Will You Train Harder for the Next Marathon? The Effect of Counterfactual and Prefactual Thinking on Marathon Runners’ Intentions.

According to the literature, imagining how things would have been better in the past (counterfactual thinking) serves to prepare for future, highlighting prescriptions that can be converted in future intentions and in a more appropriate behavior. This view implicitly assumes that people think about controllable elements in their counterfactual thoughts and that the content of imaginary thoughts about the past and the future is the same. However, some studies (Ferrante, Girotto, Stragà, & Walsh, 2013) found a temporal asymmetry between past and future hypothetical thinking: thinking about how a failure could be a success in the future (prefactual thinking) elicit more controllable elements than thinking about how the same failure could have been a success in the past. In the present study, we replicated and extended previous findings in a more ecological setting. Athletes who have just run a marathon were asked to generate counterfactual or prefactual thoughts. The results showed the same temporal asymmetry found in Ferrante et al. (2013). In addition, we found that focusing on training, instead of focusing on other elements, resulted in a greater intention to train harder for the next marathon in the prefactual condition, but not in the counterfactual condition. Taken together, these findings question the postulated preparatory function of counterfactual thinking

The Regret and Disappointment Scale: An instrument for assessing regret and disappointment in decision making

AbstractThe present article investigates the effectiveness of methods traditionally used to distinguish between the emotions of regret and disappointment and presents a new method — the Regret and Disappointment Scale (RDS) — for assessing the two emotions in decision making research. The validity of the RDS was tested in three studies. Study 1 used two scenarios, one prototypical of regret and the other of disappointment, to test and compare traditional methods ("How much regret do you feel" and "How much disappointment do you feel") with the RDS. Results showed that only the RDS clearly differentiated between the constructs of regret and disappointment. Study 2 confirmed the validity of the RDS in a real-life scenario, in which both feelings of regret and disappointment could be experienced. Study 2 also demonstrated that the RDS can discriminate between regret and disappointment with results similar to those obtained by using a context-specific scale. Study 3 showed the advantages of the RDS over the traditional methods in gambling situations commonly used in decision making research, and provided evidence for the convergent validity of the RDS

Effects of material and non-material rewards on remembering to do things for others.

Recent research has shown that pro-social prospective memory, i.e., remembering to do something for others, is negatively affected by the presence of small material rewards. While this competition between pro-social and self-gain motives leads to poor memory for the intention, people do not seem to be aware of the possible collision effects of competing motives (Brandimonte et al., 2010). Extending research on this general topic, in two activity-based prospective memory (PM) experiments, we explored the effects of different types and amount of rewards on pro-social prospective remembering. In Experiment 1, participants could receive no reward, a low material reward (1 euro), or a high material reward (20 euro) for their pro-social PM action. In Experiment 2, their pro-social PM performance could be rewarded or not with an image reward (disclosure of their altruistic behavior). Results revealed that introducing a small material reward (Experiment 1) or a non-material reward (Experiment 2) impaired pro-social PM. However, introducing a high material reward eliminated the impairment (Experiment 1). Importantly, in Experiment 1, ongoing task performance in the pro-social condition was faster than in the No PM condition. However, in Experiment 2, ongoing task costs emerged in the presence of a non-material reward, as compared to the pro-social condition. Also, results from two independent ratings showed that people's predictions on their future pro-social actions were at odds (Experiment 1) or in line (Experiment 2) with actual PM performance. It is suggested that, according to the nature and amount of rewards, memory for a pro-social future action may be modulated by conscious or unconscious motivational mechanisms

Look ma(rket), No Hands! Optimism Bias and Illusion of Control in Finance Professionals

The optimism bias is the tendency to judge one’s own risk as less than the risk of others. In the present study we found that also finance professionals (N = 60) displayed an optimism bias when forecasting the return of an investment made by themselves or by a colleague of the same expertise. Using a multidimensional approach to the assessment of risk perception, we found that participants’ forecasts were biased not because they judged negative consequences as less likely for themselves, but because they were overconfident in their ability to avoid and control them

The Effect of Anticipated Regret on Flu Vaccination Campaigns

The anticipation of regret is known to be a primary motivator of receiving a vaccination. Aim of this study is to evaluate whether the use of messages that leverage the anticipated emotion of regret can increase the intention to get the flu vaccination. The participants (N = 110) randomly received a leaflet containing a standard prevention message (control condition) or message modified to induce the anticipation of regret over not being vaccinated (experimental condition), along with a questionnaire. The experimental condition’s participants reported significantly higher levels of regret and higher intention to vaccinate than the participants in the control condition. Anticipated regret resulted to be a significant mediator of the intention to get vaccinated. Manipulating the salience of regret appears to be a simple and inexpensive way of effectively promoting preventive behaviour. The implications of this result for reducing COVID-19 vaccine hesitation are discussed

La coerenza della personalit\ue0 da una prospettiva socio-cognitiva: Uno studio sulla variabilit\ue0 intraindividuale dell\u2019autoefficacia percepita in situazioni sociali

The present study was aimed at investigating how self-efficacy appraisals in interpersonal situations vary depending on individual beliefs about the relevance of schematic personality attributes to the situations. In accordance with the Knowledge and Appraisal Personality Architecture (KAPA) model (Cervone, 2004, 2005), we used idiographic methods for identifying consistent intra-individual patterns of associations between self-efficacy and perceived situational relevance of attributes, i.e., how personality characteristics are relevant to situations favouring vs hindering a successful performance. Results showed that situation-related self-efficacy levels were higher when participants believed that their schematic personality attributes help rather than obstacle a successful performance in those situations. No covariation was found when self-efficacy appraisals were related to the situational relevance of aschematic personality attributes. Comparable association patterns between self-efficacy and situational relevance of personality schematic vs aschematic attributes were found both when we took under control the perceived value of performing successfully in a given situation and when we controlled for individual differences in the Big Five domains of Extraversion and Emotional Stability. Overall, our findings support the KAPA model for the study of intra-individual personality consistency. They however also suggest that inter-individual differences contribute to predicting further variability in self-efficacy appraisals. Intra-individual and inter-individual assessment procedure may be complementary

Communicating clinical trial outcomes: Effects of presentation method on physicians' evaluations of new treatments

AbstractPhysicians expect a treatment to be more effective when its clinical outcomes are described as relative rather than as absolute risk reductions. We examined whether effects of presentation method (relative vs. absolute risk reduction) remain when physicians are provided the baseline risk information, a vital piece of statistical information omitted in previous studies. Using a between-subjects design, ninety five physicians were presented the risk reduction associated with a fictitious treatment for hypertension either as an absolute risk reduction or as a relative risk reduction, with or without including baseline risk information. Physicians reported that the treatment would be more effective and that they would be more willing to prescribe it when its risk reduction was presented to them in relative rather than in absolute terms. The relative risk reduction was perceived as more effective than absolute risk reduction even when the baseline risk information was explicitly reported. We recommend that information about absolute risk reduction be made available to physicians in the reporting of clinical outcomes. Moreover, health professionals should be cognizant of the potential biasing effects of risk information presented in relative risk terms

The perceived stress-at-work scale

Psychometric instruments designed to assess work-related stress at the organizational level, such as the HSE-MS Indicator Tool, are usually very effective at identifying the domains of work design that, if not properly managed, can expose workers to high stress risk. These instruments, however, usually lack a measure of workers\u2019 perception of stress at work, which could be useful for identifying the organizational dimensions more associated with workrelated stress. The aim of the present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of a new short scale for assessing workers\u2019 perception of stress at work, which could be used along with organizational level questionnaires. The perceived stress-at-work scale is composed of 4 items assessing perception of job strain, pressure and agitation, and health concerns due to work. A sample of public sector employees (N = 883) received a booklet containing the ERI-Q (long version, [1]), the HSE-MS Indicator Tool (Italian version, [2,3]), the Satisfaction with Life Scale [4] and the new 4-item perceived stress-at-work scale. Results showed good reliability of the perceived stress-at-work scale (Cronbach\u2019s alpha = .80) and strong correlations with two concurrent measures, the ERI-Q imbalance score (r = .63, p < .001) and the ERI-Q overcommitment scale (r = .52, p < .001). Next, structural equation modeling was used to investigate the relationships among organizational risk factors, measured by the HSE-MS Indicator Tool, perceived stress at work, and workers\u2019 life satisfaction. Three organizational dimensions, namely demand, relationships, and role, resulted to be significantly associated with perceived stress at work, explaining about 45% of its variance. Moreover, the effect organizational risk factors on workers\u2019 life satisfaction turned out to be mediated by workers\u2019 perception of stress at work. The new perceived stress-at-work scale resulted to be a valid and reliable instrument, displaying good internal consistency and strong correlations with other individual-level measures of work strain. Furthermore, the scale could be used to highlight the critical intervention targets for risk stress management strategies, when applied along with an organizational level questionnaire such as the HSE-MS Indicator Tool

Usability Testing of a Website about Alcohol and Health: A Case Study

Many health online resources addressed to the general public lack usability and their content is frequently difficult to understand. This case study evaluates the usability and the effectiveness of information presentation of the “Alcol e Salute” website, using two methods: heuristic evaluation and user testing. The results of the usability testing analysis revealed several key weaknesses with respect both to navigation and information display. These results will be used to revise the website accordingly

Communicating clinical trial outcomes: Effects of presentation method on physicians’ evaluations of new treatments

Physicians expect a treatment to be more effective when its clinical outcomes are described as relative rather than as absolute risk reductions. We examined whether effects of presentation method (relative vs. absolute risk reduction) remain when physicians are provided the baseline risk information, a vital piece of statistical information omitted in previous studies. Using a between-subjects design, ninety five physicians were presented the risk reduction associated with a fictitious treatment for hypertension either as an absolute risk reduction or as a relative risk reduction, with or without including baseline risk information. Physicians reported that the treatment would be more effective and that they would be more willing to prescribe it when its risk reduction was presented to them in relative rather than in absolute terms. The relative risk reduction was perceived as more effective than absolute risk reduction even when the baseline risk information was explicitly reported. We recommend that information about absolute risk reduction be made available to physicians in the reporting of clinical outcomes. Moreover, health professionals should be cognizant of the potential biasing effects of risk information presented in relative risk terms