Legislation, economic incentives and informational campaigns are traditional tools of government used to exert its influence on citizens. More recently, other behavioral interventions called nudges and boosts have also come into usage to influence behavior. Nudges exploit faults in human decision making, pushing the individual in a direction of a specific choice, hence the name nudge. Boosts instead try to foster existing competences in the individual, effectivizing decision making while still preserving the individual’s own agency. Both nudges and boosts have proved to be cost-effective ways of influencing behavior, making them attractive alternatives to traditional behavioral interventions. An a priori way to investigate the effectiveness of behavioral interventions without their implementation is by measuring their acceptance. This thesis investigates the acceptance for nudges and boosts compared to traditional behavioral interventions when used in the domain of energy saving practices. The results show that acceptance differs greatly depending on which behavioral intervention is used, which energy saving domain the behavioral intervention is applied to, and to an extent the demographic characteristics of the individuals exposed to the behavioral intervention.

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The term Augmented Reality (AR) was first coined back in 1968. Research on the subject would then for decades remain largely focused on technical aspects of the phenomenon. At the time, little to no attention was paid to the potential user audience or what would later be known as Human-Computer Interaction theory. Some previous studies have touched upon user satisfaction of general AR interfaces, but most studies that cover the topic of indoor navigation with AR tend to focus on technical solutions. Few try to establish any kind of visual language or research what visual interfaces are most intuitive, effective and user friendly. Consequently, this thesis investigates how to visually seek the attention of the user to present offers in an AR application for smartphones meant to be used to navigate an indoor retail environment. It does so by conducting a user study in a real retail store in Stockholm, Sweden, where participants completed three laps around a certain part of the store using an AR indoor navigation application. For every lap, each participant tried out one of three different versions of the application. These three versions varied in how intrusive the presentation of offers was to the customer’s experience with the application. The participants filled in a Likert scale questionnaire for each of the three versions, as well as answered some more open-ended questions at the end of every test session. The conclusion is that a balanced approach to intrusiveness is the wisest in order to make customers aware of discounts around them while not considerably annoying them. The most positively received approach presented an offer promptly to the user, but did not take up too much screen space or force the user to take any action towards it. Future studies could investigate whether there is a higher tolerance for visual intrusion among customers if the discount is considered big or very personally relevant. Subsequent studies could also use high-end AR head-mounted displays that might be more prominently used by everyday consumers in the future. / Termen Augmented Reality (AR) myntades år 1968. Vetenskap och forskning kring ämnet kom sedan i decennier att fokuseras på fenomenets tekniska aspekter. Till en början lades nästintill ingen uppmärksamhet på den potentiella användargruppen eller på det som senare kom att kallas Människa-Dator Interaktions-teori. Under senare år har en ökad mängd studier berört just denna aspekt, där användarens tillfredsställelse med allmänna AR-gränssnitt satts i fokus. För studier fokuserade på inomhusnavigering med hjälp av AR har dock inte utvecklingen varit fullständigt i linje med ovanstående, då det är få som i dag undersökt vilken typ av visuella gränssnitt som är mest intuitiva, effektiva och användarvänliga. Studierna har istället fokuseras på den tekniska aspekten av ämnet. Denna avhandling undersöker därav hur användarens uppmärksamhet bör sökas för att visuellt presentera erbjudanden i en AR-applikation anpassad för smarta telefoner vid navigation i detaljhandelsmiljö inomhus. För att undersöka detta genomfördes en användarstudie i en matbutik i Stockholm. Deltagare i studien fick vid tre direkt efterföljande tillfällen gå en bestämd rutt genom matbutiken där tre olika visuella presentationer av erbjudanden visades i en AR-baserad navigationsapp. De olika versionerna av presentationer var mer eller mindre visuellt påträngande på deltagarnas upplevelse. Resultatet av deras upplevelse kom senare att utvärderas med hjälp av Likertskalor som deltagarna fyllde i efter vardera version som testades, samt öppna frågor i slutet av varje användartest. Slutsatsen är att ett balanserat angreppssätt är det mest effektiva för att göra den potentiella kunden medveten om rabatter och andra erbjudanden inuti butiksmiljön. Mest positiv inställning hade deltagarna då erbjudanden visades på ett enkelt och avskalat vis, där presentationen varken upptog mycket skärutrymme eller krävde att användaren vidtog några åtgärder. Vidare skulle framtida studier kunna undersöka huruvida det finns en högre tolerans gentemot erbjudanden som presenteras på detta eller andra sätt om de anses ha en hög personlig relevans. Efterföljande studier kommer även kunna använda ny AR-teknik och se hur den kommer kunna användas mot framtida konsumenter.

The current study examined experiential avoidance (EA) as an explanation for parental overprotectiveness, a behavior often found among parents of anxious children. EA parenting theory posits that parents engage in overprotective behaviors in order to reduce their own anxiety. In order to test the theory, mothers’ electrodermal activity (EDA) and blindly-coded overprotective behaviors were examined when a child with SAD was engaged in a reading performance task. In line with EA theory, it was hypothesized that EDA levels would increase before an overprotective behavior (OB) occurred and decrease afterwards as a result of decrease in anxiety. The sample consisted of mothers with a child diagnosed with SAD (n=5) and mothers with a child with no diagnoses (n=5). Each mother-child dyad participated in an ABAB design protocol consisting of a baseline period, two 10-minute reading tasks, and a recovery period between the two tasks. Although mothers of both groups displayed OBs, mothers of children with SAD displayed OBs more often. In addition, mothers of children with SAD displayed more promotion of avoidance while mothers of normal control children displayed higher frequencies of control over the reading task. The EDA activity that surrounded the first occurrence of any coded OB was examined. Contrary to the hypothesis, all mothers (regardless of child’s anxiety status) displayed similar trends in their EDA data, with levels increasing but then decreasing shortly before an OB behavior occurred, rather than afterwards. However, one mother with an elevated social anxiety score revealed an EDA pattern similar to what was hypothesized. Possible explanations for these alternate findings are discussed and include a multidisciplinary conceptualization. The study’s findings hold theoretical and practical implications, particularly for parent training in the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders. Limitations such as small sample size and directions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the treatment acceptability ratings of teachers of adolescents on three different types of commonly used interventions: (a) positive verbal praise, (b) token economy with response cost and extinction, and (c) psychotropic medication. Ratings of treatment acceptability were also assessed according to type of disorder (i.e., externalizing or internalizing). The participants were 101 teachers of adolescents recruited from a midwestern public school district. Participants were asked to read two case studies presented in a counterbalanced format. One case study focused on a youth who displayed symptoms related to an internalizing disorder (Major Depressive Disorder), while the other focused on a youth who displayed symptoms of an externalizing disorder (Conduct Disorder). After each case study, participants were asked to read three treatment vignettes. Each treatment vignette described one of the three previously mentioned interventions. The participants then rated the treatment acceptability of each intervention using a modified Abbreviated Acceptability Rating Profile. A 2 x 3 repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze the data from the measures. Statistically significant differences were found among level of intervention intrusiveness, type of disorder, as well as interaction effects between the two main variables of interest. Overall, teachers indicated they found less intrusive interventions as more acceptable than the more intrusive interventions; interventions for externalizing disorders were also rated as more acceptable than interventions targeting internalizing disorders. A noteworthy exception was the most intrusive intervention, psychotropic medication, as equally acceptable for both disorders. The current study is unique in that previous researchers have not investigated treatment acceptability of internalizing disorders or among teachers of adolescents as a population. The findings of this study may be useful for teachers of adolescents experiencing classroom difficulties with youth displaying symptoms of either Conduct Disorder or Major Depressive Disorder. Recommendations for future research are discussed as well.

Abstract Background “Traditional digital advertising has become wallpaper. It doesn’t improve anyone’s experience on a site and readers, myself included, pretty much look past it” stated by Jason Hill, Global Head of Media Strategies (Adage.com, 2019). Marketing managers attempt and fail in adapting traditional marketing strategies to the unfamiliar digital landscape. Traditional techniques e.g. banner ads appear as intrusive and unwanted according to consumers. Brands have in response strategically changed its communication to a rather subtle approach that aims to be non-intrusive. Aforesaid strategy is referred to as native advertising. Native advertising however is not unproblematic as said approach may be exploited to be deceptive, intrusive and secretive, brand whom implements such a strategy may be rewarded with short term positives. However the long term effects of said strategy prove negatives in various aspects of the brand. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the conceptualization of native ads influence users’ feeling of non-intrusiveness. Method The conducted study implemented a deductive approach to research, including an explanatory purpose as previously elaborated upon. The study is further characterized as a cross-sectional design in which the researchers aimed to test the conceptualization of non-intrusive native advertising. The researchers further conducted a self administrated questionnaire with a total of 158 respondents. The data was cleaned in SPSS and further tested for reliability, validity and hypothesis testing. Conclusion The findings of the conducted study concludes that personalized advertising positively contributes to users’ feeling of non-intrusiveness. On the other hand, contextual relevance, 1 transparency, emotional appeal and informational appeal were rejected as such variables were not statistically significant in explaining non-intrusiveness. Therefore, the researchers rejected hypothesis H1, H2, H3, H4 and therefore rejected previous research stating that these variables contributes to users’ feeling of non-intrusiveness. However H5 was accepted, therefore theories that suggests that personalization according to one’s interest, previous interactions and real-time data to influence users feeling of non-intrusiveness were confirmed.

Title: Is sharing really caring? Subject: Bachelor thesis in International Marketing, 15hp Authors: Mattias Andersson & Eric Gummesson Keywords: consumer behavior, targeted ads, advertising, privacy, consumer intrusiveness Problem statement: This study looks to provide clarity about consumers' perception of the intrusiveness of a targeted advertisement and their overall behavior in regard to targeted ads. The authors of this look to find out what different factors play a role in a consumer’s mind when they see a perfectly tailored ad made just for them. Have targeting ads possibly become too specific and intrude on consumer privacy? Could this cause a negative reaction because of the huge amount of data consumers are sharing on the web? In what way does the consumer react or behave? Purpose: This study investigates a consumer perspective of targeted advertisement and will provide relevancy of consumers’ behavior regarding targeted ads Method: A qualitative approach has been used in order to gain insight of consumers’ behaviors regarding targeted advertisement. This has been achieved via semi-structured interviews which showed great value and provided detailed information on the matter. Conclusion: The results have led to an increased understanding of what marketers should take into consideration when targeting consumers with tailored advertisements. A big factor as to whether people are more accepting towards the practice of targeting ads was based on the level of awareness and control over their personal data sharing. The study leans towards seeing customized advertising as a more viable option than personalized advertising based on the intrusiveness and the management of consumers personal data. / Titel: Is sharing really caring? Ämne: Kandidatuppsats i Internationell Marknadsföring, 15hp Författare: Mattias Andersson & Eric Gummesson Nyckelord: konsumentbeteende, riktade annonser, marknadsföring, integritet, privatintrång Problemformulering: Denna studie syftar till att ge klarhet i konsumenters uppfattning kring privatintrång och deras övergripande beteende när det gäller riktade annonser. Författarna letar efter vilka olika faktorer som spelar roll hos en konsument när de ser en perfekt skräddarsydd annons som är tillverkade enbart till dem. Har riktade annonser möjligtvis blivit för specifika och inkräktar på konsumentens integritet? Skulle detta kunna leda till en negativ reaktion på grund av den enorma mängd data som konsumenter delar med sig av på webben? På vilket sätt reagerar eller beter sig konsumenten? Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka konsumentperspektivet och ge relevans för konsumentbeteendet gällande riktade annonser. Metod: En kvalitativ studie valdes för att få insikt om konsumenterna beteende kring riktade annonser. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer som gav detaljerad information om ämnet. Slutsats: Resultaten har lett till en djupare kunskap om vad konsumenter känner och om användarnas beteende när de ställs inför skräddarsydda annonser. Dessutom har studien bidragit till en ökad förståelse för vad marknadsförare bör ta hänsyn till när de riktar sig till konsumenter med skräddarsydda annonser. En viktig faktor för konsumenternas uppfattning om riktade annonser berodde på deras medvetenhet och kontroll över personliga datadelning. Studien lutar åt anpassad annonsering som ett mer tillämpligt alternativ än personlig annonsering baserat på privatintrång och hanteringen av konsumenternas personliga data.

Background While previous research indicates that low maternal sensitivity in mother-child interactions puts children at risk of overweight and obesity, maternal intrusiveness has rarely been investigated in association with children's weight. We investigated whether maternal sensitivity and intrusiveness in early childhood predict children's increased body mass index standard deviation scores (BMI-SDS) at school age. BMI-SDS are standardized for age and gender with respect to a reference standard. Methods At baseline (t1), we assessed maternal sensitivity and (non-)intrusiveness of 116 mothers with their children (48.3% female) aged 5–47 months (M = 24.00, SD = 11.36) using the emotional availability scales. We obtained anthropometric data for mothers at t1 by measuring height and weight in the laboratory and for children at birth assessed by medical staff. Six years later (t2) we obtained anthropometric data for children in the laboratory or based on parental report. Linear regression analyses were run with child BMI-SDS at t2 as outcome and sensitivity and (non-)intrusiveness as predictors, adjusting for confounders and exploring child age and gender as moderators. Results Maternal sensitivity only negatively predicted children's BMI-SDS in girls, while maternal intrusiveness predicted higher child BMI-SDS at school age regardless of child gender. The effect of maternal non-intrusiveness remained significant when controlling for confounders. Conclusion Maternal intrusiveness in early childhood seems to represent a risk factor for increased BMI-SDS in children, while lower maternal sensitivity tends to be a risk factor for increased BMI-SDS in girls. This may have implications for prevention or intervention programmes.

一向強調使用者自主性的網路媒體，卻也出現插播式廣告(Interstitial)這種強迫閱聽眾接收的形式，這種情形引發了研究者的興趣。相較於傳統媒體，已經賦予閱聽人部分自主權的情形底下，廣告主又想藉由形式的操弄強迫閱聽人接收，這可能引起的負面態度相對傳統媒體來說可能更為嚴重。因此，本研究首先欲探討插播式廣告的使用是否有其他優點，例如強迫接收的形式，會吸引更多注意的緣故而留下較深刻的印象，而讓廣告主在可能導致閱聽人反感的風險下仍願意使用。其二，插播式廣告的使用是否必然引起閱聽人產生被迫收看的感受，以及察覺到廣告主意欲操弄的意圖，進而降低說服效果。換言之，插播式廣告能否藉由提供閱聽人娛樂價值，因而避免負面態度的產生。 結果發現，相對橫幅廣告來說，插播式廣告的確能吸引較多的注意，但並不會留下較深刻的記憶。其次，插播式廣告是否會引起操弄意圖推論、強迫性感受，進而降低說服效果，關鍵在於如果廣告能夠提供娛樂價值，那麼閱聽人並不會做出操弄意圖推論，也不會感覺到自己是被迫收看廣告的，當然不會進一步降低廣告態度。反之，若不提供其他價值，則會導致閱聽人做出操弄意圖推論，以及產生強迫性感受，因而進一步降低廣告態度。 最後，我們以一個交換的觀點來貫穿整篇文章，決定閱聽人是否產生操弄意圖推論或強迫性感受，關鍵在於閱聽人付出以及得到了多少價值，如果能讓閱聽人感受到自己所獲得的價值多過所付出的代價，那麼閱聽眾是會原諒行銷者的操弄。 / Comparing with other forms of media, the internet empowers audience with more freedom to choose what to see. However, it also emerged a new type of advertisement called, interstitial, which is commonly known as pop up. This kind of internet advertising forces audience to see advertisement whether they want or not. This phenomenon interests me to see what kind of effect this it will create for viewers., Since the audience once had the privilege to choose what they wanted to see, one of which is now seemed to be taken away from them, will this create negative feelings of the audience? Firstly I would like to know if there’re any advantages for advertisers to use this kind of internet advertising under the risk of disfavor. I postulates that interstitial may draw more attention and leave more impression than a banner does because of its format. Secondly, interstitial will not necessarily cause intrusiveness and inferences of manipulative intent (IMI), if the advertisement can provide other form values such as information or entertainment. The result supports my hypothesis partially. Firstly, interstitial does draw more attention than a banner. However, except for making people more impressed, no other difference has been found. Secondly, if interstitial contains entertaining value, it will not make audience feel intruded, IMI. ,and hostile attitude toward that advertisement. Whereas it will cause intrusiveness and IMI if the interstitial advertisement forces audience to see it without having any rewards. In this case it will reduce the advertising attitude in the audience. Finally, we can use an ‘exchange of ideas’ to sum up the main idea of this paper. The audience will devote their efforts and time to processing the given message, if the interstitial can reward the audience with more than what they pay for. They will also forgive the advertisers for manipulating them. The key to decide whether the audience feels intruded or knows of IMI depends on how much the audience give and receive.

L'accès aux informations pertinentes, adaptées aux besoins et au profil de l'utilisateur est un enjeu majeur dans le cadre actuel caractérisé par une prolifération massive des ressources d'information hétérogènes. Le développement d'appareils mobiles équipés de plusieurs fonctionnalités telles que la caméra, le WIFI, la géo-localisation et bien plus d'autres permettent aux systèmes mobiles de recommandation actuels d'être hautement contextualisés et pouvant fournir à l'utilisateur des informations pertinentes au bon moment quand il en a le plus besoin, sans attendre qu'il établisse une interaction avec son appareil. C'est dans ce cadre que s'insère notre travail de thèse. En effet, nous proposons une approche de recommandation contextuelle et proactive dans un environnement mobile qui permet de recommander des informations pertinentes à l'utilisateur sans attendre à ce que ce dernier initie une interaction. Un système proactif peut prendre la forme d'un guide touristique personnalisé qui se base sur la localisation et les préférences de l'utilisateur pour suggérer à ce dernier des endroits intéressants sans qu'il fournisse, sa préférence ou une requête explicite. Cela permettra de réduire les efforts, le temps et l'interaction de l'utilisateur avec son appareil mobile et de présenter les informations pertinentes au bon moment et au bon endroit. Cette approche prend aussi en considération les situations où la recommandation pourrait déranger l'utilisateur. Il s'agit d'équilibrer le processus de recommandation contre les interruptions intrusives. En effet, il existe différents facteurs et situations qui rendent l'utilisateur moins ouvert aux recommandations. Comme nous travaillons dans le contexte des appareils mobiles, nous considérons que les applications mobiles telles que la caméra, le clavier, l'agenda, etc., sont de bons représentants de l'interaction de l'utilisateur avec son appareil puisqu'ils représentent en quelque sorte la plupart des activités qu'un utilisateur pourrait entreprendre avec son appareil mobile au quotidien, comme envoyer des messages, converser, tweeter, naviguer ou prendre des photos. / Just-In-Time recommender systems involve all systems able to provide recommendations tailored to the preferences and needs of users in order to help them access useful and interesting resources within a large data space. The user does not need to formulate a query, this latter is implicit and corresponds to the resources that match the user's interests at the right time. Our work falls within this framework and focuses on developing a proactive context-aware recommendation approach for mobile devices that covers many domains. It aims at recommending relevant items that match users' personal interests at the right time without waiting for the users to initiate any interaction. Indeed, the development of mobile devices equipped with persistent data connections, geolocation, cameras and wireless capabilities allows current context-aware recommender systems (CARS) to be highly contextualized and proactive. We also take into consideration to which degree the recommendation might disturb the user. It is about balancing the process of recommendation against intrusive interruptions. As a matter of fact, there are different factors and situations that make the user less open to recommendations. As we are working within the context of mobile devices, we consider that mobile applications functionalities such as the camera, the keyboard, the agenda, etc., are good representatives of the user's interaction with his device since they somehow stand for most of the activities that a user could use in a mobile device in a daily basis such as texting messages, chatting, tweeting, browsing or taking selfies and pictures.