Pieter de Vries

Changing Simple Energy-Related Consumer Behaviors How the Enactment of Intentions Is Thwarted by Acting and Non-Acting Habits

Achieving ambitious CO2 emission reductions require changing mundane consumer behaviors in addition to increasing modern technology’s energy-saving potential. Frequently, energy-related behaviors, however, may occur highly and thus tend to become habitual. On basis of the notion that habits represent automatic reactions to situations, and hence, are hard to control, we examined whether the capability to perform or abstain from performing actions depends on the type of habit established. We tested whether an acting habit (switching off the light upon leaving a room) supports execution of the intention to act (switching it off), but hinders the intention to abstain from acting (not switching it off). Conversely, a habit of not switching off the light (a non-acting habit) is expected to obstruct execution of the intention to switch the light off, but facilitates the intention to not switch it off. Results support these ideas, and underscore the importance of differentiating between habits resulting from frequently acting and frequently not acting.

Everyday behaviour and everyday risk : An approach to study people's responses to frequently encountered food related health risks

Food consumption constitutes behaviour that is carried out on a daily basis. The risks and benefits associated with such behaviours are often small, and the time and effort people are, consequently, willing to invest in behavioural decisions are limited. Instead, experience, in the form of an integrated evaluation of past behaviours, may serve as a predictor for future behaviour, allowing reasonable choices to be made with limited effort. This paper discusses the characteristics of daily occurring risks and suggests a model of how prior experience can accumulate and play a role in acting while exposed to daily risk. The core of the approach is a feedback loop that adjusts the current situation until a preset situation is reached. This is based on integrated past experiences and is, thus, continually updated by new experiences. To establish such a feedback mechanism, emotions are argued to play a vital role as an integrator for different types of information, such as perceptual, cognitive and physiological information. This approach may help in understanding how consumers deal with risks in daily (food-handling) practices.

Source salience and the persuasiveness of peer recommendations: the mediating role of social trust

A lack of trust and face-to-face interaction prevents many people from purchasing online. Relevant research aimed at overcoming such problems is often based on the assumption that providing social information increases trust. These studies, however, have yielded inconsistent results, arguably because trust is usually treated as a unidimensional concept. This study targets the influence of social information on trust by taking account of the multidimensional nature of trust. Peer recommendations in product judgment tasks were hypothesized to affect consumers product attitudes via social trust, rather than competence, if peer images are available and uncertainty associated with products is high. Results indeed support mediation by social trust, but only for experience products.

Determinants of Seeking and Avoiding Risk-Related Information in Times of Crisis.

This research is designed to provide insight into the psychological (e.g., threat appraisal or coping appraisal) and other determinants (e.g., information quality judgments or demographics) of risk information seeking or avoidance in times of an acute risk, as part of the process of increasing public resilience through adherence to risk mitigating advice. Data were collected via telephone interviews. A specialized agency interviewed 1,000 Dutch citizens, randomly confronted with one of eight fictitious, but realistic, acute risk and emergency situations. Results indicate that information seeking in an acute situation is anticipated by a less elaborate set of predictors (age and risk perception) than information seeking in a nonacute situation (age and risk perception, as well as educational level and social norm). Although risk perception is a predictor for risk information seeking, its predictive value for acute-risk-related behavior, as one might have assumed based on theories such as protection motivation theory (PMT) or the extended parallel process model (EPPM), appears to be limited. Implications for risk communication are discussed.

Subtle persuasion: the unobtrusive effect of website-banner congruence on trust

This paper focuses on congruence among associations with banner advertisements and their host websites. Based on processing fluency theory we argued that congruence, as opposed to incongruence, increases processing fluency, which subsequently influences trust in the organization behind the banner. To test this prediction, an experimental study was conducted in which participants were asked to evaluate a mobile website, in which the product class of a banner advertisement and its host website were manipulated to be either congruent or incongruent. In conformance with expectations, congruence proved to affect trust behind the banner, and this effect was mediated by the ease with which they were able to reconcile banner and website (i.e., processing fluency). Alternative ways in which congruence may affect trust are discussed.

Marketisation, hybrid organisations and accounting in higher education

The metaphor of the market and its practical application are very much in vogue in higher education policy. Privatisation and marketisation seem to be a global tendency which goes beyond education and research. Privatisation and marketisation have been introduced in sectors such as public transport, social welfare and security, health, and infrastructure, which in many countries for a very long time have belonged to the public domain. Marketisation can be defined as the introduction of market-type mechanisms, which is characterised by the OECD as ‘all arrangements where at least one significant characteristic of markets is present (competition, choice, pricing, dispersed decision-making, monetary incentives, and so on). It excludes the two polar cases of traditional public delivery and complete privatisation’ (OECD 1997).

Persuasion in the Wild: Communication, Technology, and Event Safety

Recent disasters during major events have resulted in increased focus on influencing crowds, both during emergencies and under normal circumstances. In this exploratory study event experts were interviewed to uncover good practices regarding the use of technology to communicate with crowds. n nThey agree that, rather than using directive means and force, crowds can best be persuaded; proving relevant information enables them to decide for themselves what course of action to take. Some of the experts remain critical about use of social media at events; effectiveness depends on target group composition, visitors engagement in the event, and reliability. Additionally, the abundance of information visitors have at their fingertips may reduce effectiveness of information emitted by organisers. Especially important in communicating with crowds is communicating as one, not only pertaining to explicit messages but also to non-verbal communication. n nBased on these results, implications for event safety are discussed.

Two perspectives on trading in radio spectrum usage rights: Coase and Commons compared

In this contribution, we address the introduction of private property rights and market trades in the use of the radio frequency spectrum. We discuss the UK case being inspired by the ideas of Coase. We discuss how an appropriate design of property rights and a secondary market would look like and how the developments after the introduction of property rights could be interpreted. Subsequently we present the alternative perspective of Commons to illuminate the implications of a Coasean perspective. It is shown how Coases focus is on efficiency, whereas in the world of Commons, the societal value is central. We discuss how the two perspectives can contribute to the understanding of the governance of the radio spectrum and conclude with policy recommendations.

Assessing Technology in the Absence of Proof Trust Based on the Interplay of Others’ Opinions and the Interaction Process

Objective: The present research addresses the question of how trust in systems is formed when unequivocal information about system accuracy and reliability is absent, and focuses on the interaction of indirect information (others’ evaluations) and direct (experiential) information stemming from the interaction process. Background: Trust in decision-supporting technology, such as route planners, is important for satisfactory user interactions. Little is known, however, about trust formation in the absence of outcome feedback, that is, when users have not yet had opportunity to verify actual outcomes. Method: Three experiments manipulated others’ evaluations (“endorsement cues”) and various forms of experience-based information (“process feedback”) in interactions with a route planner and measured resulting trust using rating scales and credits staked on the outcome. Subsequently, an overall analysis was conducted. Results: Study 1 showed that effectiveness of endorsement cues on trust is moderated by mere process feedback. In Study 2, consistent (i.e., nonrandom) process feedback overruled the effect of endorsement cues on trust, whereas inconsistent process feedback did not. Study 3 showed that although the effects of consistent and inconsistent process feedback largely remained regardless of face validity, high face validity in process feedback caused higher trust than those with low face validity. An overall analysis confirmed these findings. Conclusion: Experiential information impacts trust even if outcome feedback is not available, and, moreover, overrules indirect trust cues—depending on the nature of the former. Application: Designing systems so that they allow novice users to make inferences about their inner workings may foster initial trust.

The taxpayer-shareholder fallacy and private finance initiatives

There is a growing support for the view that the private sector is at least as efficient as the public sector in managing investment risks of large projects. Governments forget that it is the taxpayer who bears all the risks in a public finance scenario of investments. So, it seems unfounded that governments should neglect the cost of investment risk in obtaining finance as the taxpayer might be seen as a shareholder in (public) investments, which by definition are risky. It is this taxpayer-is-shareholder perspective that will be criticized in this paper. This taxpayer approach neglects the variety of funding and financing positions that might be taken by the various actors in investment projects. The paper concludes that some prudence is recommended in supporting private finance initiatives