CrowdSurfer: Seamlessly Integrating Crowd-Feedback Tasks nto Everyday Internet Surfing

Crowd feedback overcomes scalability issues of feedback collection on interactive website designs. However, collecting feedback on crowdsourcing platforms decouples the feedback provider from the context of use. This creates more effort for crowdworkers to immerse into such context in crowdsourcing tasks. In this paper, we present CrowdSurfer, a browser extension that seamlessly integrates design feedback collection in crowdworkers’ everyday internet surfing. This enables the scalable collection of in situ feedback and, in parallel, allows crowdworkers to flexibly integrate their work into their daily activities. In a field study, we compare the CrowdSurfer against traditional feedback collection. Our qualitative and quantitative results reveal that, while in situ feedback with the CrowdSurfer is not necessarily better, crowdworkers appreciate the effortless, enjoyable, and innovative method to conduct feedback tasks. We contribute with our findings on in situ feedback collection and provide recommendations for the integration of crowdworking tasks in everyday internet surfing

Investigating Avatar Customization as a Motivational Design Strategy for Improving Engagement with Technology-Enabled Services for Health

Technology-enabled services for physical and mental health are a promising approach to improve healthcare globally. Unfortunately, the largest barrier for effective technology-based treatment is participants' gradually fading engagement with effective novel training applications, such as exercise apps or online mental health training programs. Engaging users through design presents an elegant solution to the problem; however, research on technology-enabled services is primarily focused on the efficacy of novel interventions and not on improving adherence through engaging interaction design. As a result, motivational design strategies to improve engagement---both in the moment of use and over time---are underutilized. Drawing from game-design, I investigate avatar customization as a game-based motivational design strategy in four studies. In Study 1, I examine the effect of avatar customization on experience and behaviour in an infinite runner game. In Study 2, I induce different levels of motivation to research the effects of financial rewards on self-reported motivation and performance in a gamified training task over 11 days. In Study 3, I apply avatar customization to investigate the effects of attrition in an intervention context using a breathing exercise over three weeks. In Study 4, I investigate the immediate effects of avatar customization on the efficacy of an anxiety reducing attentional retraining task. My results show that avatar customization increases motivation over time and in the moment of use, suggesting that avatar customization is a viable strategy to address the engagement barrier that thwarts the efficacy of technology-enabled services for health

The Effects of Autobiographical Growth Narratives on Math Performance in Women

Women suffer from the negative stereotype that they are innately worse at math compared to men, which contributes to a gender gap in math fields (Spencer, Steele, & Quinn, 1999). However, this stereotype has a greater negative impact on women with fixed mindsets, who believe that intelligence is inflexible and innate (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002). Mindset interventions thus far have sought to shift fixed mindset to growth mindset, characterized by the belief that effort can increase intelligence, through in-class workshops or lectures about the plasticity of the brain and the malleability of intelligence (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Dweck, 2000; Dweck, 2008). The current study improves upon existing mindset interventions through the inclusion of a writing task that asks participants to generate autobiographical narratives about growth experiences. This intervention should create an internalization of growth mindset that is longer lasting, less susceptible to counter-information, and more directive for behavior than existing interventions (Reich & Arkin, 2006; Wilson, 2011; Aronson, 1999). Participants’ theories of math intelligence were measured, and then participants were placed into a growth narrative condition, a growth article condition, or a high-point narrative condition, which served as a control. Participants then took a math assessment followed by measures of task involvement, enjoyment, and effort. Analyses showed no main effect of condition; there was no difference on math performance or task measures between participants who wrote about growth, read about growth, or wrote about a positive experience. However, there was a significant main effect of initial mindset on math performance, task involvement, enjoyment, and effort, such that initial growth mindset correlated with better performance and higher scores on all the task measures. Limitations and implications for the results are discussed

Crowd sourcing for translation and software localization

This work studies the capability of Crowd sourcing related to translation and software localization and the quality obtained by the use of a crowd sourcing methodology. This work is performed within the collaboration of CA Labs, Europe, and is specifically focused on the design of a crowd sourcing platform able to guarantee high quality in translation, and to comply with industrial aspects of translation. Moreover, a prototype of the designed platform has been developed and has been used to run some experiment with a reduced and controlled crowd, to test the potentiality of translation done by a not homogeneous group of users. The reasons, challenges, road-map and results obtained in this work are described in detail in this document

Can Audits Encourage Tax Evasion?: An Experimental Assessment

Governments and tax administrators around the world rely on the premise that audits will deter tax evasion. This Article presents experimental evidence that this premise may be, at least in part, misguided. Counterintuitively, I find that audits presented as random may induce taxpayers to cheat more. Where audits were described as being conducted at random, participants increased their levels of evasion in the tax periods immediately following the audit. This effect, however, did not plague nonrandom audits. When a separate group of participants faced audits that were presented as being nonrandom—participants were told that detected evasion would “flag” a participant for one or more future audits—participants cheated less in the periods immediately following the audit. Overall, average compliance in the nonrandom audit condition systematically and significantly dominated average compliance in the random audit condition. By revealing, under experimental conditions, strong behavioral responses to the way tax audits are presented, this Article highlights the potential enforcement benefits of being more transparent with taxpayers about the nature of audit selection

From attitude to intent to action: Predictors of psychological help-seeking behavior among clinically distressed adults

Although many people suffer from mental health concerns, a large proportion of these people do not seek psychological help (Alonso et al., 2009; Clement et al., 2015; Kessler et al., 2003; Thornicroft, 2007; Vogel, Wester & Larson, 2006). Research indicates that public and self-stigma, attitudes toward counseling, and intentions to seek counseling are all important factors in the help-seeking process (Bayer & Peay, 1997; Cooper et al., 2003; Corrigan, 2004; Komiya et al., 2000; Link et al., 2014; Mojtabai, Olfson, & Mechanic, 2002; Sirey et al., 2001; Vogel et al., 2005; Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006; Vogel, Wade, & Hackler, 2007). However, one glaring omission exists in the vast majority of this research: very few studies measure actual help-seeking behavior. In addition, most of this research has been conducted with college students, most of whom did not have a current mental health concern. In the present study, I explored psychological help-seeking behavior in a clinically distressed sample of adults. In particular, I explored whether public stigma of help-seeking, self-stigma of help-seeking, and attitudes towards receiving professional psychological help predicted intentions to seek help in a sample of clinically distressed adults. Additionally, I examined these relationships with actual help-seeking behavior. For this study a total of N =125 clinically distressed adults completed two surveys two weeks apart. Results of the hierarchical regression predicting attitudes suggested that self-stigma predicted attitudes above and beyond the other variables entered into the model. Results of the hierarchical regression predicting hypothetical intentions revealed that encouragement and pressure to seek help by friends and family and attitudes toward counseling are more predictive than self-stigma when all variables were entered into the model. Results of a third hierarchical regression predicting actual intentions revealed similar patterns; self-stigma was related to actual intentions but not in the final model, in which ethnicity, social encouragement, and attitudes predicted actual intentions above and beyond the other variables entered into the model. Results of a logistic regression predicting actual behavior (i.e., scheduling or attending an appointment with a mental health professional) suggest that minority ethnicity, greater public stigma, and greater hypothetical intentions predicts actual help-seeking behavior. Results are discussed based on previous research, Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Limitations, implications, and future recommendations are discussed

Dishonesty: The role of rewards, professional identity and experimenter purpose disclosures

Wann und warum entscheiden sich Menschen für unehrliches Verhalten? Durch das Verständnis von unehrlichem Verhalten sind politische Entscheidungsträger besser in der Lage, ein solches Verhalten zu verhindern und eine florierende Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft zu unterstützen. Das Studium der Unehrlichkeit hat in den letzten Jahren eine Blütezeit erlebt, angetrieben durch die Etablierung von Crowd-Sourced-Arbeitsplattformen, obwohl auch einige wichtige Feldarbeiten entstanden sind. Die empirischen Erkenntnisse aus diesen Studien haben die Entstehung neuer ökonomischer und psychologischer Modelle zur Erklärung unehrlichen Verhaltens unterstützt. Doch wie replizierbar und verallgemeinerbar sind die führenden experimentellen Ergebnisse? Und welche anderen kontextuellen Faktoren wie die Art und das Ausmaß der Belohnung und die Designentscheidungen des Experimentators können unehrliches Verhalten beeinflussen? Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit stand der Versuch der Replikation einer in der akademischen Welt und in der populären Presse viel zitierten Arbeit. Frühere Replikationsversuche haben diese Arbeit umgangen, da es schwierig war, Zugang zu professionellen Teilnehmern zu bekommen. Die Arbeit, die wir zu wiederholen versuchten, ergab, dass nur Banker, deren berufliche Identität hervorgehoben wurde, sich unehrlich verhielten. Diese Arbeit basierte auf der Vorstellung, dass das Priming, also das Hervorheben eines Aspekts der Identität einer Person und der damit verbundenen Normen, das Verhalten beeinflussen würde. Da das Priming der professionellen Bankidentität Unehrlichkeit auslöste, wurde daraus geschlossen, dass dies ein Hinweis auf problematische Normen im Bankensektor ist. Es war jedoch unklar, ob dieses Ergebnis auch für andere Banken gilt, z. B. in der gleichen oder einer anderen Gerichtsbarkeit, in verschiedenen Segmenten (z. B. Commercial versus Investment Banking) und im Zeitverlauf.When and why do people decide to behave dishonestly? By understanding dishonest behaviour, policy makers are better able to deter such behaviour and to support a thriving society and economy. The study of dishonesty has flourished in recent years, driven by the establishment of crowd-sourced labour platforms, though some important field work has also emerged. The empirical findings from these studies have supported the emergence of new economic and psychological models to explain dishonest behaviour. Yet, how replicable and generalisable are leading experimental findings? And what other contextual factors -- like the nature of reward, scale of reward, and design choices from the experimenter-- may drive dishonest behaviour? The central focus of this thesis was the attempted replication of a heavily cited paper in academia and the popular press. Previous replication efforts by-passed this work given the challenge of accessing professional participants. The paper which we attempted to replicate found that only bankers whose professional identity was made salient behaved dishonestly. This work was based on the notion that priming, or making salient one aspect of an individual’s identity and the associated norms, would affect behaviour. As priming professional banking identity prompted dishonesty, this was concluded to be indicative of problematic norms in the banking sector. Though it was unclear if this finding would hold with other banks, for example in the same or other jurisdictions, in different segments (e.g. commercial versus investment banking), and over time

Managing Difficult Conversations

The present thesis examines how people manage difficult conversations in daily life through online surveys, live interaction studies, field studies, text analysis methods, topic models, and multilevel linear regression models. The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 establishes a process model of conversation avoidance, investigating people’s motivations, emotions, and behaviors when they are put into an unwanted conversation. I find that when people are concerned about their privacy, they are more likely to feel anxious and to stay quiet in the conversation. At the same time, when people are concerned about creating a conflict, they are more likely to feel angry and to leave the conversation. Chapter 2 evaluates the effectiveness of delaying conversations as an avoidance strategy. I find that although people prefer their partners to confess to them immediately after the events happened, people often delay their confessions. The waiting time is not associated with positive outcomes of the conversation or how their conversation partner reacts. Chapter 3 investigate a socio-ecological factor that predicts conversation avoidance and conversation seeking behaviors using the concept of relational mobility. I find that individuals with the ability to choose who they want to affiliate with are less concerned about their privacy or creating a conflict in a conversation. However, these individuals tend to have shallow conversations. Individuals with the ability to meet many new people tend to have deep conversations. Overall, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of how people handle difficult conversations in daily lives

Experimental evidence on behavior in organizations and markets

Today, running experiments to uncover causal relationships is a widely acknowledged tool in Managerial and Behavioral Economics. First with the help of laboratory experiments, and later with field and online experiments, the standard neoclassical model was increasingly challenged, and robust deviations from the assumption of a rational and selfish Homo oeconomicus were established. In addition, the experimental method is characterized by a broad field of application, and addresses not only economically highly relevant but also multidisciplinary questions. One common feature of all four essays of this thesis is that they share this multidisciplinarity. Essays 1 to 3 focus on the honesty and morality of individuals in organizations and markets, and thus, are closely related to the fields of Psychology and Philosophy. These projects address the fundamental question of the driving forces of being honest or dishonest, or of behaving according to one or another moral principle. Essay 4 is multidisciplinary in the sense that it focuses on the technical aspect of running interactive experiments online, and thus, is closely related to Computer Sciences. In essay 1, we investigate the influence of markets on morals. Following philosophy, the morality of an action can be evaluated based on the action or based on the consequences. In an online experiment, we expose participants to either a non-market or market environment, and elicit their subsequent decisions in a moral dilemma scenario. We hypothesize that the market environment induces cost-benefit analysis considerations, and thus, fosters consequentialist decisions. Compared to a baseline distribution of decisions in the moral dilemma, we find a substantial increase in consequentialist decisions in the market treatment. However, a similar increase can be observed in the non-market treatment, excluding a treatment effect of the market manipulation itself. In essay 2, I examine the underlying motives of lying aversion. I investigate the role of reputational concerns toward others in the decision not to lie in a die roll experiment. In a between-subject design, I exogenously vary whether the experimenter can observe the outcome of a die roll that determines the payoff. I find that partial lying and full lying disappear when the experimenter can track participants’ behavior. This result can be explained by reputational costs: Participants care about how they are viewed by the experimenter, and thus, abstain from lying when they are tracked. In essay 3, we adapt the experimental method to family business research. We investigate whether family managers are perceived as more religious by external stakeholders than non-family managers, and how this perception alters stakeholders’ decision to behave honestly toward a family manager in comparison to a non-family manager. By running a survey and an experiment, we show that family managers are perceived as more religious than non-family managers. In addition, we find that external stakeholders behave more honestly toward family managers than non-family managers, and that this positive effect is driven by the family managers’ attribute of being religious. In essay 4, we focus on a technical aspect of running interactive experiments online. We illustrate the implementation of websockets in oTree to allow for real-time interactions. As the first application, we run a continuous double auction market online to validate the functionality of our tool. We find that the number of trades and the market price converge toward the predicted equilibrium, as found in many laboratory experiments

Examining Attitudes, Norms, and Control Toward Safety Behaviors as Mediators in the Leadership-Safety Motivation Relationship

Research on occupational safety has been on the rise in recent years, owing to the high rates of deaths and disabilities that occur in the workplace. Findings suggest that unsafe behaviors and work-related accidents and injuries can be reduced through increasing employee safety motivation. Additional research has recognized leadership as a source of employee safety motivation. However, most studies have empirically assessed safety motivation and its antecedents using a cross-sectional design. Therefore, the aims of the current study were to examine effects of various safety-specific leader behaviors, following the full-range leadership model, on safety motivation using a time-lagged study design. Next, using theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework, the present study examined the role of three mediating mechanisms, namely, attitudes, norms, and control toward safety behaviors, in the relationship between safety-specific leader behaviors and safety motivation. It was hypothesized that safety-specific transformational, contingent reward, and management-by-exception active leadership would be positively related to safety motivation, whereas management-by-exception passive and laissez-faire leadership would be negatively related to safety motivation. In addition, it was proposed that the five leadership dimensions would exhibit an indirect relationship with employee safety motivation through their influence on attitudes, norms, and control toward safety behaviors. The sample for this study consisted of 168 members from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk who were employed in high-risk industries and occupations. Participants completed the survey at two points in time, separated by three months. Results indicated that while transformational, contingent reward, and management-by-exception active leadership were positively related to safety motivation, management-by-exception passive and laissez-faire leadership did not exhibit any relationship with safety motivation. Furthermore, safety attitudes mediated the relationship between leader behaviors and safety motivation for transformational and management-by-exception active leadership. Safety norms were found to mediate the relationship between all leadership dimensions and safety motivation. Safety control did not mediate the leadership – safety motivation relationship for any of the five leadership dimensions. The findings of this study bolster support for importance of active leader behaviors in impacting employee safety motivation, as well as highlight the need for leadership development for enhancing employee safety performance