Make It Short and Easy: Username Complexity Determines Trustworthiness Above and Beyond Objective Reputation

The Psychology of Framing: How Everyday Language Shapes the Way We Think, Feel, and Act

When we use language to communicate, we must choose what to say, what not to say, and how to say it. That is, we must decide how to frame the message. These linguistic choices matter: Framing a discussion one way or another can influence how people think, feel, and act in many important domains, including politics, health, business, journalism, law, and even conversations with loved ones. The ubiquity of framing effects raises several important questions relevant to the public interest: What makes certain messages so potent and others so ineffectual? Do framing effects pose a threat to our autonomy, or are they a rational response to variation in linguistic content? Can we learn to use language more effectively to promote policy reforms or other causes we believe in, or is this an overly idealistic goal? In this article, we address these questions by providing an integrative review of the psychology of framing. We begin with a brief history of the concept of framing and a survey of common framing effects. We then outline the cognitive, social-pragmatic, and emotional mechanisms underlying such effects. This discussion centers on the view that framing is a natural-and unavoidable-feature of human communication. From this perspective, framing effects reflect a sensible response to messages that communicate different information. In the second half of the article, we provide a taxonomy of linguistic framing techniques, describing various ways that the structure or content of a message can be altered to shape people's mental models of what is being described. Some framing manipulations are subtle, involving a slight shift in grammar or wording. Others are more overt, involving wholesale changes to a message. Finally, we consider factors that moderate the impact of framing, gaps in the current empirical literature, and opportunities for future research. We conclude by offering general recommendations for effective framing and reflecting on the place of framing in society. Linguistic framing is powerful, but its effects are not inevitable-we can always reframe an issue to ourselves or other people.

Fluency, prediction and motivation: how processing dynamics, expectations and epistemic goals shape aesthetic judgements

What psychological mechanisms underlie aesthetic judgements? An influential account known as the Hedonic Marking of Fluency, later developed into a Processing Fluency Theory of Aesthetic Pleasure, posits that ease of processing elicits positive feelings and thus enhances stimulus evaluations. However, the theory faces empirical and conceptual challenges. In this paper, we extend it by integrating insights from predictive processing frameworks (PPF) and the epistemic motivation model (EMM). We propose four extensions. First, fluency of a stimulus depends on perceivers' expectations-their internal model of the world. Second, perceivers also form expectations about fluency itself and thus can experience surprising fluency. These expectations can come from the individual's history, their current task and their environment. Third, perceivers can value fluency but also disfluency, reflecting their non-directional epistemic goals. Fourth, perceivers also have directional epistemic goals, preferring specific conclusions or belief content. Consequently, affective reactions depend on whether the stimulus satisfies those goals. These directional epistemic goals may override concerns about fluency or change the value of fluency associated with specific content. We review supporting evidence and introduce novel predictions. By integrating insights from PPF and EMM, our framework can better capture established fluency effects and highlights their limitations and extensions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.

On the emergence of the in-out effect across trials: two items do the trick

Individuals prefer letter strings whose consonantal articulation spots move from the front of the mouth to the back (e.g., BAKA, inward) over those with a reversed consonant order (e.g., KABA, outward), the so-called in-out effect. The present research explores whether individuals hold an internal standard or scheme of consonant order that triggers this effect. If this were the case, the in-out effect should already occur in one-trial between-subjects designs. If not, the in-out effect should emerge over the course of trials in within-subjects designs. In Experiments 1a-e (1b-e preregistered; total N = 2973; German, English, and Portuguese samples) employing a one-trial between-subjects design, no in-out effect was found. In Experiment 2 (N = 253), employing within-subjects designs with either 1, 5, 10, 30, or 50 trials per consonant order category (inward vs. outward), the in-out effect was absent in the first trial, but already surfaced for the first 2 trials, reached significance within the first 10 trials and a solid plateau within the first 20 trials. Of the four theoretical explanations, the present evidence favors the fluency/frequency and letter-position accounts and is at odds with the eating-related embodiment and easy-first accounts.

Eliminating the effects of reporting bias on risk perception

Taking the public discourse on health risks due to aluminum in antiperspirants as an example, we conducted a randomized controlled study with repeated measurements to research how selective reporting of risk information affects risk perception and trust in risk information. First, the study varied the information scope that the experimental subjects received (selective vs. complete information). Selective information highlighted that a health risk is given. Considering the full range of studies, complete information is indicated the opposite. A second variation referred to the facticity of the hazardous agent mentioned in the risk information (a reference to either an actual or fictitious agent). Moreover, the selectively informed subjects received the complete information after the effects of the selective information were measured. Four risk perceptions constructs were chosen as dependent variables, differing on two dimensions (affective vs. cognitive and personal risk vs. risk for others). In addition, subjects´ trust in the given risk information was measured. The study reveals that presenting selective information amplifies risk perceptions. The effect was observed, irrespective of whether the hazardous agent mentioned in the risk information was actual or fictitious. When subjects who first received the selective information obtained the complete information, indicating no elevated risk, risk perceptions decreased. However, the analysis also indicates that corrective information (indicating no risk) is less trusted than selective information that points to health risks. Furthermore, proper toxicological understanding, i.e., taking into account the dose-response relationship, supports the effect of corrective information on risk perceptions.

What makes narratives feel right? The role of metacognitive experiences

Conviction Narrative Theory holds that reasoners adopt "a narrative that feels 'right' to explain the available data" and use "that narrative to imagine plausible futures" (target article, Abstract). Drawing on feelings-as-information theory, this commentary reviews the role of metacognitive experiences of ease or difficulty and highlights that fluently processed narratives are more likely to "feel right."

What’s in a “Username”? The Effect of Perceived Anonymity on Herding in Crowdfunding

This research investigates whether and how predecessors’ usernames—as evaluated from a perspective of perceived anonymity—affect successors’ herding momentum through the varying extent of perceived source credibility. Using a unique data set collected from a leading debt-based crowdfunding platform, we classify lenders’ usernames as either anonymous or real-seeming, with the latter referring to usernames that seem to reveal one’s legal name. We find that successors demonstrate weaker herding momentum toward predecessors who are presented with real-seeming usernames than anonymous ones. This finding, which we attribute to a lower extent of perceived credibility resulting from a nonconforming behavior, challenges the conventional wisdom that considers anonymity a negative factor for source credibility. Further, we demonstrate the importance of risk-related factors, in that the uncovered positive effect of perceived anonymity on herding is accentuated in the early stage of the fundraising period. Our findings provide actionable insights for platform owners to utilize the user heterogeneity with respect to perceived anonymity and hence perceived credibility in herding. These findings are also informative for borrowers who desire to exert effort to encourage participation from the crowd.

Use of a language intervention to reduce vaccine hesitancy

Vaccine hesitancy is a major global challenge facing COVID-19 immunization programs. Its main source is low public trust in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. In a preregistered experimental study, we investigated how using a foreign language when communicating COVID-19 vaccine information influences vaccine acceptance. Hong Kong Chinese residents (N = 611) received COVID-19 vaccine information either in their native Chinese or in English. English increased trust in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine and, as a result, reduced vaccine hesitancy. This indicates that language can impact vaccine attitudes and demonstrate the potential of language interventions for a low cost, actionable strategy to curtail vaccine hesitancy amongst bilingual populations. Language interventions could contribute towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of health and well-being.

Fluent processing leads to positive stimulus evaluations even when base rates suggest negative evaluations

Fluency is the experienced ease of ongoing mental operations, which increases the subjective positivity of stimuli attributes. This may happen because fluency is inherently positive. Alternatively, people may learn the meaning of fluency from contingencies within judgment-contexts. We test pseudocontingencies (PCs) as a mechanism through which fluency's meaning is learned. PCs are inferred correlations between two attributes due to the observation of their jointly skewed base rates - people relate what is frequent in one attribute to what is frequent in the other. Using online seller evaluations as the dependent variable, we manipulated base rates of seller name-fluency and seller reputation, creating conditions where name-fluency aligned positively or negatively with reputation. However, participants evaluated high-fluency name sellers more positively across base-rate conditions, although we observed negative PCs between seller reputation and a fluency-neutral dimension in a follow-up study. We discuss the implications for the debate regarding fluency's positive vs. malleable nature.

Feeling the ease: How the use of oral motor fluency changes in amnesia

The present study examined the evolution observed in amnesic patients' use of motor fluency when making recognition memory decisions. In this experiment, 9 patients with amnesia and 18 matched controls were presented with two recognition memory tasks composed of 3 types of items: (1) natural words, (2) nonwords difficult to pronounce, and (3) nonwords easy to pronounce, the latter having been shown to be processed in a surprisingly fluent manner as long as participants can articulate them at a subvocal level (i.e., oral motor fluency). Our results provide evidence that the motor-movement manipulation was successful to induce a fluency effect. More specifically, data revealed that both amnesic patients and control participants showed a pattern of response consistent with the use of fluency as a cue to memory for studied items. However, only control participants relied on fluency to increase their rate of "yes" responses for unstudied items. These results suggest that patients with amnesia set a more conservative response criterion before relying on oral motor fluency, showing a pattern consistent with the idea that fluency is only used as a cue to memory when it exceeds a certain threshold. These findings are discussed in terms of adaptative metacognition strategies implemented by amnesic patients to reduce fluency-based memory errors as well as in terms of the variations that seem to occur in these strategies depending on the type of fluency that is experienced.

Does the Price Support Policy Drive a Balanced Distribution of Profits in the Chinese Dairy Supply Chain? Implications for Supplier and Consumer Psychology

Evaluating the price policy of raw milk is of great significance to the sustainable development of an industry supply chain. In this context, our study used the multi-period difference-in-difference method to systematically examine the impact of the policy implementation on product price and profit distribution in the supply chain. The results showed the following: (1) the price of raw milk in the implementation area of the price support policy is 13.54% higher than that of the unimplemented area; (2) the effect of price increase in the western region (15.5%) is higher than that in the eastern region (13%), and the central region (10.73%); (3) furthermore, the purchase price guidance policy of raw milk drives price increase or price suppression in the links of the supply chain to promote a balanced distribution of profits among the participants in the chain. These conclusions all have good stability and have reference significance for further improving and adjusting the price support policy of raw milk to realize the sustainable development of the Chinese dairy industry. This will enhance the production confidence of Chinese raw milk producers and improve Chinese consumers' expectations and consumer psychology regarding domestic dairy products.

Online Food Shopping: A Conceptual Analysis for Research Propositions

Shopping foods online is different from shopping other things online. To stimulate more thinking and enrich potential future research imagination, this paper reviews for online food shopping features, offers a commentary, and proposes future research directions. The propositions include the following: (1) The design and implementation of online food shopping (eco)systems should engage the consumers and other stakeholders to co-create collective and social values; (2) A better fit between technologies’ and food businesses’ natures could generate better applications for online food shopping; (3) A business model with sound finance systems becomes the core of a healthy online food ecosystem; (4) The interaction and transformation between online (virtual) and offline (virtual) food businesses determines the dynamic development of future food shopping.

Nomen est omen: why we need to rename 'antimicrobial resistance'

The naming of diseases is a critical aspect of public health communication. In light of the recent renaming of the 'Wuhan novel coronavirus' to COVID-19, the names of other health threats must be reviewed. In particular, a new name is urgently needed for the global challenge typically referred to as 'antimicrobial resistance'. The current name is inconsistently used, difficult to pronounce and lacks meaning for lay audiences. It also fails to express the magnitude of the phenomenon's potential consequences for human medicine. This article reviews and evaluates key findings from several cross-disciplinary streams of research on the psycholinguistic properties of names. These include early psychology literature pertaining to the concept of 'word attensity', recent cognitive research on 'processing fluency' in the context of word recognition, and relevant marketing literature examining the components of successful branding strategies. Three key criteria-pronounceability, meaningfulness and specificity-are found to influence the perception of names and these are discussed in the context of antimicrobial resistance. The article demonstrates that the current term of 'antimicrobial resistance' falls short with regard to all three criteria and concludes with specific recommendations for the creation of a new name. Only the strategic choice of a single term that is (i) short and easy to pronounce; (ii) intuitively meaningful to lay audiences and indicative of the existential threat linked to antimicrobial resistance; and (iii) uniquely associated with the topic of antimicrobial resistance is likely to bring about overdue change in the global discussion of antimicrobial resistance.

Risk Overgeneralization in Times of a Contagious Disease Threat

People’s assessment of risks is swayed by their current feelings. COVID-19 invokes powerful feelings because it is (i) a salient, enormous threat, (ii) unfamiliar, and (iii) intertwined with xenophobia. These three factors are known to exert predictable influence on people’s risk overgeneralization, policy preference, and sociopolitical attitudes. We provide a succinct, illustrative review of empirical work on these dynamics in times of a disease outbreak (e.g., the 2009 H1N1 swine flu, the 2014 Ebola). Theoretical and applied implications for the present COVID-19 pandemic include the value of salience in motivating public opinion change, the importance of reducing unfamiliarity for curbing risk-averse tendencies, and the need for policies that guard against xenophobia-driven racism in collaborative efforts.

Exploring the temporal boundary conditions of the articulatory in-out preference effect

Earlier research has documented a preference for words with consonantal articulation patterns that move from the front to the back of the mouth (e.g., MENIKA) over words with reversely wandering consonantal articulation spots (e.g., KENIMA). The present experiments explored the temporal dynamics of the reading process in this in-out preference effect. In three experiments (total N = 344), we gradually reduced the presentation durations of inward and outward wandering words from 1000 ms down to 25 ms to approximate the minimum length of visual stimulus presentation required to trigger the effect. The in-out effect was reliably observed for exposure timings down to 50 ms, but vanished for 25 ms timings, which is line with previous evidence on phonological encoding. Thus, impressively, 50 ms of word presentation is sufficient to evoke the in-out effect. These findings suggest phonological activation to be a prerequisite and thus a driving mechanism of the in-out effect.

The influence of articulation dynamics on recognition memory

Previous research has demonstrated an effect of consonantal direction on preference, showing that words following inward articulation dynamics (e.g., EMOK or OPIK) are generally liked more than words following outward dynamics (e.g., EKOM or OKIP). The present studies extended this line of research by hypothesizing an effect of consonantal direction on recognition memory, specifically familiarity. In a total of 7 experimental studies (N = 1043), we tested and confirmed this hypothesis, consistently finding increased hits and false alarms for inward compared to outward pseudo-words. This difference was found to be based on a higher perceived familiarity for inward compared to outward pseudo-words. Alternative explanations of an affirmation tendency or a recollection advantage were ruled out in Experiments 4 and 5. Experiments 6a and 6b examined the role of articulation fluency and liking as potential mediators of the effect, but found that neither mediated the influence of consonantal direction on familiarity. Thus, the in-out familiarity effect documented here seems to be a phenomenon that is distinct from the previously described in-out preference effect.