Stories vs. facts: triggering emotion and action-taking on climate change

Publisher's version (útgefin grein)Climate change is an issue which elicits low engagement, even among concerned segments of the public. While research suggests that the presentation of factual information (e.g., scientific consensus) can be persuasive to some audiences, there is also empirical evidence indicating that it may also increase resistance in others. In this research, we investigate whether climate change narratives structured as stories are better than informational narratives at promoting pro-environmental behavior in diverse audiences. We propose that narratives structured as stories facilitate experiential processing, heightening affective engagement and emotional arousal, which serve as an impetus for action-taking. Across three studies, we manipulate the structure of climate change communications to investigate how this influences narrative transportation, measures of autonomic reactivity indicative of emotional arousal, and pro-environmental behavior. We find that stories are more effective than informational narratives at promoting pro-environmental behavior (studies 1 and 3) and self-reported narrative transportation (study 2), particularly those with negatively valenced endings (study 3). The results of study 3 indicate that embedding information in story structure influences cardiac activity, and subsequently, pro-environmental behavior. These findings connect works from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, narratology, and climate change communication, advancing our understanding of how narrative structure influences engagement with climate change through emotional arousal, which likely incites pro-environmental behavior as the brain's way of optimizing bodily budgets.This research has been supported by seed funding from the Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, as well as the Aarhus University Research Foundation."Peer Reviewed

A meta-analytical and experimental examination of blood glucose effects on decision making under risk

Previous research has shown that short-term changes in blood glucose influence our preferences and may affect decisions about risk as well. However, consensus is lacking about whether and how blood glucose influences decision making under risk, and we conduct two experiments and a meta-analysis to examine this question in detail. In Study 1, using a pecuniary valuation method, we find no effect of blood glucose on willingness to pay for risky products that may act as allergens. In Study 2, using risky gambles, we find that low levels of blood glucose increase risk taking for food and to a lesser degree for non-food rewards. Combining our own and previous findings in a meta-analysis, we show that low levels of blood glucose on average increase risk taking about food. Low blood glucose does not increase risk taking about non-food rewards although this is subject to heterogeneity. Overall, our studies suggest that low blood glucose increases our willingness to gamble on how much food we can get, but not our willingness to eat food that can harm us. Our findings are best explained by the energy budget rule

eyeScrollR: A software method for reproducible mapping of eye tracking data from scrollable web pages

The Internet has become an important part of our lives and an increasing number of researchers use eye-tracking technology to examine attention and behavior in online environments. Researchers, however, face a significant challenge in mapping eye-tracking data to scroll web pages. We describe the R package eyeScrollR for mapping eye-tracking data to scroll content such as web pages. The package re-maps eye-tracking gaze coordinates to web page coordinates with a deterministic algorithm based on mouse scroll data. The package includes options for handling common situations, such as sticky menus or ads that remain visible when the user scrolls. We test the validity of the package by triangulating it with manual coding and commercial software (iMotions). We find the highest agreement between the eyeScrollR package and manual coding. Because it arbitrarily modifies two-thirds of the fixations, the iMotions software has the lowest agreement with the other methods. Compared to current methods, eyeScrollR provides a more reproducible and reliable approach for mapping eye-tracking data to scroll web pages. With its open code and free availability, we recommend eyeScrollR as an essential tool for eyetracking researchers, particularly those who adhere to open science principles. The eyeScrollR package offers a valuable contribution to the field of eye-tracking research, facilitating accurate and standardized analysis of eye-tracking data in web scrolling contexts

eyeScrollR

eyeScrollR R package article materia

The visual environment and attention in decision making

A meta analysis of visual and cognitive factors controlling eye movements in decision makin

The heterogeneity of shoppers’ supermarket behaviors based on the use of carrying equipment

Research on in-store behavior has largely focused on shoppers with carts. In a study involving 15 stores and a total of 3540 shoppers, we document that only 20 percent of shoppers actually use shopping carts, while 28 percent use baskets and 51 percent use no carrying equipment. To better understand the role of carrying equipment, we collected data in a second study from 635 complete shopping trips using behavioral tracking technology and systematic sampling. We show that there is important heterogeneity in in-store behavior related to equipment and that carrying equipment is a suitable variable for segmenting shoppers. It is an objective and observable measure that consistently explains the variance in travel distance, shopping duration, store area coverage, walking speed, basket size, and shopper efficiency. We also find non-equipment trips to be least efficient, despite their popularity. The findings have implications for both research and retail practices

Covert attention leads to fast and accurate decision making

Supplemental material (i.e., raw data and analysis scripts) for the manuscript "Covert attention leads to fast and accurate decision making"