Robotic Chef Versus Human Chef: The Effects of Anthropomorphism, Novel Cues, and Cooking Difficulty Level on Food Quality Prediction.

Robots have been increasingly common in hospitality and tourism, especially being favored under the threat of COVID-19. However, people generally do not think robots are appropriate for cooking food in hotels and restaurants, possibly because they hold low quality predictions for robot-cooked food. This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing people's quality prediction for robot-cooked food. In three experiments, participants viewed pictures of human and robotic chefs and dishes cooked by them, and then made food quality predictions and rated their perceptions of the chefs. The results showed that participants predicted the foods cooked by robotic chefs were above average quality; however, they consistently held lower food quality prediction for robotic chefs than human chefs, regardless of dishes' cooking difficulty level, novel cues in chefs and food, or the anthropomorphism level of robotic chefs. The results also showed that increasing the appearance of robotic chefs from low or medium to high anthropomorphism, or enabling robotic chefs to cook high cooking difficulty level food could promote food quality prediction. These results revealed the current acceptance of robot-cooked food, suggesting possible ways to improve food quality predictions.

Lighting up well-being with Bulb

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, two problems arose. Students lacked 1) social opportunities and 2) motivation to maintain their schedules, e.g., studying or relaxing, as their work-life balance disappeared. Thus, we designed a social companion robot, Bulb, that helped students cycle through daily activities with subtle cues, i.e., light, gaze, and movements. Bulb's "head"would light up with different colors or it gazes at different parts of the room, e.g., at the laptop to hint at studying or wiggling to suggest a small break. Five students evaluated Bulb through at-home use, which demonstrated that Bulb was seen as a "living being"and students were responsive to its social cues, like following Bulb's gaze, resulting in a higher awareness and follow-through of students' schedules. Our contribution is in designing a social companion robot that subtly persuaded students through light and anthropomorphic social cues, helping them maintain their daily schedule during the pandemic. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Mindfulness Meditation App Abandonment During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Observational Study.

Objectives: Mindfulness meditation apps are used by millions of adults in the USA to improve mental health. However, many new app subscribers quickly abandon their use. The purpose of this study was to determine the behavioral, demographic, and socioeconomic factors associated with the abandonment of meditation apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A survey was distributed to subscribers of a popular meditation app, Calm, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 that assessed meditation app behavior and meditation habit strength, as well as demographic and socioeconomic information. App usage data were also collected from the start of each participant's subscription until May 2021. A total of 3275 respondents were included in the analyses. Participants were divided into three cohorts according to their subscription start date: (1) long-term subscribers (> 1 year before pandemic start), (2) pre-pandemic subscribers (< 4 months before pandemic start), and (3) pandemic subscribers (joined during the pandemic). Results: Meditating after an existing routine was associated with a lower risk of app abandonment for pre-pandemic subscribers (hazard ratio = 0.607, 95% CI: 0.422, 0.874; p = 0.007) and for pandemic subscribers (hazard ratio = 0.434, 95% CI: 0.285, 0.66; p < 0.001). Additionally, meditating "whenever I can" was associated with lower risk of abandonment among pandemic subscribers (hazard ratio = 0.437, 95% CI: 0.271, 0.706; p < 0.001), and no behavioral factors were significant predictors of app abandonment among the long-term subscribers. Conclusions: These results show that combining meditation with an existing daily routine was a commonly utilized strategy for promoting persistent meditation app use during the COVID-19 pandemic for many subscribers. This finding supports existing evidence that pairing new behaviors with an existing routine is an effective method for establishing new health habits. Preregistration: This study is not pre-registered.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Disadvantaged Groups' Experience with Perceived Barriers, Cues to Action, and Attitudes.

PURPOSE: Drawing from the Health Belief Model, we explored how disadvantaged groups in the U.S., including Black, Hispanic, less educated and wealthy individuals, experienced perceived barriers and cues to action in the context of the COVID-19 vaccination. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey administered in March 2021. SETTING: USA. SUBJECTS: A national sample of U.S. residents (n = 795) recruited from Prolific. MEASURES: Perceived barriers (clinical, access, trust, religion/spiritual), cues to action (authorities, social circles), attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination. ANALYSIS: Factor analysis and Structural Equation Model (SEM) were performed in STATA 16. RESULTS: Black and less educated individuals experienced higher clinical barriers (CI [.012, .33]; CI [.027, .10]), trust barriers (CI [.49, .92]; CI [.057, .16]), and religious/spiritual barriers (CI [.28, .66]; CI [.026, .11]). Hispanics experienced lower levels of clinical barriers (CI [-.42, .0001]). Clinical, trust, and religious/spiritual barriers were negatively related to attitudes toward vaccination (CI [-.45, -.15]; CI [-.79, -.51]; CI [-.43, -.13]). Black and less educated individuals experienced fewer cues to action by authority (CI [-.47, -.083]; CI [-.093, -.002]) and social ties (CI [-.75, -.33]; CI [-.18, -.080]). Lower-income individuals experienced fewer cues to action by social ties (CI [-.097, -.032]). Cues from social ties were positively associated with vaccination attitudes (CI [.065, .26]). CONCLUSION: Communication should be personalized to address perceived barriers disadvantaged groups differentially experience and use sources who exert influences on these groups.

Politicization of a Pathogen: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of COVID-19 Responses in a Nationally Representative U.S. Sample

Understanding population-level variability in responses to pathogens over time is important for developing effective health-based messages targeted at ideologically diverse populations. Research from psychological and political sciences suggests that party and elite cues shape how people respond to major threats like climate change. Research on responses to the COVID-19 pandemic suggests similar variability across party identities;however, prior work has methodological limitations. This prospective, longitudinal study of a large probability-based nationally representative U.S. sample assessed in March–April 2020 (N = 6,514) and then 6 months later in September–October 2020 (N = 5,661) demonstrates that COVID-19 fear, perceived COVID-19 death risk, and reported health-protective behaviors became increasingly polarized over the first 6 months of the pandemic. Initial differences between Democrats and Republicans failed to converge over time and became more pronounced. Responses among Republicans were further polarized by support for former President Donald Trump: Trump Republicans initially reported weaker responses to COVID-19 than non-Trump Republicans, and these differences became more pronounced over time. Importantly, political identity and Trump support were not linked to perceived infection risk of a nonpoliticized pathogen, the flu. Finally, political identity and Republican Trump support prospectively predicted COVID-19 vaccine intentions 6 months into the pandemic. © 2023 International Society of Political Psychology.

Analyzing Multimodal Datasets for Detecting Online COVID Misinformation: A Preliminary Survey Study

Amidst the recent COVID pandemic, the extensive spread of misinformation has led to such significant societal ramifications that the World Health Organization has termed this issue as an 'infodemic'. Addressing this COVID infodemic problem requires careful analysis and correct interpretation of the COVID related information claims. While this research need has led to the creation of multiple datasets for aiding COVID misinformation detection, these current datasets primarily include textual data to serve this purpose. Prior works involving these datasets has made limited use of the implicit graphic image contents in this regard. Existing literature indicates a lack of proper utilization of the valuable insights that can be derived from the visual cues found in online COVID articles, sites, and social media posts. In order to address this research gap, we perform a preliminary analysis of three different multimodal COVID datasets, which are traditionally used for COVID information claim processing. We specifically collect the images plus infographic elements from the online websites listed in these datasets, and come up with five notable categories for these COVID visual cues while studying them. To our knowledge, this initial survey study is a first of its kind that investigates multimodal COVID datasets, and leads to a unique collection of COVID image artifacts. This paper produces a strategic taxonomy of these various COVID visual cues as an important contribution, and makes an effort to advocate for the need of explicitly multimodal datasets that account for both textual and image data to successfully analyze COVID information claims. © 2023 IEEE.

Experts or Politicians? Citizen Responses to Vaccine Endorsements across Five OECD Countries

Who is more influential in shaping citizens' health-related behaviors, experts or politicians? We conduct five conjoint experiments on 6,255 residents of France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, asking them to evaluate COVID-19 vaccines alongside randomly varying endorsements from national politicians and medical professionals. In every country, our results show that citizens are more likely to rely on medical professionals, the experts, more than on politicians when choosing a COVID-19 vaccine. Even after accounting for citizens' political alignment with the government, our evidence reveals that politicians play a very limited role in shaping vaccine acceptance. These results have implications for the role of political elites in shaping people's behaviors amid a large-scale crisis.

'All hands on deck' or separate lifeboats? Public support for European economic solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic

What are the sources of public support for international aid in times of crises? This paper investigates the determinants of public support for the EU Covid-19 aid package ('NextGenerationEU', NGEU), the largest aid package in EU history. Using what is to the best of our knowledge the first EU-wide study of public opinion on the Covid-19 rescue package, we first establish that public support for within-EU redistribution is influenced by long-standing factors such as ideology and citizen identities, corroborating previous literature. Next, our vignette survey experiment shows that short-term shifts in support for the rescue package are driven mostly by elite endorsement cues rather than information about the precise terms of aid or amount. We also find that the role of elite endorsement cues varies across different subsets of the population depending on their level of political sophistication, national level attachment and country context. Conversely, the effects of policy details about the aid package are more mixed. Thus, in the face of multidimensional decision-making in times of crises, national institutions are a key catalyst of moving short-term support for policies of international solidarity. We discuss how our findings have implications for democratic governance and accountability in the EU. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of European Public Policy is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Influence of information presentation form on online learning based on dynamics theory of visual perception form

With the development of information technology, online learning has become an important way of teaching in colleges and universities. The importance of online learning is particularly prominent, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. How to improve online learning quality is a common problem faced by educators. Online learning quality is closely related to information presentation form, so it is necessary to study the influence of information presentation form on online learning. Based on the dynamics theory of visual perception form and its operating principle, this study compares the differences in post-test scores, cognitive load and satisfaction between the information dynamics presentation form and the traditional information presentation form through a two-factor random experiment. The data analysis shows that information presentation form plays a significant role in improving students' academic performance and reducing cognitive load. To a certain extent, there search proves the effectiveness of the information presentation form based on dynamics theory of visual perception form in promoting online learning. Relevant improvement suggestions are proposed to provide a reference and basis for the in-depth development of online learning and the improvement of online learning quality. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems is the property of IOS Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Acceptance of service robots: a meta-analysis in the hospitality and tourism industry

Robot services have become an essential competitive differentiator in the hospitality and tourism industry. Seminal studies indicate the need for more profound knowledge about the factors that can increase the acceptance of service robots. This paper investigates the relationship between informational cues and acceptance of service robots through a meta-analysis. Our study also analyzes the acceptance of service robots through contextual characteristics moderators. The results showed that perceived robot trust influences the relationship between informational cues (anthropomorphism and social influence) and acceptance of service robots. By analyzing previous studies, our framework demonstrates that acceptance of service robots has increased more after the COVID pandemic than before the COVID pandemic. Furthermore, the relationship between attitude toward robots and robot usage intention tends to be greater in humanoid service robots (than social robots) and analytical intelligence (than mechanical intelligence). © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Zoomvesting: angel investors' perception of subjective cues in online pitching

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic transformed angel investment meetings from in-person to online. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether this move affected angel investors' perception of subjective behavioral cues in pitch sessions within a large Brazilian angel group.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed an exploratory approach using a triangulation process that combined observation, documents and interviews. Data collected by observation, document studies, and interviews were themed, coded, and organized during the research.FindingsThe move from in-person to online pitches did not seem to affect levels of trustworthiness or arrogance as angels assessed more message content during Q&A sessions. Body movement, gestures and "eye gaze” (i.e. the look on a presenter's face) played a central role in passion assessment during in-person meetings. Body language was highly limited during online sessions and tone of voice became the main source of passion assessment.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study suggest that pitches at online meetings affect angel investors' perception of founders' subjective cues, particularly cues pertaining to passion. Entrepreneurs should be trained to convey passion with tone of voice and to improve their body language in the context of webcam use. The interviews with volunteer sampling were subject to volunteer bias. Additionally, the findings may be affected by cultural context.Practical implicationsA practical contribution of this study is to highlight the need for entrepreneurs to be trained for online pitches. In an online setting, body language is limited, but it is still possible to use one's hands and tone of voice to connect better to investors.Originality/valueThis study is unique because it captures the transition of angel investment meetings from in-person affairs before the pandemic to online meetings during the pandemic crisis. These unique circumstances provided a real-world laboratory to observe founders' subjective cue effects on angel investment decision-making.

Understanding the predictors of hand hygiene using aspects of the theory of planned behaviour and temporal self-regulation theory.

OBJECTIVE: Adherence to proper hand hygiene practice is relatively low and is particularly salient in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Having a greater understanding of the psychosocial predictors of engaging in proper hand hygiene is warranted. One way to do this is through the application of a combined theory of planned behaviour and temporal self-regulation theory model. DESIGN: A prospective two-part study was conducted between May - November 2020, with N = 232 Australians. At time one, variables from both the theory of planned behaviour (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, and intention) and temporal self-regulation theory (habit, environmental cues, and planning) were completed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: One week later, engagement in proper hand hygiene behaviour over the previous week was assessed. RESULTS: Two hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted, with 47% of variance accounted for in intention, with subjective norm being the strongest predictor, and 38% of variance accounted for in hand hygiene behaviour, with intention being the strongest predictor. Environmental cues also moderated the relationship between intention and behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: To increase intention, incorporating subjective norm messages in advertisements may be helpful. Incorporating environmental cues in places where hand washing is recommended may assist in increasing hand hygiene.

Factors related to adherence with the implementation of COVID-19 health protocols in a traditional market traders' community in East Java, Indonesia.

Objectives: To observe the relationship of perceived seriousness, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and cues to action with adherence to coronavirus disease-2019 protocols among traders. Method: The descriptive, quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted from July to August 2021, in Jember Regency, East Java, Indonesia, and comprised traders in a traditional market. Data was collected using a demographic questionnaire, a questionnaire based on the Health Belief Model, and a coronovirus disease-2019 protocol adherence questionnaire after confirming the validity and reliability of the instruments. RESULTS: Of the 332 subjects, 191(57.5%) were females and 141(42.5%) were males. The largest age group was 30-39 years 137(41.3%), followed by 40-49 years in 132(39.8%). Overall, 293(88.3%) subjects had no history of chronic diseases. The main sources of information related to coronavirus disease-2019 were family/friends 84(25.3%), social media 83(25%) and television 82(24.7%). There were significant relationships of perceived susceptibility (p=0.000; r=0.215), perceived seriousness (p=0.004; r=0.157), perceived benefits (p=0.003; r=0.163), perceived barriers (p=0.001; r=-0.178) and cues to action (p=0.002; r=0.168) with protocol adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and cues to action were found to affect a person's adherence with coronavirus disease-2019 protocols.

Should I stay or should I go? Benefits of crowd-checking technology for a face-to-face shopping experience

Purpose: Long sales periods (i.e. Christmas time, Black Friday, etc.) and the risk of contagion while shopping (i.e. during pandemics like COVID-19) showed the extent to which crowded shopping environments have negative effects on consumers' behavior. Hence, using terror management theory (TMT) and stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) approach, the authors aims to develop a new model to investigate the effect of crowd-checking technology on shopping anxiety, the perceived value of shopping experience and willingness to pay. Design/methodology/approach: Using a cross-sectional research design and with a help of an independent research company, the authors collected 1,000 valid responses from individuals residing in the UK. Findings: Results showed that crowd-checking technology cues reduce shopping anxiety, improve value perceptions and increase willingness to pay. In addition, the efficacy of technology in reducing shopping anxiety is moderated by customers' shopping orientation. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is the first one investigating crowd monitoring systems used at the initial stage of consumers' journey to show the number of consumers in-store in real-time. It contributes to the literature on technology applications in retailing by providing evidence that technology cues reduce shopping anxiety, which in turn enhances customer-perceived value from the shopping experience and increases the willingness to pay in stores with embedded crowd-checker technology. The study also extends the application of TMT in a new context. © 2023, Davit Marikyan, Eleonora Pantano and Daniele Scarpi.

Effects of visual information on the face masked speech communication in Covid-secure classrooms

Acoustical measurements and speech intelligibility tests were carried out to investigate the effects of masks on speech communication experienced in real Covid-secure university classrooms during the pandemic. Face-masked speech levels and noise levels were measured to understand the acoustical effects of masks on speech sounds during 15 multiple lectures in 3 university classrooms. The speech intelligibility scores were also evaluated for lower and higher SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) conditions, and for with and without the presence of visual information conditions to investigate the effects of both the acoustic and visual signals in understanding speech communication in actual classroom situations. In the 3 active university classrooms the students experienced on average: speech levels of 55.1 dBA (σ = 5.5 dBA), noise levels of 42.3 dBA (σ = 3.9 dBA), and a speech-to-noise ratio of 12.8 dBA σ = 5.2 dBA). The mean SNR values at the listener's position for the 15 lectures varied from 3.6 dBA to 20.0 dBA. The use of a portable sound amplification system increases the face-masked speech levels mostly at mid and high frequencies (500–4 kHz), thus it can be more useful for achieving higher SNR values in classrooms. The presence of visual cues have little effect on achieving more higher speech intelligibility scores in higher SNR conditions. The present results show that visual obstruction of the talker's mouth decreases speech intelligibility scores by a maximum of 10% in lower SNR conditions, particularly at a SNR of 6 dBA or lower. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

The Influence of Website Social Cues: A Cross-Culture Comparison

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet has become one of the most crucial platform for people all over the world. The online market and online shopping have become the most popular pastimes among internet users. This study gathered 560 valid responses from Thai and Taiwanese participants. The results from experiment revealed that the social cues and expertise of reviewers had a substantial impact on the responses of Thailand and Taiwan customers. The results of this study indicated the level of social cues has a significant main effect on trust, purchase intention, and perceived information quality on the customer's response. Furthermore, the expertise of reviewers resulted in a significantly higher level of trust, purchase intention, and perceived information quality for the customer. Our study results suggest that the level of social cues and the expertise of reviewers in the online store website have an influence on consumer perception in both countries.

Detrimental impact of contagious disease cues on consumer preference for anthropomorphic products.

Despite the extensive use of anthropomorphism strategy in marketing practices, little research attention has been given to the environmental factors that influence consumer preference for anthropomorphic products. This research examines when and why contagious disease cues can influence consumer preference for anthropomorphic products. The results from four empirical experiments consistently show that when exposed to contagious disease cues, consumers exhibit a lower preference for anthropomorphic products (Study 1), which is mediated by social withdrawal (Study 2). Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that this detrimental effect would be attenuated for products in digital (vs. physical) format (Study 3), or in regions with low (vs. high) local severity of the contagious disease (Study 4). These findings contribute to the literature on contagious diseases and anthropomorphism and offer important managerial implications. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11002-022-09614-x.

Head turning is an effective cue for gaze following: Evidence from newly sighted individuals, school children and adults.

In referential communication, gaze is often interpreted as a social cue that facilitates comprehension and enables word learning. Here we investigated the degree to which head turning facilitates gaze following. We presented participants with static pictures of a man looking at a target object in a first and third block of trials (pre- and post-intervention), while they saw short videos of the same man turning towards the target in the second block of trials (intervention). In Experiment 1, newly sighted individuals (treated for congenital cataracts; N = 8) benefited from the motion cues, both when comparing their initial performance with static gaze cues to their performance with dynamic head turning, and their performance with static cues before and after the videos. In Experiment 2, neurotypical school children (ages 5-10 years; N = 90) and adults (N = 30) also revealed improved performance with motion cues, although most participants had started to follow the static gaze cues before they saw the videos. Our results confirm that head turning is an effective social cue when interpreting new words, offering new insights for a pathways approach to development.

The whiteboard: visualising personal agency in a lockdown microcosm

This visual-essay is based in the domestic space during Covid-19 lockdown in NSW, Australia, from 24 March to 25 May 2020. It is an auto-ethnographic documentation of how one family managed living with ADHD under lockdown. Assumptions and stereotypes about ADHD are broken down and challenged in the supporting narrative. These explain the complexity of living with ADHD and illustrate how very small, seemingly insignificant acts can have a large impact on managing the compounding effect an unprecedented situation like lockdown, on issues prevalent in those with ADHD such as anxiety, organisation, and lack of control over in personal circumstances. These are framed within the larger context of preceding catastrophic 2019/2020 summer bushfires that occurred in Australia, to provide the reader with insights into the emotional states in which many people in Australia entered lockdown. The author invites the reader to pay attention to the details of each of these images, to observe the visual communication cues that appear on the whiteboards, such handwriting by different people, doodles, illustrations, colour coding, and the layout that evolved over time, as personal agency within the family members developed.

The roles of risk perception, negative emotions and perceived efficacy in the association between COVID-19 infection cues and preventive behaviors: a moderated mediation model.

Preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic are especially critical to the protection of individuals whose family members or acquaintances have been infected. However, limited research has explored the influence of infection cues on preventive behaviors. This study proposed an interaction model of environment-cognitive/affective-behavior to elucidate the mechanism by which infection cues influence preventive behaviors and the roles of risk perception, negative emotions, and perceived efficacy in that influence. To explore the relationships among these factors, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey in 34 provinces in China during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 26,511 participants responded to the survey, and 20,205 valid responses (76.2%) were obtained for further analysis. The moderated mediation results show that infection cues positively predicted preventive behaviors in a manner mediated by risk perception and negative emotions. Moreover, perceived efficacy moderated the influence of infection cues not only on preventive behaviors but also on risk perception and negative emotions. The higher the perceived efficacy, the stronger these influences were. These findings validated our model, which elucidates the mechanisms underlying the promoting effect of infection cues on preventive behaviors during the initial stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications of these results for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond are discussed.