Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Twitter: meta-features like the number of followers of the author, the count of tweets produced and the ratio of tweet number and days since account creation affect credibility judgments

The Impact of Twitter Features on Credibility Ratings-An Explorative Examination Combining Psychological Measurements and Feature Based Selection Methods. Judith Meinert, Ahmet Aker, Nicole C. Krämer. Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Jan 2019. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/59698/0258.pdf

Abstract: In a post-truth age determined by Social Media channels providing large amounts of information of questionable credibility while at the same time people increasingly tend to rely on online information, the ability to detect whether content is believable is developing into an important challenge. Most of the work in that field suggested automated approaches to perform binary classification to determine information veracity. Recipients ́ perspectives and multidimensional psychological credibility measurements have rarely been considered. To fill this gap and gain more insights into the impact of a tweet ́s features on perceived credibility, we conducted a survey asking participants (N=2626) to rate the credibility of crisis-related tweets. The resulting 24.823 ratings were used for an explorative feature selection analysis revealing that mostly meta-related features like the number of followers of the author, the count of tweets produced and the ratio of tweet number and days since account creation affect credibility judgments.

The effect of stress on economic rationality: Rationality is not impaired by the stressor; if anything, participants are more consistent with rationality immediately after the stressor

Cortisol meets GARP: the effect of stress on economic rationality. E. Cettolin et al. Experimental Economics, September 11 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10683-019-09624-z

Abstract: Rationality is a fundamental pillar of Economics. It is however unclear if this assumption holds when decisions are made under stress. To answer this question, we design two laboratory experiments where we exogenously induce physiological stress in participants and test the consistency of their choices with economic rationality. In both experiments we induce stress with the Cold Pressor test and measure economic rationality by the consistency of participants’ choices with the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preference (GARP). In the first experiment, participants delay the decision-making task for 20 min until the cortisol level peaks. We find significant differences in cortisol levels between the stressed group and the placebo group which, however, do not affect the consistency of choices with GARP. In a second experiment, we study the immediate effect of the stressor on rationality. Overall, results from the second experiment confirm that rationality is not impaired by the stressor. If anything, we observe that compared to the placebo group, participants are more consistent with rationality immediately after the stressor. Our findings provide strong empirical support for the robustness of the economic rationality assumption under physiological stress.

Keywords: Economic rationality GARP Physiological stress Cortisol

Prisoner’s Dilemma game: Participants were more cooperative when they saw each other compared to when they could not, and when receiving reliable compared to unreliable or no feedback

The Interplay Between Face-to-Face Contact and Feedback on Cooperation During Real-Life Interactions. Friederike Behrens, Mariska E. Kret. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, September 11 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10919-019-00314-1

Abstract: Cooperation forms the basis of our society and becomes increasingly essential during times of globalization. However, despite technological developments people still prefer to meet face-to-face, which has been shown to foster cooperation. However, what is still unclear is how this beneficial effect depends on what people know about their interaction partner. To examine this question, 58 dyads played an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game, sometimes facing each other, sometimes without face contact. Additionally, explicit feedback regarding their decisions was manipulated between dyads. The results revealed that participants were more cooperative when they saw each other compared to when they could not, and when receiving reliable compared to unreliable or no feedback. Contradicting our hypothesis that participants would rely more on nonverbal communication in the absence of explicit information, we observed that the two sources of information operated independently on cooperative behavior. Interestingly, although individuals mostly relied on explicit information if available, participants still cooperated more after their partner defected with face-to-face contact compared to no face-to-face contact. The results of our study have implications for real-life interactions, suggesting that face-to-face contact has beneficial effects on prosocial behavior even if people cannot verify whether their selfless acts are being reciprocated.

Keywords: Cooperation Face-to-face contact Feedback Dyadic interaction Nonverbal communication Social dilemmas

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participants still cooperated more after their partner defected with faceto-face-contact. Hence, people might be more "forgiving" when facing their partner when he/she defects and theefore encourage the defecting partner to return to cooperation by opting for a cooperative decision themselves.

Investigating the Dynamic Relationship of Emotions and Attention Toward Political Information With Mobile Experience

Only One Moment in Time? Investigating the Dynamic Relationship of Emotions and Attention Toward Political Information With Mobile Experience Sampling. Lukas P. Otto et al. Communication Research, September 10, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650219872392

Abstract: This article attempts to (a) investigate the relationship between distinct emotional reactions toward political information and attention toward political news and (b) analyze whether this relationship is dynamic. We use an experience sampling design to assess recipients’ immediate emotional reactions and attention toward news. Participants reported their emotional reactions (anger, fear, happiness, contentment) and attentional focus directly after following a news item for 8 days in a row up to 5 times a day via smartphone. Results indicate that anger is positively and fear negatively correlated with attention toward political news. For positive emotional reactions, happiness is not correlated with attention to news, while contentment is negatively correlated with attention and also shows a negative lagged effect on attention at a later point in time. The study shows promising ways to assess and analyze dynamic processes in everyday media consumption.

Keywords: news consumption, emotion, attention, experience sampling, dynamic

We are all saints and sinners: Some of our actions benefit other people, while other actions harm people. How do people balance moral rights against moral wrongs when evaluating others’ actions?

Johnson, Samuel G. B., and Jaye Ahn. 2019. “Principles of Karmic Accounting: How Our Intuitive Moral Sense Balances Rights and Wrongs.” PsyArXiv. September 10. doi:10.31234/osf.io/xetwg

Abstract: We are all saints and sinners: Some of our actions benefit other people, while other actions harm people. How do people balance moral rights against moral wrongs when evaluating others’ actions? Across 9 studies, we contrast the predictions of three conceptions of intuitive morality—outcome- based (utilitarian), act-based (deontologist), and person-based (virtue ethics) approaches. Although good acts can partly offset bad acts—consistent with utilitarianism—they do so incompletely and in a manner relatively insensitive to magnitude, but sensitive to temporal order and the match between who is helped and harmed. Inferences about personal moral character best predicted blame judgments, explaining variance across items and across participants. However, there was modest evidence for both deontological and utilitarian processes too. These findings contribute to conversations about moral psychology and person perception, and may have policy implications.

Under low budget conditions, Eastern & Western participants differed in their mate dollar allocation for almost every trait (culture influences prioritization); but the same priorities were given for traits needed for reproductive success

Mate preference priorities in the East and West: A cross‐cultural test of the mate preference priority model. Andrew G. Thomas et al. Journal of Personality, September 8 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12514

Abstract
Objective: Mate choice involves trading‐off several preferences. Research on this process tends to examine mate preference prioritization in homogenous samples using a small number of traits and thus provide little insight into whether prioritization patterns reflect a universal human nature. This study examined whether prioritization patterns, and their accompanying sex differences, are consistent across Eastern and Western cultures.

Method: In the largest test of the mate preference priority model to date, we asked an international sample of participants (N = 2,477) to design an ideal long‐term partner by allocating mate dollars to eight traits using three budgets. Unlike previous versions of the task, we included traits known to vary in importance by culture (e.g., religiosity and chastity).s

Results: Under low budget conditions, Eastern and Western participants differed in their mate dollar allocation for almost every trait (average d = 0.42), indicating that culture influences prioritization. Despite these differences, traits fundamental for the reproductive success of each sex in the ancestral environment were prioritized by both Eastern and Western participants.

Conclusion: The tendency to prioritize reproductively fundamental traits is present in both Eastern and Western cultures. The psychological mechanisms responsible for this process produce similar prioritization patterns despite cross‐cultural variation.