Reminders of God Can Increase Risk-Taking

Religiosity and participation in religious activities have typically been linked with decreased risky behavior. In the current research, we find that reminders of the concept of God can increase risk-taking. Our research provides insight into the divergent effects that distinct components of religion can exert on behavior

Treatment for Schistosoma japonicum, Reduction of Intestinal Parasite Load, and Cognitive Test Score Improvements in School-Aged Children

Parasitic worm infections are associated with cognitive impairment and lower academic achievement for infected relative to uninfected children. However, it is unclear whether curing or reducing worm infection intensity improves child cognitive function. We examined the independent associations between: (i) Schistosoma japonicum infection-free duration, (ii) declines in single helminth species, and (iii) joint declines of ≥2 soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections and improvements in four cognitive tests during18 months of follow-up. Enrolled were schistosome-infected school-aged children among whom coinfection with STH was common. All children were treated for schistosome infection only at enrolment with praziquantel. Children cured or schistosome-free for >12 months scored higher in memory and verbal fluency tests compared to persistently infected children. Likewise, declines of single and polyparasitic STH infections predicted higher scores in three of four tests. We conclude that reducing the intensity of certain helminth species and the frequency of multi-species STH infections may have long-term benefits for affected children's cognitive performance. The rapidity of schistosome re-infection and the ubiquity of concurrent multi-species infection highlight the importance of sustained deworming for both schistosome and STH infections to enhance the learning and educational attainment of children in helminth-endemic settings

Process utility and the effect of inaction frames

We introduce a new type of utility that we call “process utility,” which pertains to individuals’ preference about how they want to obtain an outcome. We posit that decision makers derive utility not only from the outcome itself, but also from the process through which that outcome is obtained. We focus on two normatively equivalent processes for obtaining an outcome: action and inaction. We argue that inducing differences in how outcomes are obtained can lead to significant preference reversals. We examine process utility in binary choice where one outcome is predominantly preferred over the other. We find that when the frequently selected (“advantaged”) alternative is framed as an inaction, its choice share decreases, but that when the infrequently selected (“disadvantaged”) alternative is framed as an inaction, its choice share increases. Finally, we discuss potential moderators of our effects

Prominence Versus Dominance: How Relationships Between Alternatives Drive Decision Strategy and Choice

This article argues that the structure of a choice set can influence the extent to which consumers weight a given attribute. The results of seven experiments suggest that the relationship between options under consideration can influence preference ordering by shifting the decision strategy people adopt when constructing their preference. In decisions in which people afford greater importance to one attribute versus another, preference for an option that scores high on this prominent attribute may decrease when decoy options that are clearly better or worse than the focal options are inserted into the choice set. The authors posit that this effect arises because decision makers initially (and spontaneously) use dominance cues rather than prominence when evaluating options, and they continue to use this strategy even when it does not enable them to differentiate the alternatives under consideration. The authors moderate this effect by prompting respondents to consider prominence and by manipulating the order in which respondents evaluate options in the choice set. This article has theoretical implications for research on context effects, contingent decision behavior, and choice architecture as well as practical implications for product-line management

Seeking Freedom through Variety

This article examines the effect of spatial confinement on consumer choices. Building on reactance theory and the environmental psychology literature, we propose that spatially confined consumers react against an incursion to their personal space by making more varied and unique choices. We present four laboratory experiments and one field study to support our theorizing. Study 1 demonstrates that people in narrower aisles seek more variety than people in wider aisles. Study 2 indicates that this effect of confinement in narrow aisles also extends to more unique choices. Study 3 shows that perceptions of confinement exert their strongest influence on people who are chronically high in reactance. Study 4 suggests that influencing perceptions of confinement is sufficient to evoke variety seeking. Finally, the field study uses crowding as a proxy for confinement and finds a positive relationship between crowding and variety seeking in real grocery purchases. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..