of mixed models illustrates the complexity of the role of spontaneous and deliberative processing to understand the manner in which attitudes influence behavior. The basic difference between the two types of models of the attitude-behavior process centers on the extent to which deciding on a particular course of action involves conscious deliberation about a spontaneous reaction to one's perception of the immediate situation. An individual may analyze the costs and benefits of a particular behavior and, in so doing, deliberately reflect on the attitudes relevant to the behavioral decision. These attitudes may serve as one of possibly many dimensions that are considered in arriving at a behavior plan, which may then be enacted.
This chapter describes the naive explanation of human actions, theory of correspondent inferences, personal involvement and correspondence, and the recent research concerning phenomenal causality and the attribution of intentions. The cognitive task of establishing sufficient reason for an action involves processing the available information about, or making assumptions about, the links between stable individual dispositions and observed action. The dispositional attributes are inferred from the effects of action, but not every effect is equally salient in the inference process. The perceiver's fundamental task is to interpret or infer the causal antecedents of action. When a person's actions have certain consequences, it is important for the perceiver to determine whether the person was capable of producing these consequences in response to his intentions. Where an actor fails to produce certain effects that might have been anticipated by the perceiver, there may be ambiguity as to whether the actor did not want to produce the effects, or wanted but was not able to. The attribution of intentions is that actions are informative to the extent that they have emerged out of a context of choice and reflect a selection of one among plural alternatives. However, the distinctiveness of the effects achieved and the extent to which they do not represent stereotypic cultural values, determine the likelihood that information about the actor can be extracted from an action. To say that an inference is correspondent, then, is to say that a disposition is being rather directly reflected in behavior, and that this disposition is unusual in its strength or intensity. In-role behavior is supported by too many reasons to be informative about the actor. However, out-of-role behavior is more informative because the effects of such actions are distinctive and not to be dismissed as culturally desirable.
Three experiments were conducted within the framework of correspondent inference theory. In each of the experiments the subjects were instructed to estimate the “true” attitude of a target person after having either read or listened to a speech by him expressing opinions on a controversial topic. Independent variables included position of speech (pro, anti, or equivocal), choice of position vs. assignment of position, and reference group of target person. The major hypothesis (which was confirmed with varying strength in all three experiments) was that choice would make a greater difference when there was a low prior probability of someone taking the position expressed in the speech. Other findings of interest were: (1) a tendency to attribute attitude in line with behavior, even in no-choice conditions; (2) increased inter-individual variability in conditions where low probability opinions were expressed in a constraining context; (3) that this variability was partly a function of the subjects' own attitudes on the issue; (4) that equivocation in no-choice conditions leads to the attribution that the equivocator opposes the assigned position. The main conclusion suggested is that perceivers do take account of prior probabilities and situational constraints when attributing private attitude, but perhaps do not weight these factors as heavily as would be expected by a rational analysis.
Strategic self presentations can have a far-reaching impact on an actor's identity. Subjects who presented themselves as sociable to an interviewer, compared with those who did not present themselves, later raised their self-appraisals of their own sociability, behaved more sociably (i.e., spoke sooner, more frequently, and longer) in a different situation, were viewed as more sociable by a confederate and by judges, and recalled personal experiences that indicated they were more sociable. Strategic self presentations thus produced both a phenomenological and a behavioral carry-over that influenced the actor's identity in a new situation with a new audience. Two further experiments explored the processes responsible for these effects and found that private self-reflection was not sufficient to produce the changes. Rather; public commitment to the identity portrayed in the self-presentation was a crucial antecedent of changes in self-appraisals.
The feature-positive effect refers to the tendency in animals and humans to experience difficulty processing nonoccurrences. The present study investigated the role of this phenomenon in self-perception and in estimates of consensus. Subjects were asked to express a preference either by doing something, the active response, or by doing nothing, the passive response. Afterward, subjects' attitudes on the issue were measured and they were asked to estimate the percentage of their peers who would have responded similarly. The results revealed that subjects who responded actively held significantly stronger attitudes in the direction of their responses than did subjects who responded passively. Moreover, active respondents' consensus estimates were significantly greater than those of passive respondents. Interpretations of these results are discussed.
• As the title suggests, this book examines the psychology of interpersonal relations. In the context of this book, the term "interpersonal relations" denotes relations between a few, usually between two, people. How one person thinks and feels about another person, how he perceives him and what he does to him, what he expects him to do or think, how he reacts to the actions of the other--these are some of the phenomena that will be treated. Our concern will be with "surface" matters, the events that occur in everyday life on a conscious level, rather than with the unconscious processes studied by psychoanalysis in "depth" psychology. These intuitively understood and "obvious" human relations can, as we shall see, be just as challenging and psychologically significant as the deeper and stranger phenomena. The discussion will center on the person as the basic unit to be investigated. That is to say, the two-person group and its properties as a superindividual unit will not be the focus of attention. Of course, in dealing with the person as a member of a dyad, he cannot be described as a lone subject in an impersonal environment, but must be represented as standing in relation to and interacting with another person. The chapter topics included in this book include: Perceiving the Other Person; The Other Person as Perceiver; The Naive Analysis of Action; Desire and Pleasure; Environmental Effects; Sentiment; Ought and Value; Request and Command; Benefit and Harm; and Reaction to the Lot of the Other Person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
• As the title suggests, this book examines the psychology of interpersonal relations. In the context of this book, the term "interpersonal relations" denotes relations between a few, usually between two, people. How one person thinks and feels about another person, how he perceives him and what he does to him, what he expects him to do or think, how he reacts to the actions of the other--these are some of the phenomena that will be treated. Our concern will be with "surface" matters, the events that occur in everyday life on a conscious level, rather than with the unconscious processes studied by psychoanalysis in "depth" psychology. These intuitively understood and "obvious" human relations can, as we shall see, be just as challenging and psychologically significant as the deeper and stranger phenomena. The discussion will center on the person as the basic unit to be investigated. That is to say, the two-person group and its properties as a superindividual unit will not be the focus of attention. Of course, in dealing with the person as a member of a dyad, he cannot be described as a lone subject in an impersonal environment, but must be represented as standing in relation to and interacting with another person. The chapter topics included in this book include: Perceiving the Other Person; The Other Person as Perceiver; The Naive Analysis of Action; Desire and Pleasure; Environmental Effects; Sentiment; Ought and Value; Request and Command; Benefit and Harm; and Reaction to the Lot of the Other Person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Attribution theory is concerned with the attempts of ordinary people to understand the causes and implications of the events they witness. It deals with the “naive psychology” of the “man in the street” as he interprets his own behaviors and the actions of others. For man—in the perspective of attribution theory—is an intuitive psychologist who seeks to explain behavior and draw inferences about actors and their environments. To better understand the perceptions and actions of this intuitive scientist, his methods must be explored. The sources of oversight, error, or bias in his assumptions and procedures may have serious consequences, both for the lay psychologist himself and for the society that he builds and perpetuates. These shortcomings, explored from the vantage point of contemporary attribution theory, are the focus of the chapter. The logical or rational schemata employed by intuitive psychologists and the sources of bias in their attempts at understanding, predicting, and controlling the events that unfold around them are considered. Attributional biases in the psychology of prediction, perseverance of social inferences and social theories, and the intuitive psychologist's illusions and insights are described.
Hypothesized that well-defined internal knowledge will be available if individuals have access to immediate sensory data. When this occurs, an information-aggregation process will guide judgment. In contrast, if individuals lack immediate sensory data, well-defined internal knowledge is unavailable and a self-perception process is used to infer attitude. These predictions were supported in 3 experiments with 276 21–60 yr old females (Exps I and II). The availability of immediate sensory data was manipulated by making either taste data (immediate sensory data) or consensual data (nonimmediate sensory data) available at the time processing was initiated. The attitude process used was detected by examining whether the presence of an incentive had an enhancing effect (information aggregation) or an undermining effect (self-perception) on attitude. Findings show that the availability of well-defined internal knowledge determined whether an information aggregation or a self-perception process guided judgment. The moderating impact of Ss' Self-Monitoring Scale scores on the findings is discussed. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Evidence from 4 studies with 584 undergraduates demonstrates that social observers tend to perceive a "false consensus" with respect to the relative commonness of their own responses. A related bias was shown to exist in the observers' social inferences. Thus, raters estimated particular responses to be relatively common and relatively unrevealing concerning the actors' distinguishing personal dispositions when the responses in question were similar to the raters' own responses; responses differing from those of the rater, by contrast, were perceived to be relatively uncommon and revealing of the actor. These results were obtained both in questionnaire studies presenting Ss with hypothetical situations and choices and in authentic conflict situations. The implications of these findings for the understanding of social perception phenomena and for the analysis of the divergent perceptions of actors and observers are discussed. Cognitive and perceptual mechanisms are proposed which might account for distortions in perceived consensus and for corresponding biases in social inference and attributional processes. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Trained 3 groups of children from 3 age groups (4, 7, and 9 yrs) to discriminate between 2 simultaneously presented displays which could be differentiated by a single distinctive feature located on 1 of the displays. It was found that 4-5 yr old Ss could learn the discrimination if the distinctive feature appeared on the positive display but not if it appeared on the negative display. This learning disparity was only minimally present among 7 yr olds and not present at all among 9 yr olds. Several possible interpretations of the data are presented. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Subjects typically show superior discriminative performance when a distinguishing feature appears on reinforced rather than
nonreinforced trials. The phenomenon is usually attributed to the relative predictiveness of the reinforcer by different stimulus
elements. However, stimulus addition may be more effective than stimulus deletion as a signal. By removing the standard intertriai
intervals, we made addition and deletion equally predictive of the reinforcer in four operant experiments involving between-
and within-subject comparisons. Pigeons consistently performed better on operant discriminations when the addition rather
than deletion of an auditory or visual stimulus served as the cue for food. This general finding persisted despite manipulation
of the relative duration and localizability of the signal. Thus mere presence as opposed to absence plays a role in the feature-positive
superiority, an outcome that may reflect a fundamental, biologically based difference between addition and deletion as effective
signals of reinforcement.
This field experiment tested the hypothesis that social labeling influences an actor's self-concept and his perception of the consequences of his behavior. Subjects who gave to charity were labeled charitable or not labeled and subjects who refused to give were labeled uncharitable or not labeled. Subjects were later asked to contribute to a second charity by a canvasser who was either highly involved in his cause, and hence likely to dispense social reinforcements, or uninvolved in it. Subjects labeled charitable gave more and subjects labeled uncharitable gave less than their respective control groups (p < .05). However, labeling did not cause subjects to distinguish more between the involved and the uninvolved canvassers. All subjects contributed more to the involved than to the uninvolved canvasser (p < .05).
