scholarly journals Motivating Sustainable Behavior Using Cognitive Interventions in Product Design

Author(s):  
Jana I. Saadi ◽  
Maria C. Yang

Abstract Designing products to encourage sustainable behavior during their use can have significant influence on their total environmental impact. Cognitive interventions can be used to inform users of the importance of sustainable behavior and make users aware of the resources they consume while evoking positive or negative emotions. The first part of this study investigated two methods of cognitive interventions, information (positively and negatively framed) and feedback, and their effectiveness in encouraging users to reduce their napkin consumption in cafés. The number of napkins per transaction illustrated a short-term behavior change for positive information, a longer-term behavior change for negative information, and no change for feedback. In the second phase of this study, a survey was conducted to understand environmental concerns around napkin consumption and emotions and perceived effectiveness of each intervention. Results from 295 valid survey responses showed that the positively framed informative design reminded users to use less napkins in order to save trees and was dominated by positive emotions such as feeling encouraged. The negative information message informed users to use fewer napkins due to the consequences on the environment and was related to negative emotions such as guilt and worry. The feedback intervention’s message was more informative, reminding users that napkins come from trees and the emotions evoked from the intervention closely resembled that of the control. These findings suggest that information and feedback interventions that evoke emotions can be used to promote sustainable behavior.

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-93
Author(s):  
Jort de Vreeze ◽  
Christina Matschke

Abstract. Not all group memberships are self-chosen. The current research examines whether assignments to non-preferred groups influence our relationship with the group and our preference for information about the ingroup. It was expected and found that, when people are assigned to non-preferred groups, they perceive the group as different to the self, experience negative emotions about the assignment and in turn disidentify with the group. On the other hand, when people are assigned to preferred groups, they perceive the group as similar to the self, experience positive emotions about the assignment and in turn identify with the group. Finally, disidentification increases a preference for negative information about the ingroup.


1999 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Rau ◽  
Donald V. Moser

This study examines whether personally performing other audit tasks can bias supervising seniors' going-concern judgments. During an audit, the senior performs some audit tasks him/herself and delegates other tasks to staff members. When personally performing an audit task, the senior would focus on the evidence related to that task. We predict that such evidence will have greater influence on the senior's subsequent going-concern judgment. The results of our experiment are consistent with our predictions. When provided with an identical set of information, seniors who performed another audit task for which the underlying facts of the case reflected positively (negatively) on the company's viability, subsequently made going-concern judgments that were relatively more positive (negative). Our results also demonstrate that the well-documented tendency of auditors to attend more to negative information does not always dominate auditors' information processing. Subjects who performed the task for which the underlying facts reflected positively on the company's viability directed their attention to such positive information and, consequently, both their memory and judgments were more positive than those of subjects in the other conditions. Recent findings indicating that biases in seniors' going-concern judgments may not be fully offset in the review process are discussed along with other potential implications of our results.


Author(s):  
Jill M. Hooley ◽  
Sara R. Masland

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe form of personality pathology characterized by high levels of negative emotionality. Because negative emotions are so central to the clinical presentation of BPD, the issue of how people with this disorder process and experience positive emotional experiences is relatively unexplored. This chapter provides an overview of what is currently known about positive emotions and BPD. Although the literature is characterized by many inconsistencies, our review suggests that people with BPD do indeed experience positive emotions. However, their recall of positive emotional experiences appears to be reduced, perhaps because such experiences are more transient, less stable, and more likely to be quickly replaced by negative emotions. Problems with the identification and accurate differentiation of positive emotions may also play a role. Such difficulties may conspire to create a psychological world for people with BPD that is characterized by a focus on negative mood and negative emotional experiences. In addition to focusing on negative affect, we suggest that it might also be clinically beneficial to make problems with positive affect a specific clinical target.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 96-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic D.P. Johnson ◽  
Dominic Tierney

A major puzzle in international relations is why states privilege negative over positive information. States tend to inflate threats, exhibit loss aversion, and learn more from failures than from successes. Rationalist accounts fail to explain this phenomenon, because systematically overweighting bad over good may in fact undermine state interests. New research in psychology, however, offers an explanation. The “negativity bias” has emerged as a fundamental principle of the human mind, in which people's response to positive and negative information is asymmetric. Negative factors have greater effects than positive factors across a wide range of psychological phenomena, including cognition, motivation, emotion, information processing, decision-making, learning, and memory. Put simply, bad is stronger than good. Scholars have long pointed to the role of positive biases, such as overconfidence, in causing war, but negative biases are actually more pervasive and may represent a core explanation for patterns of conflict. Positive and negative dispositions apply in different contexts. People privilege negative information about the external environment and other actors, but positive information about themselves. The coexistence of biases can increase the potential for conflict. Decisionmakers simultaneously exaggerate the severity of threats and exhibit overconfidence about their capacity to deal with them. Overall, the negativity bias is a potent force in human judgment and decisionmaking, with important implications for international relations theory and practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana S. Cortes ◽  
Christina Tornberg ◽  
Tanja Bänziger ◽  
Hillary Anger Elfenbein ◽  
Håkan Fischer ◽  
...  

AbstractAge-related differences in emotion recognition have predominantly been investigated using static pictures of facial expressions, and positive emotions beyond happiness have rarely been included. The current study instead used dynamic facial and vocal stimuli, and included a wider than usual range of positive emotions. In Task 1, younger and older adults were tested for their abilities to recognize 12 emotions from brief video recordings presented in visual, auditory, and multimodal blocks. Task 2 assessed recognition of 18 emotions conveyed by non-linguistic vocalizations (e.g., laughter, sobs, and sighs). Results from both tasks showed that younger adults had significantly higher overall recognition rates than older adults. In Task 1, significant group differences (younger > older) were only observed for the auditory block (across all emotions), and for expressions of anger, irritation, and relief (across all presentation blocks). In Task 2, significant group differences were observed for 6 out of 9 positive, and 8 out of 9 negative emotions. Overall, results indicate that recognition of both positive and negative emotions show age-related differences. This suggests that the age-related positivity effect in emotion recognition may become less evident when dynamic emotional stimuli are used and happiness is not the only positive emotion under study.


Author(s):  
Lukasz D. Kaczmarek ◽  
Todd B. Kashdan ◽  
Maciej Behnke ◽  
Martyna Dziekan ◽  
Ewelina Matuła ◽  
...  

AbstractWhen individuals communicate enthusiasm for good events in their partners' lives, they contribute to a high-quality relationship; a phenomenon termed interpersonal capitalization. However, little is known when individuals are more ready to react enthusiastically to the partner's success. To address this gap, we examined whether positive and negative emotions boost or inhibit enthusiastic responses to partner's capitalization attempts (RCA). Participants (N = 224 individuals) responded to their partner's success. Before each capitalization attempt (operationalized as responses following the news that their partner won money in a game), we used video clips to elicit positive (primarily amusement) or negative (primarily anger) or neutral emotions in the responder. We recorded emotional valence, smiling intensity, verbal RCA, and physiological reactivity. We found indirect (but not direct) effects such that eliciting positive emotions boosted and negative emotions inhibited enthusiastic RCA (smiling intensity and enthusiastic verbal RCA). These effects were relatively small and mediated by emotional valence and smiling intensity but not physiological reactivity. The results offer novel evidence that positive emotions fuel the capitalization process.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762199520
Author(s):  
Gregory John Depow ◽  
Zoë Francis ◽  
Michael Inzlicht

We used experience sampling to examine perceptions of empathy in the everyday lives of a group of 246 U.S. adults who were quota sampled to represent the population on key demographics. Participants reported an average of about nine opportunities to empathize per day; these experiences were positively associated with prosocial behavior, a relationship not found with trait measures. Although much of the literature focuses on the distress of strangers, in everyday life, people mostly empathize with very close others, and they empathize with positive emotions 3 times as frequently as with negative emotions. Although trait empathy was negatively associated only with well-being, empathy in daily life was generally associated with increased well-being. Theoretically distinct components of empathy—emotion sharing, perspective taking, and compassion—typically co-occur in everyday empathy experiences. Finally, empathy in everyday life was higher for women and the religious but not significantly lower for conservatives and the wealthy.


Author(s):  
Haitao Liu ◽  
Kai Dou ◽  
Chengfu Yu ◽  
Yangang Nie ◽  
Xue Zheng

This study aimed to test the association between peer attachment and aggressive behavior, as well as the mediating effect of regulatory emotional self-efficacy on this relationship. A total of 1171 (582 male, 589 female) Chinese adolescents completed self-reported questionnaires that assessed peer attachment, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and aggressive behavior. Path analysis showed that the negative association between peer attachment and adolescent aggressive behavior was mediated by self-efficacy in managing negative emotions. However, the mediating effect of self-efficacy in expressing positive emotions was nonsignificant. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the indirect paths mentioned above between male and female respondents. These findings highlight self-efficacy in managing negative emotions as a potential mechanism linking peer attachment to adolescent aggressive behavior.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris van Venrooij ◽  
Tobias Sachs ◽  
Mariska Kleemans

Abstract To reduce negative emotional responses and to stimulate prosociality, constructive journalism promotes the inclusion of positive emotions and solutions in news. This study experimentally tested whether including those elements indeed increased prosocial intentions and behavior among children, and whether negative emotions and self-efficacy are mediators in this regard. To this end, children (N = 468; 9 to 13 years old) were exposed to an emotion-based, solution-based, or non-constructive news video. Results showed that emotion-based and solution-based news reduced children’s negative emotions compared to non-constructive news. No direct effects for prosocial intentions were found, but solution-based news led to less prosocial behavior (i. e., money donated) than emotion-based and non-constructive news. Moreover, negative emotions served as a mediator, self-efficacy did not. The more negative emotions were elicited by a news story, the higher the prosocial intentions and behavior. In conclusion, a constructive style of reporting helps to reduce children’s negative emotional responses but subsequently hinders prosociality.


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