Lonely and Susceptible: The Influence of Social Exclusion and Gender on Persuasion by an Artificial Agent

Earlier research showed that artificial social agents can influence human behavior. This article argues that, especially under certain circumstances, people are sensitive to persuasion by (artificial) social agents. For example, when people feel socially excluded, they are motivated to increase their social connections with others. It was hypothesized that socially excluded people would attribute more human-likeness and be persuaded more by an artificial agent than socially included people. These hypotheses were investigated in two studies in which participants were either socially included or excluded, after which they performed an energy-saving task while receiving social feedback from an artificial agent. Results did not support the expectation that socially excluded people ascribe more human-likeness to an artificial agent, but they did show the expected effects on behavior change, indicating the importance of including a person’s psychological state in the design of human–agent interactions. Also, in line with earlier findings, female participants were more susceptible to the agent’s feedback than male participants, indicating that a user’s gender may also determine the effectiveness of persuasive technology.     

Smartphone habit and behavior in Brunei: Personalization,gender, and generation gap

A smartphone is a device which offers advanced technologies, functions similarly to a computer, supports multitasking and makes it easy to remain connected with others. The following survey design research examined the usage patterns of smartphone users across different demographics. The results of this study provide insights into the prevalence of respondents’ usage of smartphones and their habits and behavior related to smartphone use itself especially among the younger generation of social disorders such as nomophobia and phubbing. In addition to documenting the experience of smartphone users, the research also examines personality patterns related to smartphone usage, the trends of different age groups, and the effects of gender preferences.     

Social decisions and fairness change when people’s interests are represented by autonomous agents

There has been growing interest on agents that represent people’s interests or act on their behalf such as automated negotiators, self-driving cars, or drones. Even though people will interact often with others via these agent representatives, little is known about whether people’s behavior changes when acting through these agents, when compared to direct interaction with others. Here we show that people’s decisions will change in important ways because of these agents; specifically, we showed that interacting via agents is likely to lead people to behave more fairly, when compared to direct interaction with others. We argue this occurs because programming an agent leads people to adopt a broader perspective, consider the other side’s position, and rely on social norms—such as fairness—to guide their decision making. To support this argument, we present four experiments: in Experiment 1 we show that people made fairer offers in the ultimatum and impunity games when interacting via agent representatives, when compared to direct interaction; in Experiment 2, participants were less likely to accept unfair offers in these games when agent representatives were involved; in Experiment 3, we show that the act of thinking about the decisions ahead of time—i.e., under the so-called “strategy method”—can also lead to increased fairness, even when no agents are involved; and, finally, in Experiment 4 we show that participants were less likely to reach an agreement with unfair counterparts in a negotiation setting. We discuss theoretical implications for our understanding of the nature of people’s social behavior with agent representatives, as well as practical implications for the design of agents that have the potential to increase fairness in society.     

Social networks and mathematical models: A research commentary on “Critical Mass and Willingness to Pay for Social Networks” by J. Christopher Westland

This brief research commentary on Westland’s (2010) article in this issue of Electronic Commerce Research and Applications is intended to add two cautionary notes. He attempts to answer two questions: What is critical mass? And how one can manage a network’s growth to reach that mass? He proposes a model for social networks, and shows how the model might possibly be managed. What needs to be remembered is that models are always imperfect. And even when they do describe well the natural behavior of some system, they may not fit as well, once some external influence begins affecting that system. Hence Westland’s contribution should be regarded as a definite step forward, but not necessarily the definitive answer to either of the questions it attempts to solve.     

Reflecting on Social Influence in Networks

In many social contexts, social influence seems to be inescapable: the behavior of others influences us to modify ours, and vice-versa. However, social psychology is full of examples of phenomena where individuals experience a discrepancy between their public behavior and their private opinion. This raises two central questions. First, how does an individual reason about the behavior of others and their private opinions in situations of social influence? And second, what are the laws of the resulting information dynamics? In this paper, we address these questions by introducing a formal framework for representing reasoning about an individual’s private opinions and public behavior under the dynamics of social influence in social networks. Moreover, we dig deeper into the involved information dynamics by modeling how individuals can learn about each other based on this reasoning. This compels us to introduce a new formal notion of reflective social influence. Finally, we initialize the work on proof theory and automated reasoning for our framework by introducing a sound and complete tableaux system for a fragment of our logic. Furthermore, this constitutes the first tableau system for the “Facebook logic” of J. Seligman, F. Liu, and P. Girard.     

从符号的角度来透视人们的着装行为

在个体着装行为的背后,服装首先是作为一种符号进入人们的识别系统的。不同的服装传达的意义不同,服装的这种符号意义是在"服装符号"被解读的过程中,也就是在交流的过程中得以实现的。本文是从符号的角度来看人们的着装行为,用符号的理论来解释着装行为,探讨了服装符号的能指与所指;服装中展现出的符号,这也是人们着装行为的依据;最后阐述了服装符号的运用。     

How do people compare themselves with others on social network sites?: The case of Facebook

The social comparison theory and its subsequent studies say that comparing with others can influence an individual in several ways (e.g., evaluation of oneself, influence on self-esteem/self-confidence, and efficient decision making) and people compare with others when they are confronted with information of others. With the popularity of social network sites, many people acquire or are exposed to information of others on social network sites, which implies that people are likely to frequently engage in social comparison behavior on social network sites. The present paper examines social comparison behavior on social network sites (especially on Facebook) using a college students sample. We find that an individual’s personality characteristics (i.e., social comparison orientation, self-esteem, self-uncertainty, and self-consciousness) influence the person’s social comparison frequency on Facebook. A positive relationship between Facebook use intensity and social comparison frequency on Facebook is found. In addition, we find a positive association between social comparison frequency on Facebook and the frequency of having a negative feeling from comparison. Other findings are also reported in the paper.     

Handheld Librarians: A Survey of Librarian and Library Patron Use of Wireless Handheld Devices

ABSTRACT

Wireless technologies are becoming more prevalent in American society, but are they in our libraries? This article is a result of a survey of 766 librarians (mostly academics) across the United States on their use and perceived use of their customers of personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, webpads, and other handheld wireless devices. How are these devices being used? What percentage of libraries support wireless handheld device users, and how is this support delivered? Is there a demand for more services for these users and for what are they asking? Have libraries modified content to meet the needs of wireless handheld device users, and if so, what content have they changed? Last, what are librarians’ perceptions of wireless handheld devices and the cost and licensing of wireless content?     

Social viscosities: mapping social performance in public space

Abstract

This article evaluates locative media works that address a social consciousness; a public space of dynamic media linkages and improvised acts, where spontaneous formations of collective activity may proliferate through ‘social viscosities’ of space. What sorts of narrative space may be created within these linkages? As locative media become embedded in our environments, and become a part of our consciousness, to what types of dynamic social spaces do they contribute? Are these spaces vibrant with hidden sounds,images, narratives, and histories-affecting our sense of place? How do digital locative media contribute to a dialogue of emerging social communities in public space?     

艺术的感觉方式——“灵媒”画家卢梭

卢梭的艺术是那么神奇,他甚至可以通过绘画将人们带入另一个世界,但这个一直过着贫穷生活的画家承受着很多嘲讽和奚落,"卢梭先生闭上眼睛用他的脚画画"。对于一生都生活在巴黎的艺术家来说,画面中出现如此多匪夷所思的原始景色让人不解,难道他在脑海里编造属于他的植物和动物?这些作品天真的风格并不现代,甚至有些笨拙,但却深入人心。卢梭迷住了当时的观众。一百年以后的今天,这些作品仍然令我们着迷。本文试图结合卢梭的成长经历和具体作品来剖析卢梭艺术的特殊意义。这些意义在艺术如此火热的今天,也许能带给我们更多的思考。     

Information or attention? An empirical study of user contribution on Twitter

Social broadcasting services, such as Twitter and YouTube, are revolutionizing the way we access information and publish our own content. What is the key innovation of such services? We argue that the key innovation of social broadcasting services is recognizing and connecting people’s need for information and attention. While the value of information is widely studied, the importance of attention is less well understood. We use a collection of nearly 3 million Twitter user profiles to study the cross-sectional characteristics of user behavior; we also monitor 521 active Twitter users over a period of 282 days to carry out time-series analyses and a panel data analysis of user behavior. The empirical results consistently suggest that people’s search for attention is an important motivation for them to contribute content on Twitter. This finding supports our conceptual view of social broadcasting services as innovative platforms connecting people’s need for information and attention. It also has important implications for practitioners in this booming field.     

An Analysis of Topical Coverage of Wikipedia

Many have questioned the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia. Here a different issue, but one closely related: how broad is the coverage of Wikipedia? Differences in the interests and attention of Wikipedia’s editors mean that some areas, in the traditional sciences, for example, are better covered than others. Two approaches to measuring this coverage are presented. The first maps the distribution of topics on Wikipedia to the distribution of books published. The second compares the distribution of topics in three established, field‐specific academic encyclopedias to the articles found in Wikipedia. Unlike the top‐down construction of traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia’s topical coverage is driven by the interests of its users, and as a result, the reliability and completeness of Wikipedia is likely to be different depending on the subject‐area of the article.     

On designing interactivity awareness for ambient displays

In the not-so-distant world in which ambient displays will likely become prevalent, immediate awareness of their interaction affordances to passerbies will be decisive for their usability. However, how to address awareness at user perception level represents a challenge for which little progress has been made so far in contrast with considerable advances in designing interaction techniques for such displays. Even though many interactive ambient displays exist with properly designed interfaces, people may not always be aware of their interactivity. This work addresses the problem of interactivity awareness by focusing on two important questions: How can people tell whether a public display is interactive or not? and, assuming interactivity, How can people tell what the interface is? A study was conducted in order to investigate factors potentially related to perceived interactivity. Results show that people’s evaluations are correct in most cases but they also tend to form incorrect perceptions in many other situations. We found that location, installation, reachability, and displayed content are factors that can influence people’s perceptions. Our findings are complemented with a discussion of techniques that can be used in the practice of designing for interactivity awareness.     

Why do people lie online? “Because everyone lies on the internet”

In this study, we examined online deception across four different online venues (i.e., social media, online dating, anonymous chat rooms, and sexual websites) in a sample of 272 U.S. adults (average age = 32.22 years) recruited through Amazon’s MTurk. Few of the participants (16%–32%) reported that they were or would be always honest across these sites, and even fewer (0–2%) suspected that others were always honest in these different online venues. In terms of types of lie, most (55–90%) believed that others were at least sometimes lying about their age, gender, activities, interests, and appearance across the four online venues. Ninety percent expected others to lie at least sometimes about their appearance (most expected lie type) and 55% expected others to lie at least sometimes about their gender (least expected lie type). However, although they expected people to lie more about their gender on sites with more anonymity and invisibility (like anonymous chat rooms and sexual websites), they expected equal rates of lies about appearance across all four websites, even on sites where users provide pictures and have shared acquaintances. Moreover, perceptions of others’ lying behavior on the venue were more significant predictors of own lying behavior than any of the personal characteristics we measured (i.e., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, extraversion, or internet addiction). The importance of mutuality was further reinforced by qualitative comments that showed that, in addition to lying to look more attractive or for privacy or protection concerns, some people lie “because everyone lies on the internet.”     

Effects of time affordance and operation mode on a smart microwave oven touch-sensitive user Interface design

Smart homes have revolutionized our daily lives. With today’s fast-paced lifestyle, pursuing a high quality of life has become many people’s goal and motivation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the user interface design of smart microwave ovens pertinent to time affordance and operation mode. A 2?×?3 mixed factorial design was planned to help explore whether different time affordances (i.e., high and low) and operation modes (i.e., traditional, touch, and smart) may affect users’ task performance and subjective evaluation. Using the convenience sampling method, 24 adults were recruited to participate in the experiment. The experimental data were collected pertinent to task performance, the system usability scale, and through questionnaires created using a 7-point Likert scale, and semi-structured interviews. The generated results revealed that: (1) there was a significant difference in the time affordance. Multiple time information cues can help reduce uncertainty, providing high time affordance to the participants. (2) There were significant differences among different operation modes. A simple and intuitive “smart” type is in line with user expectations. (3) The overall analysis of task performance and satisfaction consistently showed that high time affordance is better than low time affordance in all aspects, and the “smart” type had the best task performance. (4) The user interface design should be followed by users’ experience and the features of the touch product. Partially smart and custom function adjustments may effectively improve the user’s control of smart products.

     

设计引导人的行为

在现如今工业文明的时代,设计活动在引导人的行为方式上发挥着越来越重要的作用。本文以日常生活的实例为出发点,从设计引导人的积极行为、设计克服人的不良行为以及设计引导人的创新行为等方面进行探究和分析,来探寻设计活动是如何潜移默化地引导和改变人的行为方式的。     

Understanding children’s behavior in an asynchronous video-mediated communication environment

Video-mediated communication (VMC) has become a feasible way to connect people in remote places for work and play. Nevertheless, little research has been done with regard to children and VMC. In this paper, we explore the behavior of a group of children, who exchanged video messages in an informal context. In particular, this paper presents the results of 11-week VMC study of 30 children from the USA and Greece, exploring children’s behavior with the asynchronous video-based messaging tool we developed called VideoPal. In the study, children’s interactions, perceptions, content exchanged and emotions were collected. The results from the analyses highlight that the emotion of happiness dominated in the communication. Moreover, the content included useful personal information and is connected with children’s interactions (e.g., number of views and of recipients). In addition, children generally preferred VideoPal to email because they felt that it was easier and has more fun.     

KEEPING YOUR WHISTLEBLOWER HOTLINE ALIVE IDEAS TO MAXIMIZE HOTLINE EFFECTIVENESS

ABSTRACT

While whistleblower hotlines have been an organizational staple to detect fraud for nearly 20 years, are they still effective? The answer lies through a series of considerations, including objectives, training, awareness and trust. This article tackles these items, as well as metrics, benchmarking and resources to help gauge the health of a whistleblower program. A high volume of hotline calls compared to industry peers may indicate that the organization is experiencing significant fraud and potentially has an ineffective compliance and ethics program. Or, it could suggest that the compliance and ethics program is effective since people are using it. Conversely, hotline silence (i.e., a low volume of calls as compared to peers) may not necessarily imply that unethical or unlawful conduct is not occurring but, to the contrary, may be indicative of inadequate hotline awareness and an overall ineffective corporate compliance and ethics program. Now is a good time to reflect upon the question: is your whistleblower hotline alive or dying a slow death? Whether it’s an effort to jump-start your hotline program or simply to harvest ideas for continuous improvement, you will want to keep reading.     

Whistleblowers and informants — Part 1

Senior managers rely on accurate and complete information to assess the state of the organization, to make decisions, to allocate resources, and to control. Similarly, security and audit professionals need accurate and complete information. Too often, neither managers nor security and audit professionals get the information they need, or, they are fed half-truths and outright lies. Employees know about violations that YOU do not. These people could be surrogate auditors throughout the organization, IF they felt comfortable reporting coworkers. The truth is, most employees will NOT report others. This is the first part of two articles exploring some nonlegal aspects of whislteblowing and informing. What motivates people to blow the whistle? Why don't people tattle more often? What goes through the minds of informants, and how does ‘informing’ change their lives? What should you do when you get a tip? You can encourage informants but you may NOT want to do so.