2,715 research outputs found
Priorities in information desire about unknown risks
No full textPriorities in information desire about unknown risks. Lion R, Meertens RM, Bot I. Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands. [email protected] Research on risk perception aims to explain how people perceive risks in order to better communicate about them. Most of this research has tended to view people as passive risk perceivers. However, if confronted with an unknown risk, people can also actively seek information. The main purpose of this study was to investigate what kind of risk information people desire when confronted with an unknown risk and how this desire for information relates to the main dimensions underlying risk perception. Nine focus-group interviews were conducted. The main results of the focus groups were backed up by a paper-and-pencil questionnaire that was distributed among a random sample of 500 households in the Netherlands. Overall, people desire information with which they can determine the personal relevance of the risk confronting them. This pattern is similar to appraisal steps described by health behavior models. The focus-group results provide a dynamic picture of the way risk aspects might interact to create a final risk judgmen
R.M. Simmons presentation, Rena Smart book review
No full textR.M. Simmons of the Gospel Music Workshop of America gives a presentation on the African influence in the African American religious experience. He explains how African slaves brought to America their concept of music (utilitarian concept of music). Simmons further discusses the fusion between the utilitarian concept and the Western concept of religion resulting in spirituals. He also describes hymn categories in early forms of formal African American worship experiences. Simmons takes questions from the audience among which is Dr. Riggins Earl Jr. Video concludes with a book review on Christian Theology and Ethics by Rena Smart.The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library acknowledges the generous support of the National Endowment for Humanities - Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Implementation Project Grant in supporting the processing and digitization of a number of its major archival collections as part of the project: Spreading the Word: Expanding Access to African American Religious Archival Collections at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library.</em
The effects of warnings and an educational brochure on computer working posture: a test of the C-HIP model in the context of RSI-relevant behaviour
No full textThe effects of warnings and an educational brochure on computer working posture: a test of the C-HIP model in the context of RSI-relevant behaviour. Visschers VH, Ruiter RA, Kools M, Meertens RM. Universiteit Maastricht, Department of Health Education and Promotion, Maastricht, The Netherlands. [email protected] This study tested whether warnings can result in a better working posture with respect to RSI prevention compared with an educational brochure. By using a warning, the information provision on how to prevent RSI can be shorter and only interrupts with the task at hand for a short time. Five conditions were created to compare the effects on position adjustments of a warning displayed on the computer screen, a warning hanging on the wall, an educational brochure, a neutral interruption on the computer screen, and no intervention. Systematic observations of respondents' working postures showed that the computer warning led to significantly more correct position adjustments than the educational brochure and the two control situations, whereas the wall warning condition did not differ significantly from all other conditions. Questionnaires were used to study whether the number of position adjustments in the conditions could be explained by Wogalter's communication-human information processing (C-HIP) model. The questionnaire data suggest that the effect of the computer warning is caused by heightened attention for this type of intervention. The other stages of the C-HIP model--knowledge, attitude change, and motivation--might not be necessary in this situation in the explanation of behavioural changes. The conclusion is that warnings may be able to successfully replace educational brochures to produce behavioural change
Velocity-Gradient Probability Distribution Functions in a Lagrangian Model of Turbulence
No full textThe Recent Fluid Deformation Closure (RFDC) model of lagrangian turbulence is recast in path-integral language within the framework of the Martin-Siggia-Rose functional formalism. In order to derive analytical expressions for the velocity-gradient probability distribution functions (vgPDFs), we carry out noise renormalization in the low-frequency regime and find approximate extrema for the Martin-Siggia-Rose effective action. We verify, with the help of Monte Carlo simulations, that the vgPDFs so obtained yield a close description of the single-point statistical features implied by the original RFDC stochastic differential equations
The effects of risk-taking tendency on risk choice and pre- and post-decisional information selection
No full textIdeally, people seek and select information about unfamiliar risks with which they are confronted, before they make a risk choice. This study investigated what happens when people do not have this opportunity. The main question was how risk-taking tendency influences intuitive risk decisions and how this impacts subsequent information search and subsequent choices. In the present study, participants had to make a choice about an unfamiliar risk, either before or after they had had the opportunity to search for (risk-promoting or risk-averse) information. In the condition where they could only seek for information after they had made a choice, they had to reconsider their first choice and make a second risk choice. We expected that (1) risk-taking tendency would impact people's risk choices, but only in the situation where they have little information. On the basis of cognitive dissonance theory, it was furthermore predicted that (2) risk-taking tendency and (3) initial risk choice would affect risk information selection. Furthermore, we predicted that (4) the first risk choice and (5) the risk information selected would influence the subsequent risk choice. The results suggest that if people make a first, intuitive decision about an unknown risk, risk-taking tendency has an effect on the choice, but that this does not happen when people can first select information. Risk-taking tendency did not influence information selection, but initial choice did (although in another way than we expected). Furthermore, both the first risk choice and the risk information selected affected subsequent risk choices. These findings suggest that people often make initial intuitive decisions that are influenced by personality characteristics, and that are subsequently difficult to change
Measuring an individual's tendency to take risks: the Risk Propensity Scale.
No full textA new, short, and easily administered Risk Propensity Scale (RPS) is introduced that measures general risk-taking tendencies. This paper investigates the reliability and discriminant validity of the RPS. The RPS provided scores that yielded a good internal reliability coefficient and adequate test-retest reliability, and the scores correlated moderately to well with those of the Everyday Risk Inventory and the short Sensation-Seeking Scale. The correlation with the scores from other scales (Need for Cognition scale, Need for Structure scale, and 2 self-esteem scales) was low to moderate, indicating good discriminant validity. The findings are discussed in relation to risk-perception research using gambling experiments and in relation to their usefulness for risky decision-making research
Technological innovations and the promotion of energy conservation: the case of goalsetting and feedback.
No full textSeeking information about a risky medicine: effects of risk-taking tendency and accountability
No full textResearch about risk perception has paid little attention to the fast that people can usually actively seek information about risks with which they art confronted. We hypothesized that (a) risk avoiders would search information more elaborately than would risk takers; (b) accountability should lead participants to search for information more elaborately; fc) risk avoiders would be more susceptible to the accountability manipulation than would risk takers; and (d) risk takers focus more on positive information, and risk avoiders focus more on negative information. Both a person's risk-taking tendency and being held accountable affected information-search depth, but no interactions were found. Nor did we find support for the idea that risk avoiders and risk takers focus on negative and positive information, respectively
Security or opportunity: The influence of risk-taking tendency on risk information preference
No full textIt has been suggested that risk avoiders and risk takers differ in the extent to which they focus on the worst and best outcomes of a risky activity. By implication risk avoiders and risk takers should also differ in their risk information preferences. Specifically, as risk avoiders focus more on the worst outcomes, it was hypothesized that they would prefer negative information about the risk. In contrast, as risk takers focus more on the best outcomes, it was hypothesized that they would prefer positive information about the risk. In an information selection task, subjects could select newspaper headlines that indicated negative and positive information about a variety of risks. Contrary to the hypothesis, risk avoiders selected more positive information than risk takers. The results are discussed in relation to the influence of personality on risk taking. One tentative explanation is that differences in anxiety between risk avoiders and risk takers account for these results in that risk avoiders try to find reassurance by seeking positive information. Another is that the participants were seeking reassurance in a relatively involuntary confrontation with risks
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