A novel experimental approach to study disobedience to authority

Fifty years after the experiments of Stanley Milgram, the main objective of the present paper is to offer a paradigm that complies with up-to-date ethical standards and that can be adapted to various scientific disciplines, ranging from sociology and (social) psychology to neuroscience. Inspired by subsequent versions of Milgram-like paradigms and by combining the strengths of each, this paper presents a novel experimental approach to the study of (dis)obedience to authority. Volunteers are recruited in pairs and take turns to be ‘agents’ or ‘victims’, making the procedure fully reciprocal. For each trial, the agents receive an order from the experimenter to send a real, mildly painful electric shock to the ‘victim’, thus placing participants in an ecological set-up and avoiding the use of cover stories. Depending on the experimental condition, ‘agents’ receive, or do not receive, a monetary gain and are given, or are not given, an aim to obey the experimenter’s orders. Disobedience here refers to the number of times ‘agents’ refused to deliver the real shock to the ‘victim’. As the paradigm is designed to fit with brain imaging methods, I hope to bring new insights and perspectives in this area of research.

The effect of subliminal incentives on goal-directed eye movements

Over the last decades, several studies have demonstrated that conscious and unconscious reward incentives both affect performance in physical and cognitive tasks, suggesting that goal-pursuit can arise from an unconscious will. Whether the planning of goal-directed saccadic eye movements during an effortful task can also be affected by subliminal reward cues has not been systematically investigated. We employed a novel task where participants made several eye movements back and forth between a fixation point and a number of peripheral targets. The total number of targets visited by the eyes in a fixed amount of time determined participants' monetary gain. The magnitude of the reward at stake was briefly shown at the beginning of each trial and masked by pattern images superimposed in time so that at shorter display durations participants perceived reward incentives subliminally. We found a main effect of reward across all display durations as higher reward enhanced participants' oculomotor effort measured as the frequency and peak velocity of saccades. This effect was strongest for consciously perceived rewards but also occurred when rewards were subliminally perceived. Although we did not find a statistically significant dissociation between the reward-related modulation of different saccadic parameters, across two experiments the most robust effect of subliminal rewards was observed for the modulation of the saccadic frequency but not the peak velocity. These results suggest that multiple indices of oculomotor effort can be incentivized by subliminal rewards and that saccadic frequency may provide the most sensitive indicator of subliminal incentivization of eye movements.

139 Disinformation and Scientific Integrity: The Bad Stuff Is Easier to Believe

The sensational nature of disinformation attracts millions of readers and attention is a scarce resource. And because it attracts the masses, it can be used to undermine or target science and – ultimately – used for monetary gain. How this is done, in practice, is less understood. This presentation provides insights into how we can better understand how this is done through data analysis. We utilize a dataset of ~95,000 unique online articles to evaluate and explore the various tactics that contribute to the evolving disinformation narratives. We are interested in both the who and the how of (dis)information; what incentivizes it and the behavioral responses to it (in terms of reads, “clicks,” links) over time. We are also interested in how key events can trigger drops or spikes in engagements around particular topics. Distortion of science in online (social media) spaces inappropriately raises the risk profile of good technologies which results in delays in getting socially vital products to the market, or shelved or unrealized innovations, and even the loss of important research through vandalization of field trials. Disinformation has been used to problematize science, influencing public opinion, affecting scientific integrity, and impeding science’s social license to operate. This, in turn, results in policies developed based on disinformation rather than scientific evidence. The disinformation landscape needs to be better understood across science, food production and security, and public health. Key words: disinformation, misinformation, attention economy

Share and share unlike: Reciprocity, corporate power, and the open source ethos

The “open source” model initially emerged as a way for programmers to collaborate on efforts to build and share code, but has since evolved to embody an ethos of sharing and cooperation that pervades software development as a whole. As many technologists have seen, however, a philosophy of openness can leave them vulnerable to attempts by large corporations to use the norms of open source communities for their own benefits. This article examines the breach of social trust that occurs when companies do not fulfill expectations of reciprocity in their relationships with open source communities, and instead attempt to co-opt their work for monetary gain. Through analysis of three case studies, I seek to emphasize the often misleading nature of these processes and show that they are directly incorporated into the business models of large corporations, even if they are not openly acknowledged as such.

Push Outcomes Bias Perceptions of Scratch Card Games

In the domain of scratch card gambling, “pushes” refer to outcomes in which a prize is won that is equal to the cost of a scratch card game. Despite resulting in no net monetary gain, these outcomes are categorized as wins by lottery operators, effectively inflating published scratch card information (e.g., posted odds of winning). Additionally, the experience of obtaining a push shares similarities (e.g., the revealing of matching symbols) with the experience of obtaining a win and thus may be experienced similarly to wins by gamblers. Across four studies (N = 1502), we examined the impact of push outcomes on participants’ perceptions of scratch card games. In Studies 1 and 2, participants reported feeling more likely to win, more excitement to play, and a stronger urge to gamble when presented with a scratch card that categorized push outcomes as wins compared to when presented a scratch card that did not categorize these outcomes as wins. In Study 3, participants experiencing a push outcome prior to a loss reported feeling more likely to win compared to those not experiencing a push outcome yet experiencing the same net monetary loss. In Study 4, push outcomes were found to elicit more excitement and a stronger urge to gamble compared to losses but less excitement and a weaker urge to gamble compared to wins. Overall, the present investigation suggests that push outcomes, a prevalent feature of scratch card games, can bias gambling-related judgments and increase the appeal of scratch card games.

Video games and the soulless business culture

The video game industry is having problems of placing short-term monetary gain over long-term vision.

Uncertainty increases curiosity, but decreases happiness

You probably know what kind of things you are curious about, but can you also explain what it feels like to be curious? Previous studies have demonstrated that we are particularly curious when uncertainty is high and when information provides us with a substantial update of what we know. It is unclear, however, whether this drive to seek information (curiosity) is appetitive or aversive. Curiosity might correspond to an appetitive drive elicited by the state of uncertainty, because we like that state, or rather it might correspond to an aversive drive to reduce the state of uncertainty, because we don’t like it. To investigate this, we obtained both subjective valence (happiness) and curiosity ratings from subjects who performed a lottery task that elicits uncertainty-dependent curiosity. We replicated a strong main effect of outcome uncertainty on curiosity: Curiosity increased with outcome uncertainty, irrespective of whether the outcome represented a monetary gain or loss. By contrast, happiness decreased with higher outcome uncertainty. This indicates that people were more curious, but less happy about lotteries with higher outcome uncertainty. These findings raise the hypothesis, to be tested in future work, that curiosity reflects an aversive drive to reduce the unpleasant state of uncertainty.

Indigenous Medicinal Plants of Tripura used by the Folklore Practitioners for the Treatment of Bone Fractures

Traditional medicine is the oldest form of medicine and modern medicine has its roots in it. The experienced folklore practitioners are very scientific in their approach and understand well the mind and body relationship. This has enabled them to treat their patients in an integrated and holistic manner. Indian system of medicine has identified around medicinal plants, of which 500 species are used in preparation of drug formulations. KiratDesh an ancient name of Tripura was well known as a land of hills and dates in the past and was very rich in flora and fauna diversity. Almost all the plants contain some chemical compounds that are beneficial to mankind and many of them are used for medicinal values. In Tripura, about 266 species have been found to have medicinal properties. Folklore practitioners of Tripura were studied for the use of indigenous medicinal plants in the treatment of bone fractures. They use a combination of herbal, physical and natural process for treatment. They know that natural resources that have nurtured the human race the secret of healing. Knowledge of Traditional medicine is like a family heirloom and is transferred by means of inheritance. This precious knowledge should be conserved and all of indigenous medicinal plants should be protected from unauthorized use for monetary gain. We recorded 23 numbers of wild indigenous medicinal plant species and formulations of 12 types of traditional medicine treatments for the cure of bone fractures. This is a preliminary study and there is more scope for further extensive research and documentation.

Consumer response toward native advertising on social media: the roles of source type and content type

PurposeDrawing upon attribution theory, this study aims to examine how different types of product information sources (mainstream celebrities vs micro-celebrities) interact with content type (experiential vs promotional) to influence consumer response toward native posts on social media (causal attributions and click intention).Design/methodology/approachA total of 134 adult Twitter users participated in a 2 (source type: mainstream celebrity vs micro-celebrity) × 2 (content type: experiential vs promotional) between-subjects online experimental design.FindingsResults showed that for experiential native advertising, messages from a micro-celebrity generated more information-sharing attributions and less monetary gain attributions than those from a mainstream celebrity on social media. Moreover, the experiential native ads from a micro-celebrity elicited greater intention to click the URL than those from a mainstream celebrity. However, consumer response was similar for promotional native advertising regardless of message source. This study demonstrates that information-sharing attributions mediate the interaction effects of source type and content types on click intention.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on native advertising by providing empirical evidence to highlight the effect of message source and content type on consumer response. This study shows that the success of native advertising depends on how consumers perceive the messages and content creators' intention to communicate.

Ransomware and Academic International Medicine

Healthcare is among the leading industries targeted by cyber-criminals. Ransomware exploits vulnerabilities to hijack target information technology (IT) infrastructures for monetary gain. Due to the nature and value of information, access to medical information enables cyber-criminals to commit identity theft, medical fraud, and extortion, and illegally obtain controlled substances. The utility and versatility of medical information, extensive centralized storage of medical information, relatively weak IT security systems, and the expanding use of healthcare IT infrastructure all contribute to an increase in cyber-attacks on healthcare entities. Research suggests that an individual’s medical information is 20–50 times more valuable to cyber-criminals than personal financial information. As such, cyber-attacks targeting medical information are increasing 22% per year. This chapter explores the history of ransomware attacks in healthcare, ransomware types, ransom payment, healthcare vulnerabilities, implications for international health security, and means of institutional protection.