Do interoception and attending to the upper limbs affect body ownership and body representation in the grasp illusion?

Passively grasping an unseen artificial finger induces ownership over this finger and an illusory coming together of one’s index fingers: a grasp illusion. Here we determine how interoceptive ability and attending to the upper limbs influence this illusion. Participants passively grasped an unseen artificial finger with their left index finger and thumb for 3 min while their right index finger, located 12 cm below, was lightly clamped. Experiment 1 (n = 30) investigated whether the strength of the grasp illusion (perceived index finger spacing and perceived ownership) is related to a person’s level of interoceptive accuracy (modified heartbeat counting task) and sensibility (Noticing subscale of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness). Experiment 2 (n = 30) investigated the effect of providing verbal or tactile cues to guide participants’ attention to their upper limbs. On their own, neither interoceptive accuracy and sensibility or verbal and tactile cueing had an effect on the grasp illusion. However, verbal cueing increased the strength of the grasp illusion in individuals with lower interoceptive ability. Across the observed range of interoceptive accuracy and sensibility, verbal cueing decreased perceived index spacing by 5.6 cm [1.91 to 9.38] (mean [95%CI]), and perceived ownership by ∼3 points on a 7-point Likert scale (slope -0.93 [-1.72 to -0.15]). Thus, attending to the upper limbs via verbal cues increases the strength of the grasp illusion in a way that is inversely proportional to a person’s level of interoceptive accuracy and sensibility.

Assessment of women’s benefits and constraints in participating in agroforestry exemplar landscapes

Participating in the exemplar landscapes of the Developing and Promoting Market-Based Agroforestry and Forest Rehabilitation Options for Northwest Vietnam project has had positive impacts on ethnic women, such as increasing their networks and decision-making and public speaking skills. However, the rate of female farmers accessing and using project extension material or participating in project nurseries and applying agroforestry techniques was limited. This requires understanding of the real needs and interests grounded in the socio-cultural contexts of the ethnic groups living in the Northern Mountain Region in Viet Nam, who have unique social and cultural norms and values. The case studies show that agricultural activities are highly gendered: men and women play specific roles and have different, particular constraints and interests. Women are highly constrained by gender norms, access to resources, decision-making power and a prevailing positive-feedback loop of time poverty, especially in the Hmong community. A holistic, timesaving approach to addressing women’s daily activities could reduce the effects of time poverty and increase project participation. As women were highly willing to share project information, the project’s impacts would be more successful with increased participation by women through utilizing informal channels of communication and knowledge dissemination. Extension material designed for ethnic women should have less text and more visuals. Access to information is a critical constraint that perpetuates the norm that men are decision-makers, thereby, enhancing their perceived ownership, whereas women have limited access to information and so leave final decisions to men, especially in Hmong families. Older Hmong women have a Vietnamese (Kinh) language barrier, which further prevents them from accessing the project’s material. Further research into an adaptive framework that can be applied in a variety of contexts is recommended. This framework should prioritize time-saving activities for women and include material highlighting key considerations to maintain accountability among the project’s support staff.

The dynamic role of governments in adopting policy innovations in China

A growing number of studies have paid attention to the dynamic nature of vertical government interactions in authoritarian China. Yet, less attention has been paid to the question of why higher-level governments play different roles in diverse cases of innovation adoptions. Building on the extant literature, this study introduces the concept of innovation copyright, that is, the perceived ownership of the innovation, to explain the different roles of higher-level government involvement in innovation adoption. A comparative case study of policy innovations in China highlights that if higher-level governments perceive that they own the innovation copyright, they act as proactive facilitators, and if higher-level governments perceive that the innovation copyright belongs to local governments, they are involved as political backers. The copyright structures the expectations of higher-level and local governments and as a consequence determines their roles in innovation adoptions.

Consumer decision-making in a retail store: the role of mental imagery and gender difference

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to investigate how mental imagery evoked from sensory in-store experience influences consumer anticipatory emotion, perceived ownership and decision satisfaction which eventually impact positive consumer responses such as behavioural intent. In this study, gender difference is proposed as a moderator to completely understand the role of mental imagery in the in-store decision-making process.Design/methodology/approachUsing a market research agency in South Korea, an online survey was employed to collect data. A total of 455 useable respondents (men = 224 and women = 231) largely living in the two most populous provinces in South Korea (i.e. Seoul and Gyeonggi provinces) completed the survey. A number of path analyses were conducted to test hypotheses.FindingsThe results of the study showed that mental imagery evoked from sensory product experience played a critical part in facilitating the consumer decision-making process by influencing anticipatory emotion and perceived ownership. The relationship among anticipatory emotion, perceived ownership, decision satisfaction and behavioural intent was significant except for the relationship between perceived ownership and behavioural intent. This study further indicated that the way mental imagery influences the in-store decision-making process differs between men and women.Originality/valueThe effect of mental imagery in a physical retail context is largely ignored. This study addressed the crucial role of mental imagery in a physical apparel retail setting and examined its impact on consumer decision-making processes. By exploring how to enhance consumers' in-store sensory shopping experiences through mental imagery to influence their positive shopping outcomes, this study offers vital insights into how retailers operating physical stores can successfully utilize their stores.

Acquisition of Ownership Illusion with Self-Disownership in Neurological Patients

The multisensory regions in frontoparietal cortices play a crucial role in the sense of body and self. Disrupting this sense may lead to a feeling of disembodiment, or more generally, a sense of disownership. Experimentally, this altered consciousness disappears during illusory own-body perceptions, increasing the intensity of perceived ownership for an external virtual limb. In many clinical conditions, particularly in individuals with a discontinuous or absent sense of bodily awareness, the brain may effortlessly create a convincing feeling of body ownership over a surrogate body or body part. The immediate visual input dominates the current bodily state and induces rapid plastic adaptation that reconfigures the dynamics of bodily representation, allowing the brain to acquire an alternative sense of body and self. Investigating strategies to deconstruct the lack of a normal sense of bodily ownership, especially after a neurological injury, may aid the selection of appropriate clinical treatment.

On the Other Hand…: Enhancing Promotional Effectiveness with Haptic Cues

People like graspable objects more when the objects are located on the dominant-hand side of their body or when the handles point toward their dominant-hand side. However, many products do not have handles or are not graspable (e.g., services, objects hanging on the wall). Can nongraspable products nevertheless benefit from the effects of appealing to viewers’ dominant hands? The present research shows that, yes, consumers respond more positively to nongraspable products if a haptic cue (an object that is graspable or suggestive of hand action) is located within the same visual field as the target and is positioned to appeal to the viewer’s dominant hand. This result is driven by the creation and transfer of perceived ownership from cue to target. These findings extend the use of haptic cues to nongraspable products and uncover the critical role played by perceived ownership, including its ability to transfer from one object to another located in the same visual field. Moreover, the current research demonstrates situations in which the use of haptic cues will not enhance response.

Maasai Relationships with and Perceptions of Dogs in Northern Tanzania

Semi-structured interviews with 26 Maasai adults in one pastoralist, northern Tanzanian community showed that dogs were considered owned by one household, allowed to roam, and fed regularly. Interviewees strongly valued that dogs warn of wild predators threatening livestock, which provide nearly all human food and income, but most liked dogs only moderately, and only a few expressed affection for dogs. Participants disliked that dogs steal food, create disturbances, sometimes threaten people, and spread disease to humans. The strong utilitarian attitude toward dogs might be from poor economic security, frequent death of all Maasai non-human animals, and mostly non-expressive culture. Although dogs cause nearly all of the substantial Tanzanian human rabies cases, few dogs were vaccinated although most people would pay if the vaccine were available. These dogs also present disease risks to wildlife, so vaccination programs, facilitated by perceived ownership of all dogs, could reduce hazards to people and wildlife.

Service Robots: Drivers of Perceived Responsibility for Service Outcomes

The use of service robots is on the rise. Characterized by technology autonomy with a physical embodiment, service robots have a higher level of social presence than other service technologies. This research focuses on one specific phenomenon of such social encounters: attribution of responsibility. Study 1 explores potential antecedents driving the attribution of responsibility in encounters with service robots. We derive a research model, which is tested and expanded in three subsequent scenario-based experiments. In Study 2, we find that technology’s autonomy decreases perceived behavioral control over the service robot, which in turn decreases perceived responsibility for positive outcomes but not for negative outcomes. Study 3 indicates that perceived ownership of the service robot accounts for the high responsibility for negative outcomes irrespective of perceived behavioral control. In Study 4, we show that the potential to interrupt the service robots’ autonomy increases perceived behavioral control and perceived responsibility for positive outcomes. Our results propose theoretical implications for responsibility perceptions and practical implications for customer satisfaction with service robots.