Mieneke W. H. Weenig

The impact of time constraint on information search strategies in complex choice tasks

Abstract The impact of time constraint on information search strategies was investigated for complex choice tasks. Data were gathered by means of a 6×6 information display board. It was expected that participants would adapt to a time constraint by means of acceleration and selection, and not by alteration of search pattern. No signs of acceleration were found, but for the rest the hypothesis was supported. Results also support Beach’s image theory of screening ( Beach, 1993 ). With time constraint, the screening was based on fewer attributes, and resulted in fewer alternatives in the final choice set, than without time constraint. As expected, this increased selectivity appeared to have occurred mostly at the expense of the moderately important attributes.

Social dimensions of neighborhoods and the effectiveness of information programs

In this article, concepts from research on social networks, neighboring, and sense of community were combined in order to find empirical foundation for dimensions in neighborhood cohesion. Eight neighborhoods in the Netherlands were investigated by interviewing representative samples of residents. The results reveal two dimensions in the social characteristics of neighborhoods, the first reflecting neighboring, the second, sense of community. In combination, these dimensions define the cohesion of a neighborhood. Neighborhoods that consisted mainly of multi-story apartment blocks were found to be less cohesive than neighborhoods consisting of single-family dwellings, not because of lower levels of neighboring activities, but mainly due to a weaker sense of community. Finally, a typology of neighborhoods based on the two observed dimensions is proposed.

Personal Outcomes and Moral Responsibility as Motives for News Transmission The Impact of Fate Similarity, Fate Uncertainty, and Relationship Closeness

In two experiments we compared contrasting findings on bad news transmission likelihood between literature on rumors and the MUM-effect in order to contribute to the development of a more general theory of news transmission. We argued that several contextual differences account for the contrasting findings between these research conditions. We predicted that fate similarity and fate uncertainty (both present in many rumor contexts and absent in most MUM-contexts) enhance the anticipated personal outcomes of bad news transmission for communicators and hence increase bad news transmission. Supporting our argument, we found that fate uncertainty and fate similarity each increased the likelihood of bad news transmission up to the level of good news transmission. Furthermore, these effects were mediated by communicators’ anticipated personal outcomes of transmission. In addition, Experiment 2 demonstrated anticipated personal outcomes to be only an important motive for news transmission decisions in superficial relationships; for close relationships, experienced moral responsibility appeared to be the paramount motive for transmission.