Making Mobile Health Information Advice Persuasive

As M-Health apps become more popular, users can access more mobile health information (MHI) through these platforms. Yet one preeminent question among both researchers and practitioners is how to bridge the gap between simply providing MHI and persuading users to buy into the MHI for health self-management. To solve this challenge, this study extends the Elaboration Likelihood Model to explore how to make MHI advice persuasive by identifying the important central and peripheral cues of MHI under individual difference. The proposed research model was validated through a survey. The results confirm that (1) both information matching and platform credibility, as central and peripheral cues, respectively, have significant positive effects on attitudes toward MHI, but only information matching could directly affect health behavior changes; (2) health concern significantly moderates the link between information matching and cognitive attitude and only marginally moderates the link between platform credibility and attitudes. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Covert valuation for information sampling and choice

We use our eyes to assess the value of objects around us and carefully fixate options that we are about to choose. Neurons in the prefrontal cortex reliably encode the value of fixated options, which is essential for decision making. Yet as a decision unfolds, it remains unclear how prefrontal regions determine which option should be fixated next. Here we show that anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) encodes the value of options in the periphery to guide subsequent fixations during economic choice. In an economic decision-making task involving four simultaneously presented cues, we found rhesus macaques evaluated cues using their peripheral vision. This served two distinct purposes: subjects were more likely to fixate valuable peripheral cues, and more likely to choose valuable options whose cues were never even fixated. ACC, orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex neurons all encoded cue value post-fixation. ACC was unique, however, in also encoding the value of cues before fixation and even cues that were never fixated. This pre-saccadic value encoding by ACC predicted which cue was next fixated during the decision process. ACC therefore conducts simultaneous processing of peripheral information to guide information sampling and choice during decision making.

Why Do Citizens Share COVID-19 Fact-Checks Posted by Chinese Government Social Media Accounts? The Elaboration Likelihood Model

Widespread misinformation about COVID-19 poses a significant threat to citizens long-term health and the combating of the disease. To fight the spread of misinformation, Chinese governments have used official social media accounts to participate in fact-checking activities. This study aims to investigate why citizens share fact-checks about COVID-19 and how to promote this activity. Based on the elaboration likelihood model, we explore the effects of peripheral cues (social media capital, social media strategy, media richness, and source credibility) and central cues (content theme and content importance) on the number of shares of fact-checks posted by official Chinese Government social media accounts. In total, 820 COVID-19 fact-checks from 413 Chinese Government Sina Weibo accounts were obtained and evaluated. Results show that both peripheral and central cues play important roles in the sharing of fact-checks. For peripheral cues, social media capital and media richness significantly promote the number of shares. Compared with the push strategy, both the pull strategy and networking strategy facilitate greater fact-check sharing. Fact-checks posted by Central Government social media accounts receive more shares than local government accounts. For central cues, content importance positively predicts the number of shares. In comparison to fact-checks about the latest COVID-19 news, government actions received fewer shares, while social conditions received more shares.

What can you perceive? Understanding user’s information quality judgment on academic social networking sites

Introduction. Considering the overwhelming amount of scientific information available on academic social networking sites, the purpose of this paper is to explore how users perceive and judge the information quality. Method. Drawing upon the dual-process model, we theorised that the results of perception depend on the influence of both content cues and context-related cues. Analysis. We conducted two controlled experiments to verify our hypotheses. Results. Our findings indicated that, (1) higher levels of information quality can be perceived with high content value than with low content value, and there was an interaction effect between content value and question type (Experiment 1); (2) three kinds of context-related cues (authority cues, peer cues, and recommendation cues) demonstrated the significant main effect on perceived information quality, and there was an interaction effect among these three cues (Experiment 2). Conclusions. This study contributes by addressing both central and peripheral cues based on a dual-process model, different from previous research which has mainly been confined to examining the external cues' effects. Our findings not only can deepen the comprehension about how users perceive and judge the information quality in academic social networking sites, but also can inform platform developers about the design of the interface and the information system.

Understanding online health community users' information adoption intention: an elaboration likelihood model perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to draw on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine users' information adoption intention in online health communities (OHC).Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected 350 valid responses using a survey and conducted the moderated regression analysis to examine the research model.FindingsThe results indicated that users' information adoption intention is influenced by both central cues (argument quality) and peripheral cues (source credibility and emotional support). In addition, self-efficacy moderates the effect of both central cues and peripheral cues on information adoption intention.Originality/valuePrevious research has focused on the effect of individual motivations such as reciprocity and benefits on user behavior, and has seldom disclosed the influencing process of external factors on OHC users' behavioral decision. This research tries to fill the gap by adopting ELM to uncover the mechanism underlying OHC users' information adoption.

Distraction “Hangover”: Characterization of the Delayed Return to Baseline Driving Risk After Distracting Behaviors

Objective We measured how long distraction by a smartphone affects simulated driving behaviors after the tasks are completed (i.e., the distraction hangover). Background Most drivers know that smartphones distract. Trying to limit distraction, drivers can use hands-free devices, where they only briefly glance at the smartphone. However, the cognitive cost of switching tasks from driving to communicating and back to driving adds an underappreciated, potentially long period to the total distraction time. Method Ninety-seven 21- to 78-year-old individuals who self-identified as active drivers and smartphone users engaged in a simulated driving scenario that included smartphone distractions. Peripheral-cue and car-following tasks were used to assess driving behavior, along with synchronized eye tracking. Results The participants’ lateral speed was larger than baseline for 15 s after the end of a voice distraction and for up to 25 s after a text distraction. Correct identification of peripheral cues dropped about 5% per decade of age, and participants from the 71+ age group missed seeing about 50% of peripheral cues within 4 s of the distraction. During distraction, coherence with the lead car in a following task dropped from 0.54 to 0.045, and seven participants rear-ended the lead car. Breadth of scanning contracted by 50% after distraction. Conclusion Simulated driving performance drops dramatically after smartphone distraction for all ages and for both voice and texting. Application Public education should include the dangers of any smartphone use during driving, including hands-free.

The role of social trust in reward crowdfunding campaigns’ design and success

Trust is critical for successful participation in online marketplaces. In crowdfunding, fundraisers seek to win the trust of potential supporters towards contributing to their projects despite risks of non-delivery or deviations from campaign promises. This study explores how cultural differences in social trust proclivities influence reward crowdfunding campaign design and success. Specifically, we analyze data about 700 campaigns from a relatively high social trust society (HTS) – Finland, and 700 campaigns from a relatively low social trust society (LTS) – Poland. We find that sharing campaign information via social media is positively associated with campaign success in both contexts. Building on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, we show that central route cues to persuasion are more prevalent in campaigns from LTS vs. HTS, and that some peripheral cues are more prevalent in campaigns from HTS than LTS. Finally, we find partial support that central route cues are more important for campaign success in LTS.

When Speed Breaks the Sound Barrier: The Effect of Cue Hierarchy on Expected Quality and Purchase Intentions Regarding Laptops

A few taxonomies have been proposed to categorize the cues consumers use to assess the quality of a given product. However, these taxonomies do not take into account the possible hierarchy that may exist among these cues. Through three studies we tested a taxonomy based on the structural approach to social representations. This framework proposes a distinction between central and peripheral cues. The former would be essential whereas the latter would be less important in the process of conducting quality assessment or with regard to purchase intentions. Results show that, concerning purchase intentions, a good central feature can compensate for a poor peripheral feature while the converse is not possible. Moreover, this interaction effect is mediated by the perceived quality of the product.

Mnemonic Attention in Analogy to Perceptual Attention: Harmony but Not Uniformity

It is widely accepted that peripheral cues in perception capture attention automatically, while central cues need voluntary control to exert functions. However, whether they differ similarly in working memory remains unclear. The present study addressed this issue through 5 experiments using a retro-cue paradigm with more than two hundred participants. Similar to perceptual attention, we found peripheral cues in working memory (1) were more effective than central cues in low memory-load conditions (Experiments 1 and 2), and (2) they influenced performance much faster than central cues (Experiment 5). Unlike perceptual attention, peripheral cues in working memory (1) did not capture attention to memory representations when they are uninformative (Experiment 3), and (2) could raise confidence ratings (Experiment 4). Taken together, our findings suggest that the effects of spatial cues on memory versus perception are similar but not the same.