A model of the precaution adoption process: evidence from home radon testing.

We present the precaution adoption process model--a stage theory consisting of seven distinct states between ignorance and completed preventive action. The stages are "unaware of the issue," "aware of the issue but not personally engaged," "engaged and deciding what to do," "planning to act but not yet having acted," "having decided not to act," "acting," and "maintenance." The theory asserts that these stages represent qualitatively different patterns of behavior, beliefs, and experience and that the factors that produce transitions between stages vary depending on the specific transition being considered. Data from seven studies of home radon testing are examined to test some of the claims made by this model. Stage theories of protective behavior are contrasted with theories that see precaution adoption in terms of movement along a single continuum of action likelihood.     

Women's hairstyle and men's behavior: A field experiment

Little research has examined the effect of women's hairstyles on people's behavior. In a field study, male and female passersby, walking alone in the street, were observed while walking behind a female‐confederate who dropped a glove and apparently was unaware of her loss. The confederate had long dark hair arranged in three different hairstyles: one with her hair falling naturally on her shoulders and her back, one with her hair tied in a ponytail, and one with her hair twisted in a bun. Results reported that the hairstyle had no effect on female passersby's helping behavior. However, it was found that the hairstyle influenced male passersby with men helping the confederate more readily when her hair fell naturally on her neck, shoulders and upper back.     

The self-protective altruist: terror management and the ambivalent nature of prosocial behavior

Three studies examined the hypothesis that mortality salience (MS) will increase prosocial behaviors when the prosocial cause promotes terror management processes. However, when the prosocial cause interferes with these processes, MS will reduce prosocial behavior. In Study 1, following a MS procedure, participants indicated their willingness to donate money to charity or to donate to an organ donation organization. In Study 2, a research assistant randomly distributed fliers with reminders of death or back pain, and another research assistant solicited participants' assistance from either a charitable fund booth or an organ donation booth. Study 3 examined the impact of MS on helping a wheelchair-bound confederate or a walking confederate. The results indicated that MS increased charitable donations and increased help to a walking confederate. However, MS significantly decreased organ donation card signings and decreased help to a wheelchair-bound confederate. The discussion examines the tension between personal fear and worldview validation.     

The stages-of-change approach for prosocial behavior: Message tailoring to encourage blood donation

This research applied the Trans-Theoretical Model and the Construal Level Theory to framing messages for blood donation. People can be at different degrees of readiness for blood donation and are, therefore, dispersed into discrete stages of change. These stages of change correspond to varying psychological distances that define the extent to which a person's thinking on the suggested behavior is abstract (high construal level) or concrete (low construal level). Differences in psychological distance thus affect whether individuals focus on how easy it is to donate blood (feasibility) or on why it is important to donate blood (desirability) in the ad message. This research conducted two studies using a 2 (types of message: feasibility vs. desirability—manipulated) × 3 (stages of change: pre-contemplation vs. contemplation/preparation vs. action/maintenance—measured) between-subject, randomly assigned factorial design experiment. The results of both studies showed that for individuals in the pre-contemplation stage, desirability, rather than feasibility, messages were more likely to produce favorable attitudes toward the ad, its sponsoring organization, and blood donation behavior itself, whereas the opposite was true for those in the action/maintenance stage. Those differences were weakened or not observed for those in the contemplation/preparation stage. These patterns of interaction were not replicated for behavioral intention. Collectively, these findings suggest that tailoring a message according to the intended audience's stage of change should promote positive attitudes for blood donation. Meanwhile, future research is needed to bridge the attitude-behavior gap when it comes to blood donation.     

Endorsing a negative in-group stereotype as a self-protective strategy: Sacrificing the group to save the self

This work examined if stigmatized targets will embrace negative in-group stereotypes in order to protect their self-esteem from the threat of stereotypic failures. All studies focused on the stereotype that women have lower math ability than men. In Study 1, women who failed a math test showed buffered self-esteem if they were first given the opportunity to endorse this stereotype. Study 2 replicated this effect and showed that women, but not men, increased their endorsement of this stereotype following math failure. Study 3 showed that the tendency to embrace this stereotype in response to failure was most pronounced among women with high trait self-esteem. Together, these findings suggest that there are contexts in which stigmatized individuals can protect their self-esteem in the face of stereotypic failures by embracing the very stereotypes that would have predicted their failure.     

Sociotechnical systems in health care: a field experiment.

This article describes an intervention that employed sociotechnical systems (STS) analysis in the laboratory of a major health care institution in the Midwest. The analysis was performed on two departments of the laboratory to determine opportunities for improving effectiveness, facilitating the introduction of new technology, and enhancing the work experience of technologists. The authors measured the results of the intervention by conducting a survey of technologists before and after the change effort and through follow-up interviews with a sample of physicians, supervisors, and technologists. The intervention did not achieve the results intended, and the authors present their explanation for why this occurred and suggest implications and recommendations for future STS applications to health care settings.     

Perceived agency in retirement and retiree drinking behavior: Job satisfaction as a moderator

Based on recent findings that post-retirement adjustment may be influenced by the conditions leading up to the decision to retire, we examine the impact of individual agency in the retirement decision on problematic drinking behavior, as well as the extent to which such an effect may itself depend upon the valence of the pre-retirement work experience. Using a sample of 304 blue-collar retirees, our findings indicate that, when controlling for pre-retirement drinking behavior, perceptions of retirement as the result of a more forced or involuntary decision are associated with greater alcohol consumption, while perceptions of retirement as the result of a more volitional or voluntary process are associated with lower levels of alcohol consumption and a lower risk of problematic drinking behavior. Our results also indicate that pre-retirement job satisfaction amplifies the former relationship, while attenuating the latter one.     

Perceived agency in retirement and retiree drinking behavior: Job satisfaction as a moderator

Based on recent findings that post-retirement adjustment may be influenced by the conditions leading up to the decision to retire, we examine the impact of individual agency in the retirement decision on problematic drinking behavior, as well as the extent to which such an effect may itself depend upon the valence of the pre-retirement work experience. Using a sample of 304 blue-collar retirees, our findings indicate that, when controlling for pre-retirement drinking behavior, perceptions of retirement as the result of a more forced or involuntary decision are associated with greater alcohol consumption, while perceptions of retirement as the result of a more volitional or voluntary process are associated with lower levels of alcohol consumption and a lower risk of problematic drinking behavior. Our results also indicate that pre-retirement job satisfaction amplifies the former relationship, while attenuating the latter one.     

Sex-role behavior and obedience to authority: A field study

Obedience by male and female subjects to male and female experimenters was investigated under various conditions of “perceived legitimacy.” The procedure involved an experimenter stopping a subject who was about to cross a street at a particular crosswalk, the subject was then instructed to cross at another designated location. The dependent variable was the level of obedience to these instructions. The four main factorial independent variables were the sex of the experimenter, the sex of the subject, and two conditions of “perceived legitimacy” (presence or absence of a “uniform,” presence or absence of an “explanation”). Significant results were obtained for the uniform and sex of subject main effects (more obedience with a uniform, more disobedience by females). Additional analyses indicated that “older” subjects disobeyed more often than “younger” ones, that “formally” dressed subjects disobeyed more often than “informally” dressed ones, and that ethnic minority group experimenters were disobeyed significantly more often than Caucasian experimenters. Significant interactions were also obtained, mainly due to the behavior of the younger men and the older women. Male and female experimenters were obeyed equally, in general. The results are discussed in relation to sex-role prejudice and discriminatory behavior.     

Perceived target displacement as a function of field movement and asymmetry

In two experiments induced movement of an object was produced to demonstrate that movement of the background influences the perceived localization of the object in space. The Roelofs (asymmetry) effect could be used to explain only part of the shift in localization in Experiment1. The asymmetry effect was excluded from Experiment2 by the procedure employed. It was concluded that the Roelofs effect is a sufficient, but not necessary, condition for the effects of induced movement to occur, and that relative displacement of the target and background plays an important part in the illusion. Furthermore, it was shown that the effects of induced movement can occur even when the border of the background remains stationary.     

A field experiment: Testing the potential of norms for achieving behavior change in English parishes

Tests of behavioral insights have become increasingly more common, and have been deployed by UK government and agencies. Typically, these field experiments aim to change individual‐level behaviors. The current article tests the potential of behavioral insights for changing group‐level behavior. This article reports the results of a field experiment carried out with the Department of Communities and Local Government. The field experiment tested whether a normative message (vs. a neutral or no message) could encourage parish councils to register an asset of community value (social action). There was no statistically significant effect from this intervention, but the process of designing and implementing this field experiment shows the potential for theories of behavior change to be used by government departments.     

Mediators between frustration and aggression in a field experiment

To assess some of the mediators between a frustrating incident and subsequent aggressive behavior in a field situation, 320 male and female subjects were assigned to one of 32 experimental conditions in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. Either a male or female experimenter, saying “Excuse me” or not, dressed in high or low status clothing, cut in line in front of the subject, who was standing near the front or back of the line. Verbal and nonverbal aggressiveness were coded and summed to measure total aggression. Subjects near the front of the line or interacting with a low status experimenter were more aggressive than those at the back of the line or seeing a high status experimenter. Less aggression was directed against the female experimenter or one who said “Excuse me,” and there was a strong tendency for subjects to be more aggressive to a same-sex experimenter. It was suggested that further research on instigators to aggression be carried out in such field situations.     

Reactivity to home observation: a comparison of audio recorded behavior with observers present or absent

THE STUDY COMPARED THE BEHAVIOR OF FAMILY MEMBERS AT HOME AS RECORDED BY AUDIOTAPE RECORDINGS IN TWO CONDITIONS: with an observer present or absent. Behavioral differences were expected as a function of differential reactivity to these observational procedures, but none was found, and there was no evidence of adaptation effects in either condition. In general, significant positive correlations were obtained between the rates of recorded behavior in both situations. The implications of these findings for the development of nonreactive observation procedures were discussed.     

Tits use amodal completion in predator recognition: a field experiment

Amodal completion enables an animal to perceive partly concealed objects as an entirety, and to interact with them appropriately. Several studies, based upon either operant conditioning or filial imprinting techniques, have shown that various animals (both mammals and birds) can perform amodal completion. Before this study, the use of amodal completion by untrained animals in the recognition of objects had not been considered. Using two feeders, we observed in a field experiment the reaction of tits to the torso of a sparrowhawk (partly occluded or an ‘amputated’ dummy) in two different treatments (sparrowhawk torso vs. complete dummy pigeon; and torso vs. complete dummy sparrowhawk). It is clear that the birds considered the two torso variants as predators and kept away from both of them when the second feeder offered a ‘pigeon’ instead. On the other hand, when a ‘complete sparrowhawk’ was present on the second feeder, the number of visits to the occluded torso remained low; while the number of visits to the amputated one increased threefold. Birds risked perching near what was clearly an amputated torso; while the fear of a “hiding” (occluded) torso remained unchanged, when the second feeder did not provide a safe alternative. Such discrimination between torsos requires the ability for amodal completion. Our results demonstrate that in their recognition process, the birds not only use simple sign stimuli, but also complex cognitive functions.     

A volitional help sheet to encourage smoking cessation: a randomized exploratory trial

OBJECTIVE: The volitional help sheet draws on Gollwitzer's (1993) concept of implementation intentions by encouraging smokers to link temptations to smoke with appropriate behavioral responses derived from Prochaska and DiClemente's (1983) transtheoretical model. DESIGN: There were 193 smokers who were randomly allocated to receive questionnaires, planning instruction, and a volitional help sheet or one of three control conditions: Questionnaire-only; questionnaire plus planning instruction; or questionnaire, planning instruction plus volitional help sheet without the explicit instruction to link temptations to smoke with appropriate behavioral responses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Nicotine dependence, number of cigarettes smoked and quit status. RESULTS: Findings revealed significant decreases in nicotine dependence, number of cigarettes smoked, and increases in quitting in the volitional help sheet condition, relative to the control conditions, Fs(3, 189) = 7.48 to 10.78, ps < .01, eta 2 p s = .11 to .15. This pattern of findings did not hold for social?cognitive variables, with few differences between the volitional help sheet (standard instructions) group and the other conditions. CONCLUSION: The findings provide support for the use of implementation intentions to protect against health risk behaviors and are congruent with laboratory research showing that implementation intentions are a case of strategic automaticity.     

Hemispheric predominance assessment of phonology and semantics: a divided visual field experiment

The aim of the present behavioural experiment was to evaluate the most lateralized among two phonological (phoneme vs. rhyme detection) and the most lateralized among two semantic ("living" vs. "edible" categorization) tasks, within the dominant hemisphere for language. The reason of addressing this question was a practical one: to evaluate the degree of the hemispheric lateralization for several language tasks, by using the divided visual presentation of stimuli, and then choose the most lateralized semantic and phonological for mapping language in patients by using fMRI in future studies. During the divided visual field experiment by using words (semantic tasks) and pseudo-words (phonological tasks) as stimuli, thirty-nine right-handed participants were examined. Our results have shown that all tasks were significantly left hemisphere lateralized. Furthermore, the rhyme was significantly more lateralized than phoneme detection and "living" was significantly more lateralized than "edible" categorization. The rhyme decision and "living" categorization will be used in future fMRI studies for assessing hemispheric predominance and cerebral substrate for semantics and phonology in patients. Our results also suggest that the characteristics of stimuli could influence the degree of the hemispheric lateralization (i.e., the emotional charge of stimuli for words and the position of the phoneme to be detected, for pseudo-words).