Why it is good to communicate the bad: understanding the influence of message framing in persuasive communication on consumer decision-making processes

IntroductionOne approach to bridging the gap between consumer intentions and behavior is persuasive communication to reinforce their intentions and thereby support their behavior change. Message framing has proven to be a useful, persuasive communication tool. However, message framing is considered more complicated than other types of framing because, in addition to concept-specific elements, it is also strongly influenced by and, in turn, influences emotions. Therefore, it is almost impossible for consumers to verbally express their attitudes, so the challenge is to explain and measure its impact. This research aims to help in this regard by suggesting a theoretical model to understand how message framing is processed from a consumer neuroscience perspective. More precisely, the factors that constitute message framing are systematized and built on a reflective-impulsive model and a neural emotion-cognition framework interpreted to explain the persuasive effects of message framing.MethodA functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment is used to examine the effects of message framing for four different frame types that are hypothesized to affect consumer information processing differently.ResultThe results suggest that communication strategies should take into account the valence of the objects and the frame used. The behavioral results partially confirm the assumption that two types of information processing could take place, as suggested by the reflective-impulsive model. At the neural level, using the network perspective, the results show that certain brain regions primarily associated with emotional and cognitive interaction processes are active during processing, depending on the framing of the message.DiscussionIn cases of indirect avoidance value-consistent framing, it may be good to communicate the bad in the appropriate frame to influence information processing

Rethinking postcolonial Europe: moving identities, changing subjectivities

Europe has always presented a problem for postcolonial studies. In the elisions of temporal and spatial coordinates that occur so frequently in theoretical discourse that ostensibly addresses the task of understanding the nature of colonialism and its aftermaths, of how colonialism shaped the modern world, and of how it may be resisted in the name of an equitable, peaceful, and just ‘postcolonial’ future, the ‘when’ and ‘where’ and ‘why’ of Europe has often been obscured

Age-Related Attenuation of Dominant Hand Superiority

The decline of motor performance of the human hand-arm system with age is well-documented. While dominant hand performance is superior to that of the non-dominant hand in young individuals, little is known of possible age-related changes in hand dominance. We investigated age-related alterations of hand dominance in 20 to 90 year old subjects. All subjects were unambiguously right-handed according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. In Experiment 1, motor performance for aiming, postural tremor, precision of arm-hand movement, speed of arm-hand movement, and wrist-finger speed tasks were tested. In Experiment 2, accelerometer-sensors were used to obtain objective records of hand use in everyday activities

Author Correction: A Database of Snow on Sea Ice in the Central Arctic Collected during the MOSAiC expedition

Correction to: Scientific Data, published online 22 June 2023 The original version showed the wrong image for Figure 3, with the image for Figure 4 used for both. This has been corrected in the pdf and HTML versions of the article, with the correct version of Figure 3 replacing the duplicated figure. The dates in the figure captions were also incorrect and have been amended as follows: Figure 3 caption: “from 2019-10-25 - 2020-07-30” modified to “from 2019-10-25 - 2020-05-15” Figure 4 caption: “from 2020-02-25 - 2020-07-30” modified to “from 2020-06-13 - 2020-07-30”

Distinct Timing Mechanisms Produce Discrete and Continuous Movements

The differentiation of discrete and continuous movement is one of the pillars of motor behavior classification. Discrete movements have a definite beginning and end, whereas continuous movements do not have such discriminable end points. In the past decade there has been vigorous debate whether this classification implies different control processes. This debate up until the present has been empirically based. Here, we present an unambiguous non-empirical classification based on theorems in dynamical system theory that sets discrete and continuous movements apart. Through computational simulations of representative modes of each class and topological analysis of the flow in state space, we show that distinct control mechanisms underwrite discrete and fast rhythmic movements. In particular, we demonstrate that discrete movements require a time keeper while fast rhythmic movements do not. We validate our computational findings experimentally using a behavioral paradigm in which human participants performed finger flexion-extension movements at various movement paces and under different instructions. Our results demonstrate that the human motor system employs different timing control mechanisms (presumably via differential recruitment of neural subsystems) to accomplish varying behavioral functions such as speed constraints

Retrieval of Snow Depth on Arctic Sea Ice From Surface-Based, Polarimetric, Dual-Frequency Radar Altimetry

Snow depth on sea ice is an Essential Climate Variable and a major source of uncertainty in satellite altimetry-derived sea ice thickness. During winter of the MOSAiC Expedition, the “KuKa” dual-frequency, fully polarized Ku- and Ka-band radar was deployed in “stare” nadir-looking mode to investigate the possibility of combining these two frequencies to retrieve snow depth. Three approaches were investigated: dual-frequency, dual-polarization and waveform shape, and compared to independent snow depth measurements. Novel dual-polarization approaches yielded r2 values up to 0.77. Mean snow depths agreed within 1 cm, even for data sub-banded to CryoSat-2 SIRAL and SARAL AltiKa bandwidths. Snow depths from co-polarized dual-frequency approaches were at least a factor of four too small and had a r2 0.15 or lower. r2 for waveform shape techniques reached 0.72 but depths were underestimated. Snow depth retrievals using polarimetric information or waveform shape may therefore be possible from airborne/satellite radar altimeters