Social presence and dishonesty in retail

Self-service checkouts (SCOs) in retail can benefit consumers and retailers, providing control and autonomy to shoppers independent from staff, together with reduced queuing times. Recent research indicates that the absence of staff may provide the opportunity for consumers to behave dishonestly, consistent with a perceived lack of social presence. This study examined whether a social presence in the form of various instantiations of embodied, visual, humanlike SCO interface agents had an effect on opportunistic behaviour. Using a simulated SCO scenario, participants experienced various dilemmas in which they could financially benefit themselves undeservedly. We hypothesised that a humanlike social presence integrated within the checkout screen would receive more attention and result in fewer instances of dishonesty compared to a less humanlike agent. This was partially supported by the results. The findings contribute to the theoretical framework in social presence research. We concluded that companies adopting self-service technology may consider the implementation of social presence in technology applications to support ethical consumer behaviour, but that more research is required to explore the mixed findings in the current study.<br/

Touching a Teddy Bear Mitigates the Negative Effects of Social Exclusion

There is little empirical research to date that looks at how the deleterious effects of social exclusion can be mitigated. We examined how touching an inanimate object—a teddy bear— might impact the effect of social exclusion on prosocial behavior. Across two studies, we found that socially excluded individuals who touched a teddy bear acted more prosocially as compared to socially excluded individuals who just viewed the teddy bear from a distance. This effect was only observed for socially excluded participants and not for socially included (or control) participants. Overall, the findings suggest that touching a teddy bear mitigates the negative effects of social exclusion to increase prosocial behavior. In Study 2, positiv

E-government adoption: A cultural comparison

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008.E-government diffusion is an international phenomenon. This study compares e-government adoption in the U.K. to adoption in the U.S. In particular, this study seeks to determine if the same factors are salient in both countries. Several studies have explored citizen acceptance of e-government services in the U.S. However, few studies have explored this phenomenon in the U.K. To identify the similarities and differences between the U.K. and the U.S. a survey is conducted in the U.K. and the findings are compared to the literature that investigates diffusion in the U.S. This study proposes a model of e-government adoption in the U.K. based on salient factors in the U.S. A survey is administered to 260 citizens in London to assess the importance of relative advantage, trust and the digital divide on intention to use e-government. The results of binary logistic regression indicate that there are cultural differences in e-government adoption in the U.K. and the U.S. The results indicate that of the prevailing adoption constructs, relative advantage and trust are pertinent in both the U.S. and the U.K., while ICT adoption barriers such as access and skill may vary by culture. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Training Anchoring and Representativeness Bias Mitigation Through a Digital Game

Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital games train people to avoid cognitive biases? The goal of this study is to investigate the affordance of different educational media in training people about cognitive biases and to mitigate cognitive biases within their decision-making processes. Method. A between-subject experiment was conducted to compare a digital game, a traditional slideshow, and a combined condition in mitigating two types of cognitive biases: anchoring bias and representativeness bias. We measured both immediate effects and delayed effects after four weeks. Results. The digital game and slideshow conditions were effective in mitigating cognitive biases immediately after the training, but the effects decayed after four weeks. By providing the basic knowledge through the slideshow, then allowing learners to practice bias-mitigation techniques in the digital game, the combined condition was most effective at mitigating the cognitive biases both immediately and after four weeks.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Non-smooth developable geometry for interactively animating paper crumpling

International audienceWe present the first method to animate sheets of paper at interactive rates, while automatically generating a plausible set of sharp features when the sheet is crumpled. The key idea is to interleave standard physically-based simulation steps with procedural generation of a piecewise continuous developable surface. The resulting hybrid surface model captures new singular points dynamically appearing during the crumpling process, mimicking the effect of paper fiber fracture. Although the model evolves over time to take these irreversible damages into account, the mesh used for simulation is kept coarse throughout the animation, leading to efficient computations. Meanwhile, the geometric layer ensures that the surface stays almost isometric to its original 2D pattern. We validate our model through measurements and visual comparison with real paper manipulation, and show results on a variety of crumpled paper configurations

Establishing Professional Intercultural Relations: Chinese Perceptions of Behavioural Success in a Sino-American Exchange Visit

This article examines the ways in which professionals from different countries handle first encounters when they wish to initiate and establish business/professional relations. The majority of research on business relations in intercultural contexts has so far focused on misunderstandings, face threats, and conflict. There has been comparatively little research into the initiation and establishment of relations from a positive perspective. This article addresses this lacuna by analysing how Chinese delegates built positive relations with American counterparts on a visit to the USA. Drawing on insights from the analysis, it proposes a conceptual framework for future research in this area

Mitigation of Cognitive Bias with a Serious Game: Two Experiments Testing Feedback Timing and Source

One of the benefits of using digital games for education is that games can provide feedback for learners to assess their situation and correct their mistakes. We conducted two studies to examine the effectiveness of different feedback design (timing, duration, repeats, and feedback source) in a serious game designed to teach learners about cognitive biases. We also compared the digital game-based learning condition to a professional training video. Overall, the digital game was significantly more effective than the video condition. Longer durations and repeats improve the effects on bias-mitigation. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference between just-in-time feedback and delayed feedback, and computer-generated feedback was more effective than feedback from other players

Mitigation of Cognitive Bias with a Serious Game: Two Experiments Testing Feedback Timing and Source

One of the benefits of using digital games for education is that games can provide feedback for learners to assess their situation and correct their mistakes. We conducted two studies to examine the effectiveness of different feedback design (timing, duration, repeats, and feedback source) in a serious game designed to teach learners about cognitive biases. We also compared the digital game-based learning condition to a professional training video. Overall, the digital game was significantly more effective than the video condition. Longer durations and repeats improve the effects on bias-mitigation. Surprisingly, there was no significant difference between just-in-time feedback and delayed feedback, and computer-generated feedback was more effective than feedback from other players