1,720,969 research outputs found
Look Behind Me! Highly Informative Picture Backgrounds Increase Stated Generosity Through Perceived Tangibility, Impact, and Warm Glow
No full textIn this study, we investigated whether background information of a visual charity appeal can influence people's motivation to donate and the hypothetical amount donated. Specifically, participants were presented with a charity appeal to help a local hospital respond to the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) emergency depicting a man sitting on a bed in a hospital room. The number of visual details (i.e., medical equipment) depicted in the background was manipulated according to three conditions: (1) "High information" condition (i.e., a room full of medical equipment), (2) "low information" condition (i.e., room with few pieces of medical equipment), and (3) "no information" condition (i.e., non-contextual background). We investigated whether the number of visual background details would have increased the tangibility of the cause measured as the hospital's adequate preparedness to deal with the COVID-19 emergency and severity of the patient's medical conditions. We also investigated whether increased tangibility, elicited by a higher amount of background information, would heighten participants' perceived impact of their donation and warm glow, which in turn would have led to increased motivation to donate and the amount donated. We found no significant direct effect of condition on the donated amount. However, path models revealed that more background information positively influenced participants' motivation to donate and the amount donated indirectly through increased tangibility, impact, and warm glow. Finally, we showed that a higher risk perception of COVID-19 was associated with higher donations. Results are discussed in line with relevant literature
Beware the inexperienced financial advisor with a high trait emotional intelligence: Psychological determinants of the misperception of the risk-return relationship
No full textAccording to financial theories, on the long run, taking risk should reward investors with higher returns. However, most investors perceive this relationship as negative. In this study, we showed that even professional financial advisors misperceived the risk-returns relationship, and we investigated the psychological determinants of this misperception in professionals. Specifically, we assessed the role of feelings towards the financial market, trait emotional intelligence (EI), and trading experience. Our results showed that financial advisors with high (vs. low) trait EI were more impacted by their feelings when estimating expected returns. Specifically, inexperienced advisors with high (vs. low) trait EI are more likely to expect a negative relationship between risks and returns. Our findings shed light on the need to educate professionals on their reliance on emotions in financial judgments
New Technologies and Work-Related Outcomes: Exploring the Effects of Smart Working and Techno-Stress on Perceived Job Satisfaction and Performance.
No full textThis contribution aims to investigate the relation between the perceived usefulness of smart working among employees (PUSW) and certain work outcomes, specifically perceived performance (PP) and job satisfaction (JS), hypothesizing techno-stress (TC) as a moderator of the relationship.
The spread of increasingly advanced digital technologies supporting remote communication and collaboration has driven organizations to develop smart working (SW) as a new labor model, and the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated this process. To date, research on SW outcomes shows ambiguous results. Indeed, on the one hand, SW leads to more flexibility, productivity, and a better work-life balance, on the other hand, SW can result in a sense of isolation for workers, difficulties in task management, and worsened performance (e.g., Bednar and Welch, 2019; Carbonara et al., 2022). The development of digital technologies has also caused techno-stress (i.e., a specific form of stress that workers experience when they have difficulties in dealing with new technologies; Dragano and Lunau, 2020). To date, the relationship between SW and TS has been little investigated and a better understanding of it may improve the comprehension of when SW produces positive or negative work-related outcomes.
The Job Demand-Resources Model (JDRM; Bakker and Demerouti, 2007) states that, in workplaces, exist job resources that enable job demands to be managed by increasing motivation and improving performance outcomes and job satisfaction. However, the relationship between job resources and work-related outcomes is moderated by the stress that can result from excessive or inadequate job demands on workers. Based on the JDRM we hypothesize that if SW is perceived by employees as useful and appropriate for their tasks it will be a job resource that will improve work-related outcomes (i.e., PP and JS). However, when the TS level of employees is high, the positive relationship between SW and work-related outcomes will be disrupted.
To test this hypothesis nearly 500 employees of an Italian municipality are filling out a self-report questionnaire. PUSW is measured with the 13-item scale of Ingusci et al. (2022), and TS with the 11-item scale of Ragu-Nathan et al. (2008). In addition, workers are asked, expressing a percentage from 1 to 100, to rate the level of their PP and JS over the past six months.
We are going to conduct a multiple regression analysis where we first are going to test whether PUSW is a significant predictor of PP and JS. Then we are going to verify whether TS significantly moderates the relationship between PUSW and PP/JS. We expect that at low levels of TS, PUSW predicts PP and JS but, at high levels of TC, the relationship between PUSW and PP/JS will no longer be positive in a statistically significant way or even will become negative. The results of the study can contribute to clarifying how SW on work-related outcomes operates and can help practitioners in assessing whether or not, in a given organization, a smart working policy may be effective and efficient
Beware the inexperienced financial advisor with a high trait emotional intelligence: Psychological determinants of the misperception of the risk-return relationship
No full textAccording to financial theories, on the long run, taking risk should reward investors with higher returns. However, most investors perceive this relationship as negative. In this study, we showed that even professional financial advisors misperceived the risk-returns relationship, and we investigated the psychological determinants of this misperception in professionals. Specifically, we assessed the role of feelings towards the financial market, trait emotional intelligence (EI), and trading experience. Our results showed that financial advisors with high (vs. low) trait EI were more impacted by their feelings when estimating expected returns. Specifically, inexperienced advisors with high (vs. low) trait EI are more likely to expect a negative relationship between risks and returns. Our findings shed light on the need to educate professionals on their reliance on emotions in financial judgments
Look behind me! Highly informative picture backgrounds increase stated generosity through perceived tangibility, impact, and warm glow.
Full text linkIn this study, we investigated whether background information of a visual charity appeal can influence people’s motivation to donate and the hypothetical amount donated. Specifically, participants were presented with a charity appeal to help a local hospital respond to the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) emergency depicting a man sitting on a bed in a hospital room. The number of visual details (i.e., medical equipment) depicted in the background was manipulated according to three conditions: (1) “High information” condition (i.e., a room full of medical equipment), (2) “low information” condition (i.e., room with few pieces of medical equipment), and (3) “no information” condition (i.e., non-contextual background). We investigated whether the number of visual background details would have increased the tangibility of the cause measured as the hospital’s adequate preparedness to deal with the COVID-19 emergency and severity of the patient’s medical conditions. We also investigated whether increased tangibility, elicited by a higher amount of background information, would heighten participants’ perceived impact of their donation and warm glow, which in turn would have led to increased motivation to donate and the amount donated. We found no significant direct effect of condition on the donated amount. However, path models revealed that more background information positively influenced participants’ motivation to donate and the amount donated indirectly through increased tangibility, impact, and warm glow. Finally, we showed that a higher risk perception of COVID-19 was associated with higher donations. Results are discussed in line with relevant literature
Portare la natura al lavoro ha effetti rigenerativi? Uno studio su impiegati di un comune italiano
No full textIntroduzione. Questo contributo indaga la relazione tra diversi tipi di contatto con la natura al lavoro (NC-Outdoor, NC-Indoor, NC-Indirect), la percezione di rigeneratività (PR-REST) e il techno-stress (TS). L’introduzione delle TIC (Tecnologie dell’Informazione e della Comunicazione) ha profondamente modificato ambienti e processi di lavoro causando TS, una forma di stress che peggiora diversi esiti lavorativi, sia individuali (e.g., benessere, soddisfazione) sia organizzativi (e.g., commitment, turnover). La Stress Recovery Theory (SRT, Ulrich, 1983), supportata da numerose evidenze, postula che, quando le persone sono esposte ad ambienti che elicitano PR-REST (i.e., un senso di ristoro cognitivo ed emotivo), la loro resilienza allo stress aumenta. PR-REST è tradizionalmente associata al contatto diretto con ambienti naturali (NC-Outdoor) ma, in diversi studi, anche l’esposizione a elementi richiamanti la natura, come immagini e video (NC-Indirect) o piante da interni (NC-Indoor) ha elicitato PR-REST.
Obiettivi. Ad oggi sembra quindi utile comprendere quali caratteristiche di NC generano PR-REST, soprattutto in relazione all’emergente filone di studi del Biophilic Design che introduce elementi naturali in ambienti costruiti dall’uomo.
Metodo. A questo scopo è stata condotta una indagine su 164 lavoratori delle TIC per verificare se tre diversi tipi di NC (Outdoor, Indoor, Indirect) mediano la relazione tra PR-REST e TS. NC, PR-REST e TS sono stati misurati rispettivamente con NCQ (Largo-Wight et al., 2011), Rest@Work (Brondino et al., 2023) e Technostress-Scale (Ragu-Nathan et al., 2008).
Risultati. È stata trovata una relazione sia tra PR-REST e TS (r= -.26, p<.001) sia tra PR-REST e NC (NC-Outdoor, r=.19, p<.05; NC-Indoor, r= 40, p<.001, NC-Indirect, r= .48, p<.001). Le analisi di mediazione hanno mostrato che solo NC-Indoor media la relazione tra PR-REST e TS (β=.059, p=.019) confermando l’ipotesi che NC è rigenerativo solo in presenza di specifiche caratteristiche. Le implicazioni pratiche per la progettazione di ambienti di lavoro rigenerativi saranno discusse
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Worry, perceived threat and media communication as predictors of self-protective behaviors during the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe
Full text linkEfforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus emphasize the central role of citizens' compliance with self-protective behaviors. Understanding the processes underlying the decision to self-protect is, therefore, essential for effective risk communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the present study, we investigate the determinants of perceived threat and engagement in self-protective measures in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Austria during the first wave of the pandemic. The type of disease (coronavirus vs. seasonal flu) and the type of numerical information regarding the disease (number of recovered vs. number of dead) were manipulated. Participants' cognitive and emotional risk assessment as well as self-reported engagement in protective behaviors were measured. Results show that worry was the best predictor of perceived threat in all countries. Moreover, a path analysis revealed that worry and perceived threat serially mediated the effect of type of disease on engagement in self-protective behaviors. The numerical framing manipulation did not significantly impact behavior but had a direct effect on worry and an indirect effect on perceived threat. These results are in line with theoretical accounts that identify emotions as a central determinant for risk perception. Moreover, our findings also suggest that effective risk communication during the COVID-19 pandemic should not stress comparisons to other, well-known viral diseases, as this can ultimately reduce self-protective behaviors
Dynamic Formation of Quality Expectations: Theory and Empirical Evidence
Full text linkThe evolution of quality expectations over time is an important driver of customer satisfaction and retention. This study investigated the dynamic prop- erties of customers’ quality expectation updating from an analytical perspective and provides new evidence on the psychological correlates of the discrepancies between expectations and experiences in the realm of consumer decision making. In doing so, we focus on the dynamics of expectation formation by adopting a nonlinear complex systems approach based on well-established behavioral the- ories. Using stability analysis, we find analytical results which are supported empirically by an experiment that there is considerable heterogeneity in how consumers calibrate their quality expectations. Specifically, we demonstrate analytically that in some cases individuals will converge to a specific quality expectation (reach a stable fixed point), while in other cases their expectations will oscillate between a small number of points periodically. This is remarkable because the existence of the latter is not due to changes in quality performance but merely accrue endogenously and depend on individuals’ disconfirmation functions. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the marketing literature that the corresponding gaps between quality expectations and quality provided are analyzed in the long run. Our analytical and empirical findings also suggest that being more responsive to a person’s expectations can increase the portion of those individuals that are able to better calibrate. Finally, we also demonstrate that calibration ability is associated with how thoughtful or impulsive information is used to update one’s expectation. A more deliberative processing style, which includes using a wider range of information, seems to be related to fewer unrealistic expectations and better calibrations, while a more impulsive processing style is related to more unrealistic expectations. In addition to providing a better understanding of dy- namic expectation formation, these results can pave the way for interventions that foster more accurate quality expectations. From a managerial perspective, our findings imply that communicating quality perceptions are only to a certain extent under managerial control. To recognize this, firms are advised to segment cus- tomers based on their information processing style and to customize their marketing actions accordingly
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