Reminders of COVID-19 social distancing can intensify physical pain.

Social distance regulations have been widely implemented to control the global COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals have thus been experiencing social pain through social distance regulations. Prior research has shown that social and physical pains share a common neural alarm system. Hence, COVID-19 social distancing should enhance sensitivity to physical pain. Two laboratory studies were conducted to test the spillover effect of COVID-19 social distancing on physical pain. The findings supported our hypothesis by showing that participants who were reminded of COVID-19 social distancing reported a higher level of pain perception in response to immersion in hot water (Experiment 1, N = 102) and expressed a lower pain threshold measured by a pressure algometer than did those of controls (Experiment 2, N = 140). This may be the first experimental evidence demonstrating that people primed with COVID-19 social distancing have increased sensitivity to physical pain. Our findings suggest that people might be more likely to experience physical pain under the impact of COVID-19 social distancing. The association between a heightened sense of social disconnection in a global pandemic and increased sensitivity to physical pain should receive more attention.

An unintended consequence of social distance regulations: COVID-19 social distancing promotes the desire for money.

Social distance regulations have been widely adopted during the global COVID-19 pandemic. From an evolutionary perspective, social connection and money are interchangeable subsistence resources for human survival. The substitutability principle of human motivation posits that scarcity in one domain (e.g., social connection) could motivate people to acquire or maintain resources in another domain (e.g., money). Two experiments were conducted to test the possibility that COVID-19 social distancing enhances the desire for money. Results showed that compared with controls, participants receiving social distancing primes (via recollection of experiences of social distancing or a Chinese glossary-search task) offered less money in the dictator game, showed lower willingness towards charitable donation (Experiment 1; N = 102), donated less money to a student fund, and rated money as having more importance (Experiment 2; N = 140). Our findings have far-reaching implications for financial decisions, charitable donations, and prosociality during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exploring the Benefit and Sacrifice Factors of Virtual Reality Gameplay.

Although Virtual reality (VR) entertainment is now relatively popular, the adoption of VR devices is still low. In this study, a framework based benefit and sacrifice factors was developed to understand players' intention to use VR devices to play games. Online questionnaire items were developed and published to collect the responses from university students in Taiwan. The feedback of 152 inexperienced players and 150 experienced players were collected. The eleven hypotheses were tested by using SmartPLS, a structural equation modeling (SEM) tool. The analysis results show that the influences of the benefit factors (flow, spatial presence, and relaxation) on the adoption intention in two groups are consistent. All of the positive influences are supported. Moreover, visual fatigue had the strongest negative effects on flow and intention. Players who are opener to new technology are more possible to adopt VR devices. The findings can provide insights to VR device developers to design their VR devices/contents and marketing strategies.

The Power of the Virtual Ideal Self in Weight Control: Weight-Reduced Avatars Can Enhance the Tendency to Delay Gratification and Regulate Dietary Practices.

The tendency to discount larger future benefits in favor of smaller immediate gains (i.e., temporal discounting) is relevant to the issue of obesity. Successful weight loss requires individuals to sacrifice immediate culinary pleasures in favor of future health gains. Based on the notion that increasing the vividness of one's future self may mitigate temporal discounting and promote the ability to delay gratification, we examined whether viewing one's weight-reduced self (i.e., the ideal self) in a virtual environment can decrease temporal discounting and lead to better regulation of dietary practices. Seventy-six undergraduates who had reported an intention to lose weight were recruited to participate in a laboratory experiment and were randomly assigned to interact with either the weight-reduced self (experimental condition) or the present self (control condition) by looking into a dressing mirror in a virtual fitting room. A temporal-discounting task and a taste test were subsequently administered. Results showed that, compared with control participants, participants who viewed their weight-reduced avatars ate less ice cream in a taste test and were more likely to choose a sugar-free drink as a reward. The discounting rate mediated the association between the avatar manipulation and the amount of ice cream eaten in the subsequent taste test. Overall, our findings suggest that a computer-generated image of one's weight-reduced self may assist in resisting impulses that promote immediate gratification over delayed benefits. This research provides a new approach for controlling impulsive behavior such as dietary regulation and weight control.

Does trust promote more teamwork? Modeling online game players' teamwork using team experience as a moderator.

The need for teamwork has grown significantly in today's organizations. Especially for online game communities, teamwork is an important means of online game players' engagement. This study aims to investigate the impacts of trust on players' teamwork with affective commitment and normative commitment as mediators. Furthermore, this research includes team experience as a moderator to compare the difference between different player groups. A model was proposed and tested on 296 online game players' data using structural equation modeling. Findings revealed that team experience moderated the relationship between trust and teamwork. The results indicated that trust promotes more teamwork only for players with high experience through affective commitment than those who with low experience. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Keep logging in! Experimental evidence showing the relation of affiliation needs to the idea of online social networking.

As social networking sites (SNS) increasingly provide social connections that meet the need for affiliation, people are developing symbiotic relationships with these sites. Drawing on the notion that people motivated by affiliation may increase their attention to sources that provide social connections, we conducted a lab experiment to explore whether priming affiliation needs would prompt the idea of online social networking. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three between-subjects conditions (affiliation arousal, social exclusion, control) in which we employed the scrambled-sentence paradigm to manipulate affiliation motivations. Each experimental condition was followed by a modified Stroop task (a color naming task) to test reaction times to SNS and non-SNS terms (including general terms and brand names). People who were primed to think about a topic typically showed slowed reaction times for naming the color of related words (i.e., Stroop interference), as those words become more interesting and accessible. Confirming our hypothesis, participants took longer to name the font color of SNS-related words than that of matched general words when affiliation motivation was evoked. Moreover, priming with affiliation motivation created more Stroop interference for SNS brand names rather than for other global brand names. These results suggest that the idea of online social networking seems to have become deeply rooted in human social practices.

Designing attractive gamification features for collaborative storytelling websites.

Gamification design is considered as the predictor of collaborative storytelling websites' success. Although aforementioned studies have mentioned a broad range of factors that may influence gamification, they neither depicted the actual design features nor relative attractiveness among them. This study aims to identify attractive gamification features for collaborative storytelling websites. We first constructed a hierarchical system structure of gamification design of collaborative storytelling websites and conducted a focus group interview with eighteen frequent users to identify 35gamification features. After that, this study determined the relative attractiveness of these gamification features by administrating an online survey to 6333 collaborative storytelling websites users. The results indicated that the top 10 most attractive gamification features could account for more than 50% of attractiveness among these 35 gamification features. The feature of unpredictable time pressure is important to website users, yet not revealed in previous relevant studies. Implications of the findings were discussed.

Safety management in a relationship-oriented culture.

A relationship-oriented culture predominates in the Greater China region, where it is more important than in Western countries. Some characteristics of this culture influence strongly the organizational structure and interactions among members in an organization. This study aimed to explore the possible influence of relationships on safety management in relationship-oriented cultures. We hypothesized that organizational factors (management involvement and harmonious relationships) within a relationship-oriented culture would influence supervisory work (ongoing monitoring and task instructions), the reporting system (selective reporting), and teamwork (team communication and co-ordination) in safety management at a group level, which would in turn influence individual reliance complacency, risk awareness, and practices. We distributed a safety climate questionnaire to the employees of Taiwanese high-risk industries. The results of structural equation modeling supported the hypothesis. This article also discusses the findings and implications for safety improvement in countries with a relationship-oriented culture.

A cross-cultural study of organizational factors on safety: Japanese vs. Taiwanese oil refinery plants.

This study attempts to identify idiosyncrasies of organizational factors on safety and their influence mechanisms in Taiwan and Japan. Data were collected from employees of Taiwanese and Japanese oil refinery plants. Results show that organizational factors on safety differ in the two countries. Organizational characteristics in Taiwanese plants are highlighted as: higher level of management commitment to safety, harmonious interpersonal relationship, more emphasis on safety activities, higher devotion to supervision, and higher safety self-efficacy, as well as high quality of safety performance. Organizational characteristics in Japanese plants are highlighted as: higher level of employee empowerment and attitude towards continuous improvement, more emphasis on systematic safety management approach, efficient reporting system and teamwork, and high quality of safety performance. The casual relationships between organizational factors and workers' safety performance were investigated using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicate that the influence mechanisms of organizational factors in Taiwan and Japan are different. These findings provide insights into areas of safety improvement in emerging countries and developed countries respectively.