Towards More Digital Wellbeing in Knowledge Work - A Signaling Theory Perspective

Knowledge workers increasingly rely on information and communication technologies (ICT) in their work. If not managed effectively, this shift can reduce workers’ wellbeing and performance. Accordingly, research on corporate digital responsibility (CDR) urges organizations to implement digital wellbeing initiatives to protect workers. In this research, we investigate which digital wellbeing initiatives are offered by organizations, expected by knowledge workers, and whether such initiatives might provide economic returns in the form of improved organizational attractiveness. Based on signaling theory and following a multi-method approach, we identify digital wellbeing initiatives from websites and social media posts of 25 technology companies and conduct semi-structured interviews with 10 students and young professionals. We discuss the conceptualization of digital wellbeing and the role of digital wellbeing for organizational attractiveness. Our findings provide a starting point for investigating business cases for CDR and can advance understanding and implementation of digital wellbeing both in research and practice

From Dark Patterns to Digital Sludging – Mapping the Ethical Debate on Controversial Persuasive System Design

Guiding individual decision-making in digital environments through persuasive system design (PSD) is a powerful tool. While some forms of PSD such as digital nudging are based on libertarian paternalism and mostly considered ethically acceptable, other forms have been criticized for violating user autonomy or disadvantaging users. Such “controversial PSD” has been labelled inconsistently in the literature, for example as dark patterns or (digital) sludging. Thus, Information Systems (IS) research currently lacks a common vocabulary and conceptual clarity which impedes realizing the potential of PSD in research and practice. To address this issue, we present first results of a systematic literature review on controversial PSD. By compiling an overview of prevalent concepts, this study identifies four focal points of the ethical debate on PSD (intentions, strategies, outcomes, process) and derives implications and a research agenda for IS research

The Impact of Signaling Commitment to Ethical AI on Organizational Attractiveness

As organizations drive the development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technologies, their commitment to ethical and humanistic values is critical to minimizing potential risks. Here, we investigate talent attraction as an economic incentive for organizations to commit to ethical AI. Based on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature and signaling theory, we present a mixed-methods research design to investigate the effect of ethical AI commitment on organizational attractiveness. Specifically, we i) identify signals of ethical AI commitment based on a review of corporate websites and expert interviews and ii) examine the effect of selected signals on organizational attractiveness in an online experiment. This short paper presents first results on ethical AI signals and details the next steps. Our research will contribute to the theoretical conceptualization of ethical AI as a part of CSR and support managers of digital transformation processes when weighing investments in ethical AI initiatives

Action Sounds Informing Own Body Perception Influence Gender Identity and Social Cognition

Sensory information can temporarily affect mental body representations. For example, in Virtual Reality (VR), visually swapping into a body with another sex can temporarily alter perceived gender identity. Outside of VR, real-time auditory changes to walkers’ footstep sounds can affect perceived body weight and masculinity/femininity. Here, we investigate whether altered footstep sounds also impact gender identity and relation to gender groups. In two experiments, cisgender participants (26 females, 26 males) walked with headphones which played altered versions of their own footstep sounds that sounded more typically male or female. Baseline and post-intervention measures quantified gender identity [Implicit Association Test (IAT)], relation to gender groups [Inclusion of the Other-in-the-Self (IOS)], and perceived masculinity/femininity. Results show that females felt more feminine and closer to the group of women (IOS) directly after walking with feminine sounding footsteps. Similarly, males felt more feminine after walking with feminine sounding footsteps and associated themselves relatively stronger with “female” (IAT). The findings suggest that gender identity is temporarily malleable through auditory-induced own body illusions. Furthermore, they provide evidence for a connection between body perception and an abstract representation of the Self, supporting the theory that bodily illusions affect social cognition through changes in the self-concept.This work was supported by ESRC grant ES/K001477/1 (“The hearing body”) and by Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad of Spain Grant RYC-2014-15421 to AT-J, and by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación “MAGIC outFIT” grant (PID2019-105579RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033)

FIGHTING FALSE INFORMATION - DESIGNING A CONVERSATIONAL AGENT FOR PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS

The digital transformation poses challenges for public sector organizations (PSOs) such as the dissemination of false information in social media which can cause uncertainty among citizens and decrease trust in the public sector. Some PSOs already successfully deploy conversational agents (CAs) to communicate with citizens and support digital service delivery. In this paper, we used design science research (DSR) to examine how CAs could be designed to assist PSOs in fighting false information online. We conducted a workshop with the municipality of Kristiansand, Norway to define objectives that a CA would have to meet for addressing the identified false information challenges. A prototypical CA was developed and evaluated in two iterations with the municipality and students from Norway. This research-in-progress paper presents findings and next steps of the DSR process. This research contributes to advancing the digital transformation of the public sector in combating false information problems

Global monitoring of antimicrobial resistance based on metagenomics analyses of urban sewage

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious threat to global public health, but obtaining representative data on AMR for healthy human populations is difficult. Here, we use meta-genomic analysis of untreated sewage to characterize the bacterial resistome from 79 sites in 60 countries. We find systematic differences in abundance and diversity of AMR genes between Europe/North-America/Oceania and Africa/Asia/South-America. Antimicrobial use data and bacterial taxonomy only explains a minor part of the AMR variation that we observe. We find no evidence for cross-selection between antimicrobial classes, or for effect of air travel between sites. However, AMR gene abundance strongly correlates with socio-economic, health and environmental factors, which we use to predict AMR gene abundances in all countries in the world. Our findings suggest that global AMR gene diversity and abundance vary by region, and that improving sanitation and health could potentially limit the global burden of AMR. We propose metagenomic analysis of sewage as an ethically acceptable and economically feasible approach for continuous global surveillance and prediction of AMR.Peer reviewe

Who shapes crisis communication on Twitter? An analysis of German influencers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Twitter is becoming an increasingly important platform for disseminating information during crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective crisis communication on Twitter can shape the public perception of the crisis, influence adherence to preventative measures, and thus affect public health. Influential accounts are particularly important as they reach large audiences quickly. This study identifies influential German-language accounts from almost 3 million German tweets collected between January and May 2020 by constructing a retweet network and calculating PageRank centrality values. We capture the volatility of crisis communication by structuring the analysis into seven stages based on key events during the pandemic and profile influential accounts into roles. Our analysis shows that news and journalist accounts were influential throughout all phases, while government accounts were particularly important shortly before and after the lockdown was instantiated. We discuss implications for crisis communication during health crises and for analyzing long-term crisis data

‘Cambridge Moralica’ - Towards an Ethical Framework for Social Media Analytics

En route to the unravelling of today’s multiplicity of societal challenges, making sense of social data has become a crucial endeavour in Information Systems (IS) research. In this context, Social Media Analytics (SMA) has evolved to a promising field of data-driven approaches, guiding researchers in the process of collecting, analysing, and visualising social media data. However, the handling of such sensitive data requires careful ethical considerations to protect data subjects, online communities, and researchers. Hitherto, the field lacks consensus on how to safeguard ethical conduct throughout the research process. To address this shortcoming, this study proposes an extended version of a SMA framework by incorporating ethical reflection phases as an addition to methodical steps. Following a design science approach, existing ethics guidelines and expert interviews with SMA researchers and ethicists serve as the basis for redesigning the framework. It was eventually assessed through multiple rounds of evaluation in the form of focus group discussions and questionnaires with ethics board members and SMA experts. The extended framework, encompassing a total of five iterative ethical reflection phases, provides simplified ethical guidance for SMA researchers and facilitates the ethical self-examination of research projects involving social media data

Action Sounds Informing Own Body Perception Influence Gender Identity and Social Cognition

Sensory information can temporarily affect mental body representations. For example, in Virtual Reality (VR), visually swapping into a body with another sex can temporarily alter perceived gender identity. Outside of VR, real-time auditory changes to walkers’ footstep sounds can affect perceived body weight and masculinity/femininity. Here, we investigate whether altered footstep sounds also impact gender identity and relation to gender groups. In two experiments, cisgender participants (26 females, 26 males) walked with headphones which played altered versions of their own footstep sounds that sounded more typically male or female. Baseline and post-intervention measures quantified gender identity [Implicit Association Test (IAT)], relation to gender groups [Inclusion of the Other-in-the-Self (IOS)], and perceived masculinity/femininity. Results show that females felt more feminine and closer to the group of women (IOS) directly after walking with feminine sounding footsteps. Similarly, males felt more feminine after walking with feminine sounding footsteps and associated themselves relatively stronger with “female” (IAT). The findings suggest that gender identity is temporarily malleable through auditory-induced own body illusions. Furthermore, they provide evidence for a connection between body perception and an abstract representation of the Self, supporting the theory that bodily illusions affect social cognition through changes in the self-concept

Action Sounds Informing Own Body Perception Influence Gender Identity and Social Cognition

Sensory information can temporarily affect mental body representations. For example, in Virtual Reality (VR), visually swapping into a body with another sex can temporarily alter perceived gender identity. Outside of VR, real-time auditory changes to walkers’ footstep sounds can affect perceived body weight and masculinity/femininity. Here, we investigate whether altered footstep sounds also impact gender identity and relation to gender groups. In two experiments, cisgender participants (26 females, 26 males) walked with headphones which played altered versions of their own footstep sounds that sounded more typically male or female. Baseline and post-intervention measures quantified gender identity [Implicit Association Test (IAT)], relation to gender groups [Inclusion of the Other-in-the-Self (IOS)], and perceived masculinity/femininity. Results show that females felt more feminine and closer to the group of women (IOS) directly after walking with feminine sounding footsteps. Similarly, males felt more feminine after walking with feminine sounding footsteps and associated themselves relatively stronger with “female” (IAT). The findings suggest that gender identity is temporarily malleable through auditory-induced own body illusions. Furthermore, they provide evidence for a connection between body perception and an abstract representation of the Self, supporting the theory that bodily illusions affect social cognition through changes in the self-concept