scholarly journals How Online Crowds Influence the Way Individual Consumers Answer Health Questions

2011 ◽  
Vol 02 (02) ◽  
pp. 177-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.M.Y. Kwok ◽  
E. Coiera ◽  
A.Y.S. Lau

SummaryObjective: To investigate whether strength of social feedback, i.e. other people who concur (or do not concur) with one’s own answer to a question, influences the way one answers health questions.Methods: Online prospective study. Two hundred and twenty-seven undergraduate students were recruited to use an online search engine to answer six health questions. Subjects recorded their pre- and post-search answers to each question and their level of confidence in these answers. After answering each question post-search, subjects were presented with a summary of post-search answers provided by previous subjects and were asked to answer the question again.Results: There was a statistically significant relationship between the absolute number of others with a different answer (the crowd’s opinion volume) and the likelihood of an individual changing an answer (P<0.001). For most questions, no subjects changed their answer until the first 10–35 subjects completed the study. Subjects’ likelihood of changing answer increased as the percentage of others with a different answer (the crowd’s opinion density) increased (P=0.047). Overall, 98.3% of subjects did not change their answer when it concurred with the majority (i.e. >50%) of subjects, and that 25.7% of subjects changed their answer to the majority response when it did not concur with the majority. When subjects had a post-search answer that did not concur with the majority, they were 24% more likely to change answer than those with answers that concurred (P<0.001).Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence that crowd influence, in the form of online social feedback, affects the way consumers answer health questions.

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Zuñiga-Collazos

Colombia is a country that has achieved significant tourism growth in recent years. However, there is limited empirical evidence about its tourism development. Organizational innovation in tourism enterprises is one of the keys to Colombia maintaining positive tourism development. This empirical study analyzes organizational innovation in 364 of Colombiás tourism companies. The findings show that “Directing and Management (The way of directing and managing company)” and “Commercialization and Sales (The way to directing and managing the commercialization and sales of a company)” have a significant relationship with Colombiás tourist enterprises organizational innovations.


Author(s):  
Yohan Henri Wibowo

The aims of this study is to find empirical evidence, that there is a significant relationship between the Non Performing Loan Ratio is reflected in indicators of Non-Performing Loan (NPL) with a Profitability Ratio that is reflected in the indicators Net Profit Margin (NPM).The collecting of data method is secondary sources from Quarterly Financial Report Rural Banks (hereinafter referred to as BPR) as the city of Tangerang. The sample in this study is BPRin Kota Tangerang are categorized as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as SMEs). The hypothesis was tested by normality test and linear regression, The results of the study are not found empirical evidence that there is a significant relationship between Non-Performing Loan Ratios were reflected in NPL with Ratio Profitability indicators are reflected in indicators of NPM.These results indicate that required the mediating factor, namely the Contractual Interest Income from Loans and Expenses of Assets Allowance (hereinafter referred PPAPWD) Keywords: Non-Performing Loan, Net Profit Margin


Author(s):  
K. P. Purnhagen ◽  
E. van Herpen ◽  
S. Kamps ◽  
F. Michetti

AbstractFindings from behavioural research are gaining increased interest in EU legislation, specifically in the area of unfair commercial practices. Prior research on the Mars case (Purnhagen and van Herpen 2017) has left open whether empirical evidence can provide an indication that this practice of using oversized indications of additional volume alters the transactional decision of consumers. This, however, is required to determine the “misleadingness” of such a practice in the legal sense as stipulated by the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC. The current paper closes this gap by illustrating how behavioural research can inform legal interpretation. In particular, it extends the previous research in two important ways: first, by examining the actual choice that people make; and second, by investigating whether the effects remain present in a context where a comparison product is available. Yet, while supporting and extending the findings of the study from Purnhagen and van Herpen (2017) on deceptiveness, the current study could not produce empirical evidence of a clear influence on the transactional decision of consumers, in the way “UCPD” requires.


SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401668681
Author(s):  
Robert Lindsay Hakan ◽  
Julia M. Neal ◽  
John Lothes

Mindfulness should be associated with decreased automatic responding and with increased empathy and compassion. Therefore, given an opportunity to express judgments about other people, a highly mindful person should be less inclined to express negative and unnecessary judgments. The present study provided participants the opportunity to express judgments about photographs of other people in a procedure that attempted to control for potential demand characteristics associated with self-report measures of mindfulness. Expressed judgments were panel rated, and the derived judgment scores were regressed with participant scores on the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). Results demonstrated no overall significant relationship between judgments and MAAS or FFMQ total scores. However, a significant relationship between judgment scores and the “act with awareness” and the “non-judgment” facets of the FFMQ was observed. Judgment scores were also related to self-reported involvement in mindfulness activities such as meditation and yoga. These results suggest that self-reported mindfulness may not completely align with behaviors that logically reflect right mindfulness. Moreover, social judgment may be a useful overt measure related to mindfulness. The results also provide empirical evidence of the very strong social tendency to negatively and often derogatorily judge other people.


2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin N Crowl ◽  
Joshua R Battin

Using lifestyle exposure theory as a guide, this study examines the complex relationship between fear of crime and select lifestyle and individual-level constructs. Participants included undergraduate students at two state-funded universities located in Pennsylvania. Student fear of crime at both universities was examined to ascertain what factors influence this emotion-laden phenomenon. Results revealed support for several key fear of crime correlates. Notably, a significant relationship emerged between police visibility and fear of crime in the estimated partial and full models. Results also indicated that student lifestyle choices can impact fear of crime; this relationship can vary across samples, as evidenced in this study. It was also found that multiple individual characteristics, namely gender, race and living arrangement, were positively related to student fear of crime. A discussion and implications are offered to conclude.


Author(s):  
Yu. Grigorev ◽  
◽  
A. Pashuto ◽  

A method for identifying small innovative enterprises (SIE) that are understood as holders of a valid patent for an invention or a license to use it is proposed. The source of information for identi cation is the patent funds and the search engine of the Federal Institute of industrial property (FIPS). The methodology includes techniques for identifying SIE if patents related to their activities were issued to individuals. The results of SIE detection in three areas of technology obtained during the development of the technique are presented. It is noted that other statistical results obtained along the way are of the same, if not greater, interest for the purposes of public administration.


In this article, Wilko van Holten and Martin Walton continue the exchange with John Swinton regarding the understanding and usefulness of the “timelessness of God” (Swinton, 2016) in the context of dementia (see HSCC 8(1), “A Critical Appraisal of John Swinton’s Theology of Time and Memory” by van Holten and Walton, 2020, and “A Rejoinder to van Holten and Walton” by Swinton, 2020a). Both van Holten and Walton argue that Swinton’s restatement of God’s eternal presence in terms of unchangeableness comes with a serious theological price, namely, a static image of the divine. Swinton’s refusal to pay this price points to a tension in his thinking on this point. The authors adduce some empirical evidence to substantiate the claim that a timeless and immutable God is psycho-spiritually less appropriate in the context of pastoral care. For van Holten and Walton, their major concern is not with the intentions or conclusions at which Swinton arrives, but with the way in which he argues for those conclusions and expresses these intentions. In this exchange, practical and philosophical theology meet, and the authors explore some of the questions which are raised. These questions ultimately are concerned with theological method. A response to this article by Swinton will also be published in this issue of HSCC (see Swinton, 2022).


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Luis Roberto Vega-González

In this paper it is proposed that similarly with the evolution and maturation of any organization, the Linking and Management of Technology Office (L & MoT) of a public R&D Mexican Centre has been evolved and is in the way to be transformed into a Technology Transfer Office (TTO). Case of fifteen year evolution of the Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnológico L & MoT presents empirical evidence to identify the main phases and actions that have been driving this process along this time. Standard results obtained through the years using the L & MoT Management of Technology Model (MoT) are presented. Emphasis is placed in a final section with the lessons obtained from non-standard results coming from unsuccessful negotiations and failed link actions between the Center and some external organizations. Experience has shown that not all negotiations are successful but curiously, the best lessons for the personnel of a technology transfer office are probably derived from these problematic cases.


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