How Well Do We Know Our Inner Daredevil? Probing the Relationship Between Self‐Report and Behavioral Measures of Risk Taking

To measure a person's risk‐taking tendency, research has relied interchangeably on self‐report scales (e.g., “Indicate your likelihood of engaging in the risky behavior”) and more direct measures, such as behavioral tasks (e.g., “Do you accept or reject the risky option?”). It is currently unclear, however, how the two approaches map upon each other. We examined the relationship between self‐report likelihood ratings for risky choice in a monetary gamble task and actual choice, and tested how the relationship is affected by task ambiguity (i.e., when part of the information about risks and benefits is missing) and age. Five hundred participants (aged 19–85 years) were presented with 27 gambles, either in an unambiguous or an ambiguous condition. In a likelihood rating task, participants rated for each gamble the likelihood that they would accept it. In a separate choice task, they were asked to either accept or reject each gamble. Analyses using a signal‐detection approach showed that people's likelihood ratings discriminated between accept and reject cases in their choices rather well. However, task ambiguity weakened the association between likelihood ratings and choice. Further, older adults' likelihood ratings anticipated their choices more poorly than younger adults'. We discuss implications of these findings for existing approaches to the study of risk‐taking propensity, which have often relied on self‐reported risk tendency for ambiguous activities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aristotle,Kant, and …Facebook? A Look at the Implications of Social Media on Ethics

The purpose of this study was to explore if and how social media might come to bear on people’s understanding of ethics. Participants were asked to complete online surveys regarding social media interaction and respond to 14 scenarios depicting ethical dilemmas. Our results suggest that social media and people’s perceptions of ethics do share a relationship. Specifically, we found that people who reported being exposed to ethical violations on social media were more likely to find our unethical scenarios to be personally unacceptable, to be of lower ethicality, and to react negatively to the content. These findings suggest that mere exposure to ethical violations is enough to produce awareness in people regarding ethical issues, which carries significant implications for ethics education.     

Measuring information demand of a dynamic in-vehicle display while driving – A study evaluating the MARS (Masking Action Relevant Stimuli) method

The MARS (Masking Action Relevant Stimuli) method assesses information demand for dynamic stimuli while driving. An action relevant stimulus is masked and the driver presses a button to unmask the stimulus for a limited period. We interpreted button presses as information demand. Following our previous research (Rittger, Kiesel, Schmidt, & Maag, 2014), the current study further evaluates the method. We applied the MARS method to a dynamic in-vehicle display containing recommendations from a traffic light assistant. In a driving simulator, drivers approached intersections with different traffic light phasing. The display either presented simple or complex information. In half of the drives, the participants used the MARS method. The study had a full within subjects design and fixations were recorded in all conditions. The results showed that the information demand varied according to the information in the display and the traffic light phase. A comparison of button presses with fixations showed that one unmasking interval came along with one fixation on the display. As a conclusion, the MARS method can distinguish between conditions with high and low information demand for the display. Button presses relate to fixations on the display. Hence, the MARS method is a promising tool to assess the information demand in dynamic environments and can be applied as an extension or alternative for eye tracking.     

Are situation awareness and decision-making in driving totally conscious processes? Results of a hazard prediction task

Detecting danger in the driving environment is an indispensable task to guarantee safety which depends on the driver’s ability to predict upcoming hazards. But does correct prediction lead to an appropriate response? This study advances hazard perception research by investigating the link between successful prediction and response selection. Three groups of drivers (learners, novices and experienced drivers) were recruited, with novice and experienced drivers further split into offender and non-offender groups. Specifically, this works aims to develop an improved Spanish Hazard Prediction Test and to explore the differences in Situation Awareness, (SA: perception, comprehension and prediction) and Decision-Making (DM) among learners, younger inexperienced and experienced drivers and between driving offenders and non-offenders. The contribution of the current work is not only theoretical; the Hazard Prediction Test is also a valid way to test Hazard Perception. The test, as well as being useful as part of the test for a driving license, could also serve a purpose in the renewal of licenses after a ban or as a way of training drivers. A sample of 121 participants watched a series of driving video clips that ended with a sudden occlusion prior to a hazard. They then answered questions to assess their SA (“What is the hazard?” “Where is it located?” “What happens next?”) and DM (“What would you do in this situation?”). This alternative to the Hazard Perception Test demonstrates a satisfactory internal consistency (Alpha = 0.750), with eleven videos achieving discrimination indices above 0.30. Learners performed significantly worse than experienced drivers when required to identify and locate the hazard. Interestingly, drivers were more accurate in answering the DM question than questions regarding SA, suggesting that drivers can choose an appropriate response manoeuvre without a totally conscious knowledge of the exact hazard.     

What could be My Next Job? Using Flat Information Structures to Generate Creative Future Career Ideas

In a dynamic labor market, it is important to help people combine information and generate creative solutions to cope with complex career challenges. In the present research, we apply the theory of information structure to creative career idea generation and hypothesize that flat information structures—that is, structures in which the information is disorganized—are more conducive to creativity than hierarchical information structures—that is, structures in which information is organized in higher‐order categories. In two experimental studies, participants had to combine career information related to self and work preferences that was presented either in flat or hierarchical structures. We found that flat information structures, compared with hierarchical information structures, led to future career ideas that were more creative on average. Our results suggest that cognitive flexibility explains the effect of information structure on the creativity of career ideas. Theoretical implications and suggestions for career management practices are discussed.