Financial decision making (FDM) and awareness of one's own financial decision making abilities are both clinically and practically important constructs in older adults. Structural and functional neuroimaging may be useful to shed light on the neural mechanisms supporting these constructs and further help identify those at risk for making poor decisions and losing money. We used resting state (rs)-functional connectivity in the present study. We hypothesized that Frontoparietal-Salience (FP-SAL) between-network connectivity would be most strongly associated with FDM, while Default Mode Network-Salience (DMN-SAL) between-network connectivity would be more associated with financial awareness. Community-dwelling older adults (59% women, 67% White, 29% Black) were recruited with mean age=68.43 years (SD=5.14) and mean education=15.88 (SD=2.41). Primary outcomes included standardized measures of financial decision making, financial awareness metrics derived from metacognitive frameworks, and between-network connectivity values. After adjusting for demographic factors and individual within-network connectivity values, FDM was only associated with FP-SAL network connectivity. In contrast to the predictions of our hypothesis, higher between-network connectivity values were associated with lower FDM scores. No significant associations between DMN-SAL between network connectivity and financial awareness was found. Our preliminary findings suggest that the association between FP-SAL between network connectivity and FDM is not straightforward. Future studies using larger samples with alternate analytic approaches will be required to replicate these findings.
This study examines whether and how the Russia-Ukraine war influenced refereeing behavior in European professional football. Exploiting the outbreak of the conflict in February 2022 as an exogenous shock, we implement a high-dimensional fixed-effects model framework using detailed player-match data from Union of European Football Associations Champions League and Europa League competitions over the period 2015-2025. We show that, following the start of the war, Russian players faced a significantly higher probability of receiving red cards. In contrast, no comparable effects emerge for less severe disciplinary decisions, such as yellow cards, or for routine measures of on-field interactions. We also document meaningful heterogeneity across referee nationality groups: The relevant estimates are positive for some referee groups and null for others, suggesting that referee nationality may capture variation in the salience of the conflict. Overall, the results provide evidence that major geopolitical conflicts can generate selective behavioral distortions even within highly regulated and formally neutral institutional environments such as international sports.
Research on sustainability-focused marketing strategies has predominantly examined their effects on consumer choices and preferences, with limited attention to the underlying neuropsychological mechanisms. This study investigates these mechanisms by integrating explicit, indirect, and neurophysiological measures of consumer responses to supermarket products. Participants evaluated products before and after an evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure in which supermarket products were paired with climate change-related affective images (positive or negative) or neutral images. Explicit responses were assessed through self-reports, indirect responses through response latency-based scores, and neurophysiological responses through electroencephalogram markers commonly used in neuromarketing and affective neuroscience: Frontal Alpha Asymmetry, Frontal Gamma Asymmetry, and High Gamma Power. The results show EC could modulate most levels of measurement; however, this was dependent on the valence of images. Negative EC decreased purchase intention across indirect and emotional (Frontal Gamma Asymmetry) measures. In contrast, positive EC did not produce significant effects at any level of measurement. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating neuropsychological indices alongside traditional self-report measures to better understand the mechanisms through which sustainability-related marketing influences consumer responses.
Insect-based food, a potential solution for the escalating global food demand, faces consumer acceptance challenges in some regions. This article aims to understand the physiological reactions to an insect bar to assess its potential acceptance, thereby fostering the quest for sustainable food sources. An experiment was conducted with participants aged 18-55 years, who first completed a preexposure survey to assess their awareness of insect-based foods. Next, physiologic responses, including brain electrical activity (electroencephalography) and cardiac electrical activity (electrocardiography), were recorded while participants consumed an insect bar. After the consumption, a postexposure questionnaire was conducted to assess the bar's preference. The results highlight the need for improved communication about insect-based food and its advantages, given limited awareness. Still, when people are informed about it, they are more likely to accept it. Consuming the insect bar led to a more attentive state and higher electrophysiological activity, with participants self-reporting a preference for the insect bar. These findings suggest that the processed insect-based product should be enhanced to increase its acceptance and that marketing strategies such as free samples and tasting experiments could be effective in promoting this new alternative. This study is a pioneer in using electroencephalography and electrocardiography to assess insect-based food consumption. The mixed methods approach (survey plus physiologic signals) produces more sound findings.
Cooperative decision making provides a unique framework to examine neural adaptations supporting real-time negotiation. This study tested whether asymmetries in persuasive roles influence subsequent symmetric consensus formation. Thirty right-handed adults were paired into 15 dyads and underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning. In the preliminary phase, Member A acted as the persuader, while Member B was the persuadee. Dyads then engaged in a moral negotiation task requiring convergence on one of four statements. Negotiation outcomes were classified with the sentence ownership variable, which indicated whether the final decision corresponded to the initial choice of Member A, Member B, or an alternative option. Prefrontal cortex activity was recorded with six bilateral channels, analyzing oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin. Statistical analyses revealed higher deoxyhemoglobin values in the right compared to the left frontal region; in contrast, no significant effects of the sentence ownership variable on neural responses were found. These findings suggest that legacy asymmetries from persuasive roles do not shape neural dynamics during symmetric negotiation, whereas right prefrontal engagement might reflect adaptive control mechanisms under uncertainty.
The emotional characterization is a crucial application in the field of industrial neurosciences, where the objective is to objectively assess human experience through the employment of neurophysiological signals. In this scenario, the present study developed and validated a physiology-driven indicator of the user's emotional experience, namely, the emotional index, computed as the synthetic combination of the user's heart rate and the skin conductance level. The index was validated on a sample of 25 participants looking at a set of emotional videos taken from a previously validated affective database, thereby highlighting a substantial effect of valence and arousal labels in terms of heart rate and skin conductance level modulations. The results pointed out a significant effect of valence on heart rate values, chi(2)(4) = 31.14, p < .001, and an effect of arousal on the skin conductance level, F(24, 2.35) = 4.95, p = .007. Additionally, an effect of the stimuli emotional content was also found on values of the emotional index, chi(2)(4) = 29.57, p < .001. At the same time, the index demonstrated its capacity to overcome the limitations affecting a previous version of its definition while maintaining its correlation with it, r(s) (418) = .81, p < .001. In conclusion, the new computation of the emotional index was validated for the emotion characterization of video stimuli, and it was demonstrated to be more representative of the physiological response.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely recognized for enhancing companies' reputations. Despite the extensive CSR literature, less attention has been given to how companies' CSR behaviors influence consumer perceptions during product-harm crises. This study uses event-related potentials to investigate how CSR behaviors shape consumer perceptions when companies adopt different response strategies in the context of a product-harm crisis. Our findings reveal that, regardless of a company's CSR history, corrective response strategies lead to more positive consumer evaluations than denial ones. Notably, when adopting denial response strategies, companies with prior CSR behaviors will elicit higher consumer evaluations than companies without prior CSR behaviors. Additionally, at the initial stage of a crisis, consumers allocate less attentional resources to evaluate companies with (vs. without) prior CSR, resulting in smaller posterior N200 (N2p) amplitudes. Then, at the stage when companies implement response strategies to address the crisis, denial response strategies induce greater cognitive conflict in consumers, evoking larger anterior N200 (N2a) amplitudes compared to corrective ones. When adopting denial response strategies, companies with prior CSR behaviors will elicit smaller N2a than companies without prior CSR behaviors. These findings contribute to the CSR and crisis management literature and offer practical insights for companies in addressing product-harm crises.
Entrepreneurial action unfolds under time pressure and uncertainty, demanding rapid screening of cues and flexible control of behavior. We examined whether entrepreneurs differ from nonentrepreneurs in behavioral and neural indices of response inhibition during a visual go/no-go task recorded with electroencephalography. Thirty-five adults were enrolled (17 entrepreneurs, 18 nonentrepreneurs); after quality control, behavioral analyses included 24 participants (12 + 12) and event-related potential analyses included 26 (13 + 13). Primary behavioral endpoints showed that entrepreneurs responded faster than nonentrepreneurs in no-go and ignore conditions without accuracy costs (no group differences in hits, omissions, false alarms, or ignore errors), consistent with efficient control rather than deficit-driven impulsivity. Primary event-related potential endpoints, computed as pooled no-go indices across channels, revealed earlier N200 latency in entrepreneurs alongside longer and smaller P300, suggesting rapid conflict gating followed by more parsimonious or deferred context updating. From an economic perspective, faster inhibition without accuracy loss plausibly reduces downstream screening and due-diligence costs by curbing false alarms while maintaining speed in opportunity funnels. Findings are provisional given modest samples and task-specific constraints; we outline implications for training rapid stopping/ignoring and recommend preregistered, region of interest-based replications.
I study the link between exposure to anger in others and one's performance. To my knowledge, there are no formal empirical studies that focus on how anger in others may be associated to one's performance. I exploit the U.S. version of the nationally syndicated television cooking competition MasterChef and collect data on every instance in which judges objectively demonstrate anger to individual participants in each of the episodes in 10 years, from 2010 to 2020, of this competition. Contestants exposed to anger from judges end up higher in the final rankings and increase their probability of success in cooking challenges, as well as their probability of reaching the top three and even winning the competition. I test the robustness of my findings by repeating the exercise using the Canadian version MasterChef for the years 2014 to 2020 and find analogous results. In order to explore for causality, I control for potential endogeneity by exploiting the use of red clothing by contestants as an instrument of anger. My instrumental variables result provide modest, nonrobust support for causality.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is increasingly used by many companies as they have lots of advantages. While scholars have studied the effectiveness of AI in different domain, yet relatively limited research has explored the effect of AI design on consumers' affection and willingness to buy. By employing the event-related potentials (ERPs) method, we examined the psychological mechanism of designer type (AI designer vs. human designer) on consumers' perceived novelty, affection, and willingness to buy. The behavior results showed that the perceived novelty, affection, and willingness to buy for AI designer is higher than that for the human designer. The ERP results showed that the AI designer condition elicited an enlarged P2 and late positive potential compared with the human designer condition, indicating that the AI designer condition was perceived to be more positive. The results of our findings provide important theoretical and practical significance for the deeper understanding of consumers' psychological mechanism in AI application.
Understanding the mechanisms of visual attention is essential for analyzing consumer decision-making processes, particularly in book selection contexts. This study employs eye-tracking technology to investigate how shelf position, book cover design, and gender influence visual attention and consumer preferences. Two experiments were conducted. In Study 1, participants viewed two books, Domani, Domani and La Portalettere, both by Francesca Giannone, on a simulated shelf with randomized vertical positions to examine how shelf placement affects attention. Study 2 presented the same covers side by side on a neutral screen to isolate the effect of cover design and explore whether visual attention metrics predict willingness to buy. Results show that shelf position significantly influences visual attention, but its effectiveness depends on the specific visual properties of the book cover. La Portalettere, which featured a face and a red promotional label, attracted more attention across metrics such as dwell time and time to first fixation. However, this attention did not predict purchase intent. In contrast, Domani, Domani, although receiving less attention overall, exhibited a stronger association between fixation behavior and willingness to buy. Gender effects were limited, with a significant difference observed only in fixation count for La Portalettere. These findings suggest a distinction between automatic attention capture, driven by salient visual features, and deliberate engagement, which appears more predictive of consumer choices. This contributes to consumer psychology and neuromarketing literature by emphasizing the need to align visual salience with cognitive engagement when optimizing product display and design strategies.
The concept of sound symbolism is by now well established in the psycholinguistic community. From an application perspective, sound-symbolic mappings are thought to play a significant role in a number of naming contexts such as the naming of commercial products. Previous behavioral studies have demonstrated that (nonsemantic) brand names communicate information about the respective products based on sound-symbolic principles and that sound-symbolically matching (vs. mismatching) product-name pairings are preferred by consumers. In the present electroencephalography study, we investigated whether the observed sound-symbolic associations are reflected in an underlying modulation of neural activity during brand name processing. Participants were presented with a line drawing of a cabriolet or a sport utility vehicle, followed by a fictional car name that contained the vowel letter (linked to smallness, light weight, and high speed) or the vowel letter (linked to the opposite characteristics). The amplitude of the parietal N400 component of the event-related brain potential was found to be reduced for sound-symbolically matching (vs. mismatching) information, in particular with regard to the cabriolet. These data indicate that the car's presentation automatically preactivated (and thereby facilitated the processing of) linguistic representations via sound-symbolic links and that the phenomenon of sound symbolism is thus deeply anchored in the human brain.
Losses are generally more motivating than gains. However, gains and losses often have similar effects on effortful performance. We explored how graded positive and negative incentives and subjective value of effort affected performance and preparatory motor activity in sensorimotor and frontal cortices during a sustained vigilance reaction time (RT) task. Participants (N = 21) performed speeded responses while expecting a monetary reward (5 p. 10 p), avoiding a monetary loss (-5 p, -10 p), or receiving no incentive (0 p), if they responded faster than their median RT. Amplitudes of cortical alpha-, beta-, and theta-oscillations were analyzed using the event-related desynchronization (ERD) method during the period of motor preparation. Subjective value of effort was evaluated using a cognitive effort discounting task in gain and loss conditions. RTs were significantly faster, and alpha- and beta-band ERD was significantly stronger over contralateral sensorimotor, and frontal areas in the alpha-band, as larger incentives were offered, regardless of whether the incentives were losses or gains. There was no significant difference in the slopes of RTs or ERDs between gains and losses. Participants were willing to expend more effort when they expected losses compared with gains, but SV did not correlate with RTs or ERD during the vigilance task. Results suggest a symmetric effect of graded losses and gains on performance and cortical activity prior to a speeded RT movement. Effortful performance is likely determined by instantaneous evaluation of reward magnitude and the state of sensorimotor cortex activity but not the economic value of effort.
Blind box products, particularly those from Pop Mart in Asia, have gained significant popularity in the Chinese retail market. The probability of receiving different product styles and their pricing structures significantly influence consumers' cognitive responses to probabilistic items. This study employs event-related potentials and questionnaires to explore how variations in probability and pricing affect consumer responses to two types of blind box products: sports and clothing. The results indicate that changes in probability substantially impact consumer cognition, potentially evoking a gambler's mentality and influencing purchasing intentions. Study 1, involving 31 participants, found that increased P2 amplitudes in response to low-probability items likely reflect stronger positive emotional reactions, while larger P3 amplitudes in response to high-probability items suggest greater attentional resource allocation. Study 2, with 323 participants, identified a significant link between perceived scarcity and gambler's psychology, affecting risk perception. These findings suggest that scarcity, in conjunction with varying probabilities, alters consumers' attention and emotional responses, triggering a gambler's psychology and enhancing purchase intent. This research offers valuable insights for marketing strategies involving probabilistic products, emphasizing the roles of P2 and P3 amplitudes as indicators of emotional and attentional responses in marketing such products.
This study highlighted how health crises influence the mental health of human beings. COVID-19 increases the health crises and brings various emotional effects such as fear, stress, anxiety, and loneliness. In this study, we find out how fear of COVID-19 affects loneliness and perceived stress, which in turn reduces mental well-being. This study also highlighted the moderating role of anxiety. This cross-sectional study uses a quantitative research design for the collection of data from the trainers who served in physical education training institutes in China. Respondents were chosen using simple random sampling techniques. We applied statistical techniques including correlation, partial least squares structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping approach for analysis. The outcomes of statistical analysis confirmed the prediction of fear of COVID-19 for the feelings of loneliness and perceived stress. Furthermore, the findings confirmed that fear of COVID-19 significantly predicted that the mental well-being of trainers is mediated by perceived stress. Finally, the findings revealed that anxiety plays a strengthening role in these connections. The findings suggested that increasing levels of health crisis caused psychological disturbance. These psychological effects reduce the mental health of the individuals in destructive ways.
Recent methodological innovations using the Heckman selection model have focused on how to make meaningful inferences in the absence of exclusion restrictions. Yet, exclusion restrictions and economic assumptions are part of deductive reasoning and econometric thought. The article contributes methodologically by formulating economic assumptions and exclusion restrictions using results from alcohol and drug-related clinical trials. I then use two population health surveys to illustrate how the derived exclusion restrictions lower the burden on bounding parameters of interest. The resulting exercise leverages the best of both clinical trials and observational studies and is generalizable to various contexts.
To understand how information load systematically affects mental effort and decision quality in a project management context, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with 23 participants. We used a delayed-response task with a separate exposure period in which participants visually explored information about project performance in the form of graphs, a delay period in which participants could continue to mentally prepare their decision, and a response period in which they made decisions on the continuation of the project. While in a prestudy we found that an increasing information load affects the self-reported mental effort in a U-shaped form, that is, the medium load condition feels less cognitively demanding compared to the high and the low load conditions, in the main study, the blood oxygen level-dependent signal in regions of the brain associated with mental effort-namely, the left putamen-exhibited a more complex pattern. We found that when participants were presented with six compared to four graphs, the blood oxygen level-dependent signal reflected an increase during the exposure but not during the delay period. Instead, when increasing the amount of data points within the graphs (two, four, or eight), there was a signal increase during the delay but not in the exposure period. Further, we found a significant positive correlation between the activity in the left putamen (exposure and delay) and decision quality. Our results suggest that the left putamen plays a crucial role in the coordination of limited cognitive resources for acquiring information and decision making. We discuss the implications for project management.
Procrastination, both active procrastination and passive procrastination (PP), and delegation (DEL) are critical behaviors impacting action regulation, agentic control, and temporal dimensions of task management. This study aimed to investigate the relation between behavioral data-responses and response time (RTs)-electrophysiological (EEG) correlates and individual differences, as measured by the Big Five Inventory and the General Decision-Making Style. Participants completed a real-life script scenario with EEG recording, followed by psychometric tests. The study revealed different significant findings. Higher rational decision-making tendencies and conscientiousness are associated with shorter PPRTs, suggesting more efficient task management. In contrast, avoidant decision makers exhibit longer PPRTs, reflecting their hesitation and procrastination tendencies. Emotional stability emerges as a critical factor for effective DEL; emotionally stable individuals manage stress better and demonstrate greater trust in delegating tasks. EEG findings indicate that active procrastinators show increased delta, alpha, and beta band activity in frontal brain regions, signifying heightened cognitive engagement and effortful processing. Conversely, effective DEL is linked to activation in the right temporoparietal junction, an area crucial for empathy and social cognition. The study provides valuable insights into the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying procrastination and DEL and can inform strategies to enhance task management and productivity.
In today's era of increasing life expectancy, investment is crucial for long-term financial stability and well-being. While previous research has examined ambiguity tolerance and financial literacy among investors, little is known about the psychological characteristics of different types of investors and their relationships with well-being. This study explored how investment behavior types relate to long-term orientation and psychological well-being. Four groups were compared: long-term stock investors (those in funds focused on long-term investments), general stock investors, cryptocurrency investors, and noninvestors. Participants completed measures of long-term orientation, life satisfaction, ikigai (sense of life worth living), positive emotions, and attitudes toward ambiguity. No significant differences in long-term orientation were found across groups, but investment groups reported higher life satisfaction and ikigai scores than noninvestors. Long-term stock investors showed greater contentment and less absolutism in attitudes toward ambiguity. Mediation analysis indicated a marginally significant mediating effect of long-term orientation between long-term stock investment and ikigai. These findings suggest that investment behavior, particularly long-term stock investment, may influence psychological well-being through various pathways beyond financial returns. The results highlight the potential psychological benefits of investment and suggest that different investment approaches may promote distinct patterns of positive emotions and cognitive attitudes. This study offers new insights into investors' psychological characteristics and the link between investment behavior and well-being.
This article explores the presence of home advantage concerning both team performance and referee decisions in major women's soccer leagues. Specifically, we investigate whether this phenomenon is associated with crowding, using stadium attendance density as an explanatory factor, moving beyond the binary distinction between open and closed doors. Drawing on a unique data set spanning various women's soccer leagues from 2018 to 2023, our findings indicate that teams in densely populated stadiums demonstrate enhanced performance across all examined indicators. This underscores the significance of stadium noise, rather than merely the presence of fans, in influencing home team performance. Additionally, a slight home advantage in terms of referee decisions is observed exclusively in matches officiated by male referees, regardless of stadium crowds. This suggests that male referees may experience heightened home pressure compared to their female counterparts.
