The Love of Large Numbers: A Popularity Bias in Consumer Choice

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 1432-1442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Powell ◽  
Jingqi Yu ◽  
Melissa DeWolf ◽  
Keith J. Holyoak
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Statistical Model ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Prior Information ◽  
Statistical Information ◽  
Online Review ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Statistical Inferences ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Potential Indicator

Social learning—the ability to learn from observing the decisions of other people and the outcomes of those decisions—is fundamental to human evolutionary and cultural success. The Internet now provides social evidence on an unprecedented scale. However, properly utilizing this evidence requires a capacity for statistical inference. We examined how people’s interpretation of online review scores is influenced by the numbers of reviews—a potential indicator both of an item’s popularity and of the precision of the average review score. Our task was designed to pit statistical information against social information. We modeled the behavior of an “intuitive statistician” using empirical prior information from millions of reviews posted on Amazon.com and then compared the model’s predictions with the behavior of experimental participants. Under certain conditions, people preferred a product with more reviews to one with fewer reviews even though the statistical model indicated that the latter was likely to be of higher quality than the former. Overall, participants’ judgments suggested that they failed to make meaningful statistical inferences.

scholarly journals Don’t just sit there shouting at the television, get up and change the channel

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
John Hill
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Statistical Model ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Communication System ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Mainstream Media

Understanding political communication using a networked model is not simply a case of opposing linear with nonlinear communication, of mainstream media with social media, or television with the internet. Rather it is about seeing the whole of the communication system as complex, unstable and indeterminate. Networked communication includes within it both broadcast and dialogue but does not separate them out. Each part of the system has the capacity to determine the potential of the other, with meaning a product of the change they effect on the system as a whole. Understanding broadcast as existing within a networked model reopens the potential for invention that the statistical model of information must foreclose in order to function.

A Comprehensive Survey on Interoperability for IIoT: Taxonomy, Standards, and Future Directions

2023 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Abhishek Hazra ◽  
Mainak Adhikari ◽  
Tarachand Amgoth ◽  
Satish Narayana Srirama
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Industrial Iot ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Real Time Information ◽  
The Internet Of Things

In the era of Industry 4.0, the Internet-of-Things (IoT) performs the driving position analogous to the initial industrial metamorphosis. IoT affords the potential to couple machine-to-machine intercommunication and real-time information-gathering within the industry domain. Hence, the enactment of IoT in the industry magnifies effective optimization, authority, and data-driven judgment. However, this field undergoes several interoperable issues, including large numbers of heterogeneous IoT gadgets, tools, software, sensing, and processing components, joining through the Internet, despite the deficiency of communication protocols and standards. Recently, various interoperable protocols, platforms, standards, and technologies are enhanced and altered according to the specifications of the applicability in industrial applications. However, there are no recent survey papers that primarily examine various interoperability issues that Industrial IoT (IIoT) faces. In this review, we investigate the conventional and recent developments of relevant state-of-the-art IIoT technologies, frameworks, and solutions for facilitating interoperability between different IIoT components. We also discuss several interoperable IIoT standards, protocols, and models for digitizing the industrial revolution. Finally, we conclude this survey with an inherent discussion of open challenges and directions for future research.

Cyberstalking

Stalking ◽  
2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham D. Glancy ◽  
Alan W. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Coercion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Attorney General ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Behavior ◽  
Electronic Communications ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
E Mail

Cyberstalking involves the use of the Internet or other electronic communication to stalk another person. Already common, it is likely to become more common as the use of the Internet continues to grow. The characteristics of online stalkers and their victims have some differences from those of the offline stalker. Mullen, Pathé, Purcell, and Stuart’s (1999) classification may apply to cyberstalkers except for the apparently common phenomenon of child luring that may be a new category. The methods of cyberstalking, as described in this chapter, are particularly ingenious. We know little about the effect on victims, but postulate that it is similar to offline stalking. We make some suggestions that may prevent cyberstalking, as well as offer some steps to bear in mind once cyberstalking occurs. The proliferation of personal computers with Internet access in the last decade has raised concerns about a new phenomenon known as cyberstalking. The Internet can be used to annoy and harass large numbers of victims in a generic manner by disseminating computer viruses, Internet scams, and “spamming” people with unsolicited e-mail. In 1999 Janet Reno, the attorney general of the United States, defined cyberstalking as the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other electronic communications devices to stalk another person (Reno, 1999). Barak (2005) looked at the issue of sexual harassment on the Internet. He characterizes cyberstalking as one type of sexual coercion. He notes that online behavior is characterized by disinhibition, openness, venture, and bravado—an atmosphere characterized by typical masculine attitudes. He argues that the lack of legal boundaries or enforcement vehicles encourage people to do what they would not have done in offline situations. He notes the near impossibility of implementation of legal procedures on a large scale. In this chapter we will discuss what is known about the prevalence of this phenomenon, the types of cyberstalking, and what is known about the perpetrators. In addition, we will generate some hypotheses about the comparison between online and offline stalkers. We will also discuss the effects on victims and current thoughts and resources for dealing with cyberstalking.

Crowdsourcing Investigations

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea H. Tapia ◽  
Nicolas J. LaLone
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Approval ◽  
Online Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Boston Marathon Bombing ◽  
Boston Marathon

In this paper the authors illustrate the ethical dilemmas that arise when large public investigations in a crisis are crowdsourced. The authors focus the variations in public opinion concerning the actions of two online groups during the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing. These groups collected and organized relief for victims, collected photos and videos taken of the bombing scene and created online mechanisms for the sharing and analysis of images collected online. They also used their large numbers and the affordances of the Internet to produce an answer to the question, “who was the perpetrator, and what kind of bomb was used?” The authors view their actions through public opinion, through sampling Twitter and applying a sentiment analysis to this data. They use this tool to pinpoint moments during the crisis investigation when the public became either more positively or negatively inclined toward the actions of the online publics. The authors use this as a surrogate, or proxy, for social approval or disapproval of their actions, which exposes large swings in public emotion as ethical lines are crossed by online publics.

Magic Mint, The Internet, and Peer Associations: A Test Of Social Learning Theory Using Patterns of Salvia Divinorum Use

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Lee Miller ◽  
John M. Stogner ◽  
David N. Khey ◽  
Ronald L. Akers ◽  
John Boman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Social Learning Theory ◽  
Salvia Divinorum ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Peer Associations

scholarly journals Basic astronomy as part of a general higher education in the developing world

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (SPS5) ◽  
pp. 257-262
Author(s):  
John Baruch ◽  
Dan Hedges ◽  
James Machell ◽  
K. Norris ◽  
Chris Tallon
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Current System ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Astronomy Education ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Robotic Telescopes ◽  
Robotic Telescope

AbstractThis paper describes a new initiative in support of the aim of Commission 46 of the IAU to develop and improve astronomy education at all levels throughout the world. This paper discusses the ideal specification of a facility to support basic astronomy within education programmes which are delivered to students who have access to the Internet. The available robotic telescopes are discussed against this specification and it is argued that the Bradford Robotic Telescope, uniquely, can support many thousands of users in the area of basic astronomy education, and the resource is free.Access to the Internet is growing in the developing world and this is true in education programmes. This paper discusses the serious problems of delivering to large numbers of students a web based astronomy education programme supported by a robotic telescope as part of a general education. It examines the problems of this form of teaching for teachers who have little experience of working with IT and little knowledge of basic astronomy and proposes how such teachers can be supported.The current system (http://www.telescope.org/) delivers astronomy education in the language, culture and traditions of England. The paper discusses the need to extend this to other languages, cultures and traditions, although for trainee teachers and undergraduates, it is argued that the current system provides a unique and valuable resource.

Six degrees of reputation: The use and abuse of online review and recommendation systems (originally published in March 2006)

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shay David ◽  
Trevor Pinch
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
Online Review ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Product Reviews ◽  
Information Goods ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Commercial Applications

This paper is included in the First Monday Special Issue: Commercial Applications of the Internet, published in July 2006. This paper reports initial findings from a study that used quantitative and qualitative research methods and custom–built software to investigate online economies of reputation and user practices in online product reviews at several leading e–commerce sites (primarily Amazon.com). We explore several cases in which book and CD reviews were copied whole or in part from one item to another and show that hundreds of product reviews on Amazon.com might be copies of one another. We further explain the strategies involved in these suspect product reviews, and the ways in which the collapse of the barriers between authors and readers affect the ways in which these information goods are being produced and exchanged. We report on techniques that are employed by authors, artists, editors, and readers to ensure they promote their agendas while they build their identities as experts. We suggest a framework for discussing the changes of the categories of authorship, creativity, expertise, and reputation that are being re–negotiated in this multi–tier reputation economy.

scholarly journals MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF CONSUMER CHOICE IN FASHION: POTENTIAL STUDENT PROJECTS

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 912-918
Author(s):  
Anthony G Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modelling ◽  
Undergraduate Student ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Copying Machine ◽  
Financial Power ◽  
Student Projects ◽  
Purchasing Patterns

This paper suggests an unusual theme for undergraduate student projects. The future is now.  Repackaging the past has historical value but it is not a preparation for the range and scope of the internet as a vast copying machine which can not only detect purchasing patterns but can adjust bargain prices to fit the buyer’s calculated financial power and target them through intermediary subsidiaries in a universal online market. Quantitative techniques can now penetrate disciplines which once eschewed them.  This paper looks at three such approaches in the context of consumer choice in fashion.

scholarly journals Management of Potential Data on Websites for Communicating Research in Education Issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3119-3122
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Current State ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Research In Education ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Selection Of

This research is concentrated in the increasing of education issue studies using the management of potential data on Websites for Communicating Research in the field of Education. This research relates with several web sites, i.e: https://puspendik.kemdikbud.go.id/hasil-un/, and https://dapo.dikdasmen.kemdikbud.go.id/sekolah/ Furthermore, this research is also purposed in order to elucidate the potentials and challenges of internet data for education to demonstrate a selection of relevant literature so that a wide spectrum of topics can be reached. A part of this data represents a large and increasing part of everyday life which sometimes could not be measured. The data used are a timely data which are potentially following a factual process, moreover they typically involve large numbers of observations, and they allow for flexible conceptual forms and experimental settings. In this paper, the data that are gained will be managed such that some academic articles are produced. Some data at the Internet had successfully been applied to a very wide range of detecting education issues (e.g. spatial analysis for relation a number of male and female students and score of mathematics and foreign languages test), we review the current literature attempts to incorporate the Internet data into the mainstream of scholarly empirical research in our research and guide the reader through this Special Issue. We provide some insights and a brief overview of the current state of research.

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