Jennifer Christie Siemens

The Influence of Online Gambling Environments on Self-Control

Online gambling has become a fast growing but controversial industry. This article summarizes two studies that investigate characteristics of Internet gambling environments that lead to problems with self-control. In-depth interviews with both online and casino gamblers reveal that their experiences are categorized differently in an online context, causing some informants to undertake less monitoring of spending. They also use their physical environment to impose boundaries. Next, an experiment investigates two characteristics of online gambling environments: the use of intangible currency and rapid sequential choice. Both traits negatively affect peoples ability to maintain an accurate, in-the-moment account balance across a sequence of gambles. These studies suggest several policy and consumer welfare implications.

Investigating the Effects of Active Control on Brand Recall Within In-Game Advertising

Through the use of an experiment, this research investigates the value of active user control of brand exposure in a racing-style video game, and the moderating effect of brand familiarity. It is found that, for familiar brands only, giving the game player active control to select a branded race car or racetrack results in better recall of the brand compared to low control (passive exposure on a billboard). The effect of active control via brand choice was found for both visual and verbal brand exposures, indicating that the effects are independent of visual placement proximity within the game. The findings are discussed with respect to the limited-capacity model of attention and processing fluency theory, and a conceptual diagram of the relationship between active control, attention, processing fluency, and brand recall is presented.

Judgment Difficulty and the Moral Intensity of Unethical Acts: A Cognitive Response Analysis of Dual Process Ethical Judgment Formation

This study analyzes cognitive responses to explore a dual processing perspective of ethical judgment formation. Specifically, the study investigates how two factors, judgment task difficulty and moral intensity, influence the extent of deontological and teleological processing and their effects on ethical judgments. A single experiment on 110 undergraduate research participants found that judgment task difficulty affected the extent of deontological and teleological processing. Although moral intensity affected ethical judgments, it did not produce effects on either deontological or teleological cognitive responses. Results did not support the hypotheses that deontological and teleological cognitive responses would mediate the relationships between the experimental factors and ethical judgments. Overall, the results support continued research of factors that affect the nature of information processing in ethical decision situations and the use of cognitive response analysis as a tool for conducting this research.

Teaching Ethical Copyright Behavior: Assessing the Effects of a University-Sponsored Computing Ethics Program.

Universities have become sensitized to the potential for students’ illegal downloading of copyrighted materials. Education has been advocated as one way to curb downloading of copyrighted digital content. This study investigates the effectiveness of a university-sponsored computing ethics education program. The program positively influenced students’ ethical beliefs about downloading and increased awareness, agreement, and compliance with university policies on copyright infringement. The study offers encouragement that education can be an effective preventative measure for discouraging digital copyright infringement on campus.

Tracking food intake as bites: Effects on cognitive resources, eating enjoyment, and self-control

While monitoring food intake is critical for controlling eating, traditional tools designed for this purpose can be impractical when one desires real-time feedback. Further, the act of monitoring can deplete valuable cognitive resources. In response to these concerns, technologies have been developed to aid those wanting to control their food intake. Of note, devices can now track eating in number of bites taken as opposed to more traditional units such as pieces or volume. Through two studies, the current research investigates the effects of tracking food portions at the bite level on cognitive resources, enjoyment of the eating experience, and objective and subjective self-control. Results indicate that using wearable technology to track bite portions, as compared to doing so mentally, (1) reduces cognitive resource depletion, (2) is equally as effective for allowing users to successfully achieve eating goals, and (3) does not reduce enjoyment of the eating experience. These results support the viability of tracking food intake at the bite level, which holds a number of potential implications for eating and weight management.