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In belief change, message discrepancy is the difference between the belief position advocated in a message and a message receiver’s initial belief position. Psychological discrepancy is the message discrepancy experienced by the receiver. Existing literature had assumed that a high level of psychological discrepancy discounted the weight of a message, which could make the message less effective. However, there were three alternative assumptions about the role of psychological discrepancy. The problem that this dissertation examined was: Does psychological discrepancy affect the weight of a message only, affect the scale value of the message only, affect neither, or affect both? To find out which of these four assumptions was more plausible, this dissertation derived competing hypotheses based on four mathematical models either through an analytic proof alone or a combination of an analytic proof and a computational approximation. This dissertation tested these hypotheses in an experiment with a 3 (high vs. moderate vs. low message scale value) ´ 3 (high vs. moderate vs. low upper bound) between-subjects design (N = 448 Mechanical Turk workers). The results showed that the weight-discounting model had the most supported hypotheses and fit the data the best, which indicated that psychological discrepancy affected the weight of a message only. This dissertation improves the understanding of the mechanism that leads to the outcomes posited by discrepancy models in persuasion research and provides additional empirical evidence for the scale value constancy assumption in information integration theory. / Media & Communication

no / Leg length discrepancy (LLD) refers to the medical a condition where legs are of different lengths. This condition might affect gait and posture, and may lead to various orthopedic disorders that can have serious repercussions on the individual, be it physiological, psychological, social, economic, or ergonomic. In order to ameliorate the rehabilitation of individuals with LLD, it is imperative to understand the biomechanics of LLD in these individuals. Hence, the current study’s objective is to characterize the plantar pressures of individuals with Leg Length Discrepancy in comparison to those of asymptomatic individuals. This pilot study employs a pedar-x in-shoe pedobarograph system to gather the history of dynamic plantar pressures in one adult male individual with LLD and a representative adult normal volunteer with no diagnosed neurological or musculoskeletal disorders. The obtained results reveal quantifiable differences in the study metrics between the two individuals during walking. These results provide a proof-of-concept for this study, and may serve as diagnostic tools to better rehabilitate individuals with LLD and, thus, provide them with a better quality of life. Future work is to incorporate an extended study of 10 normal individuals versus 10 individuals with LLD, and includes both males and females, as well as both adults and adolescents.

Yes / The nature of moral action versus moral judgment has been extensively debated in numerous disciplines. We introduce Virtual Reality (VR) moral paradigms examining the action individuals take in a high emotionally arousing, direct action-focused, moral scenario. In two studies involving qualitatively different populations, we found a greater endorsement of utilitarian responses±killing one in order to save many others±when action was required in moral virtual dilemmas compared to their judgment counterparts. Heart rate in virtual moral dilemmas was significantly increased when compared to both judgment counterparts and control virtual tasks. Our research suggests that moral action may be viewed as an independent construct to moral judgment, with VR methods delivering new prospects for investigating and assessing moral behaviour. / Plymouth University and Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-604764)

Yes / Advances in Virtual Reality (VR) technologies allow the investigation of simulated moral actions in visually immersive environments. Using a robotic manipulandum and an interactive sculpture, we now also incorporate realistic haptic feedback into virtual moral simulations. In two experiments, we found that participants responded with greater utilitarian actions in virtual and haptic environments when compared to traditional questionnaire assessments of moral judgments. In experiment one, when incorporating a robotic manipulandum, we found that the physical power of simulated utilitarian responses (calculated as the product of force and speed) was predicted by individual levels of psychopathy. In experiment two, which integrated an interactive and life-like sculpture of a human into a VR simulation, greater utilitarian actions continued to be observed. Together, these results support a disparity between simulated moral action and moral judgment. Overall this research combines state-of-the-art virtual reality, robotic movement simulations, and realistic human sculptures, to enhance moral paradigms that are often contextually impoverished. As such, this combination provides a better assessment of simulated moral action, and illustrates the embodied nature of morally-relevant actions. / Plymouth University and Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-604764)

Yes / Recent advances in virtual technologies have allowed the investigation of simulated moral actions in aversive moral dilemmas. Previous studies have employed diverse populations to explore these actions, with little research considering the significance of occupation on moral decision‐making. For the first time, in this study we have investigated simulated moral actions in virtual reality made by professionally trained paramedics and fire service incident commanders who are frequently faced with and must respond to moral dilemmas. We found that specially trained individuals showed distinct empathic and related personality trait scores and that these declined with years of experience working in the profession. Supporting the theory that these professionals develop resilience in moral conflict, reduced emotional arousal was observed during virtual simulations of a distressing dilemma. Furthermore, trained professionals demonstrated less regret following the execution of a moral action in virtual reality when compared to untrained control populations. We showed that, contrary to previous research, trained individuals made the same moral judgements and moral actions as untrained individuals, though showing less arousal and regret. In the face of increasing concerns regarding empathy decline in health care professionals, we suggest that the nature of this decline is complex and likely reflects the development of a necessary emotional resilience to distressing events.

Despite the fact that most firms are late entrants in any product market, research on how to achieve a late-mover advantage is limited and lags behind the theoretical work on first-mover advantage. The strategic choice a late mover can utilize to compete against the pioneer is largely underdeveloped. Further, extant studies provide contradictory arguments and predictions regarding the efficacy of two basic late entry strategies: an enhancing strategy (providing a late entrant with enhanced features along existing product attributes) and a distinctive strategy (adding new or unique features to a late entrant' offering). The goal of this dissertation is to better understand the underlying behavioral mechanisms that enable a late entrant to compete with a successful pioneer and thereby address this inconsistency in the literature. Taking a category-based learning perspective, it is proposed that new brands are learned through a comparison process with existing brands. In the process, common features are evaluated in a category-based mode while unique features are processed in a piecemeal fashion. Two behavioral mechanisms are identified — discrepancy effects (i.e., perceived differentiation) which add to the late entrant's visibility and attractiveness, and ambiguity effects (comparison difficulty and perceived performance risk) that lessen the late entrant's attractiveness. Product category familiarity is proposed as the key moderator that affects the salience of each behavioral mechanism and hence the effectiveness of late entry strategies. Three experiments were designed to test the proposed perspective. It was found that common features are the focus of comparison in unfamiliar product classes and unique features receive particular attention in familiar product classes. Accordingly, ambiguity effects become more salient in unfamiliar product categories while differentiation effects are more prominent in familiar product cases. Further, a distinctive strategy is both more differentiated and more ambiguous than an enhancing strategy. Thus, a distinctive strategy is more effective in a familiar product class due to its attention-grabbing nature. An enhancing strategy is more successful in a novel or unfamiliar product class because of low levels of ambiguity. These findings provide important implications for product entry and positioning strategies as well as for further research. / Ph. D.