Profundas transformações têm impactado não somente os processos interacionais e comunicacionais como, também, a forma de se fazer pesquisa em comunicação. Tal busca por um maior entendimento passa pela dinâmica científica e seus métodos no campo da comunicação. O avanço das metodologias mais ligadas à neurociência e suas aplicações em outras áreas do conhecimento, incluindo a comunicação, fez emergir um crescente interesse por pesquisadores do campo. Entretanto, a contribuição efetiva de tais metodologias, como a aferição no nível condutância de pele e o rastreamento ocular (eye tracking) ainda não é devidamente clara. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo aprofundar o diálogo interdisciplinar entre os campos da comunicação e neurociência, no que se refere ao emprego combinado das metodologias do eye tracking e de condutância de pele, a fim de se identificar possíveis contribuições e limitações dos métodos para a comunicação. Para tanto, foi conduzido um experimento com 46 universitários homens e mulheres, que tiveram seus dados de rastreamento ocular e nível de condutância de pele aferidos enquanto observavam um dos três tipos de abordagem (frame) em campanhas de segurança no trânsito (neutra, positiva e negativa). Os dados foram, então, analisados de forma quantitativa e qualitativa, e comparados com avaliações atitudinais autodeclaradas pelos participantes. Como principais resultados, houve diferenças entre três as abordagens consoante a forma e métrica de avaliação, sugerindo que a escolha por determinada forma de análise exerce um considerável efeito sobre os resultados. As considerações finais indicam que, apesar de apresentarem limitações, o eye tracking e a condutância de pele constituem métodos importantes e complementares às formas tradicionais de pesquisa em comunicação, ao conferirem uma maior objetividade e comparabilidade de informações relativas a aspectos atencionais e emocionais de conteúdos comunicacionais persuasivos. / Deep transformations have impacted not only on interactional and communication processes but also on the way of conducting research in communication. This search for a greater understanding goes through the scientific dynamics and its methods in the field of communication. The advancement of methodologies closely related to neuroscience and its applications in other areas of knowledge including applied social sciences - communication, has given rise to a growing interest by researchers in the field. However, the effective contribution of such methodologies, e.g. the measurement of the level of skin conductance and eye tracking, is not yet properly clear. The present research aims at deepening the interdisciplinary dialogue between the fields of communication and neuroscience regarding the combined use of the methodologies of eye tracking and skin conductance to identify possible contributions and limitations of methods for communication. In order to do so, an experiment was conducted with 46 male and female university students, who had their eye tracking data and skin conductance level collected while observing one of the three types of approach in traffic safety campaigns (neutral, positive and negative). The data were then analyzed in a quantitative and qualitative manner and compared with self-reported attitudinal answers by the participants. As the main results, there were differences between three approaches depending on the form and metric of evaluation, suggesting that the choice for a particular form of analysis exerts a considerable effect on the results. The final considerations indicate that despite limitations eye tracking and skin conductance are important and complementary methods to traditional forms of communication research, by providing greater objectivity and comparability of information regarding the attentional and emotional aspects of persuasive communication contents.

The fear of failure is something most people encounter on a daily basis and a common acceptance is; the more at stake, the harder is the process to make the right decision.This study examines how the variable “fear of failure” affects a strategic decision toexpand abroad. The study is based on a qualitative method and four CEOs of internationalized companies have been interviewed. Positivistic and deductive approaches are applied. Among the four companies risks was seen as a necessity fordeveloping the organization, but unnecessary risks were avoided. Finally, the study shows that fear affects internationalization decisions, especially in the form of lossaversion and uncertainty avoidance, where the uncertainty increased as physical and psychological distances increased. / Att rädsla för att misslyckas finns omkring oss är något som de flesta är medvetna om och oftast är det så att ju mer som står på spel, desto svårare blir processen att komma fram till rätt beslut. Studien har undersökt hur variabeln rädsla för att misslyckas påverkar ett strategiskt beslut om att etablera sig utomlands. Uppsatsen är byggd på en kvalitativ metod där fyra internationaliserade företag har studerats genom intervjuer. Vidare utgår studien från ett positivistiskt synsätt och ett deduktivt angreppssätt tillämpas. Bland de fyra företagen sågs risker som nödvändigt för att utveckla organisationen, men man tog helst inte onödiga risker. Avslutningsvis visar studien att rädsla påverkar internationaliseringsbeslut framförallt i form av förlust- och osäkerhetsaversion, där osäkerheten ökade med ökade fysiska och psykiska avstånd.

Zugl.: Rostock, Universiẗat, Habil.-schr., 2008.

Stress and time pressure is more present in todays labor markets. In financial markets a securities broker is forced to take decisions on investments under high cognitive load and under extreme time pressure. The research of decision under risk gained new ground with the development of the prospect theory and gave us new insights to the decision making of men. Prospect theory has shown that people are risk seekers when dealing with loss decisions and risk avert when dealing with profit decisions. The value function are defined over gains and losses. Losses looms larger then gains. Although much research conducted on the decision making under risk no previous research have been done showing how time pressure affects decision at risk by using skin conductance. This paper aimed through a randomized experiment with 23 participants examine how time pressure affects individuals' decisions related to risk. Furthermore, it intends to analyze whether time pressure mediate a possible effect of stress by using skin conductance. The results show that there is an increase in risk aversion for gains. This risk aversion was also statistically significant at the 1% level when each participant's responses were used and almost at 5% level when the mean values from each participant was used. Upon loss a risk -seeking behavior could be noticed but it was not statistically significant at the 5 % level. Stress levels as measured by skin conductance showed that the time-pressed group showed signs of stress. However, no stress data was significant at the 5 % level. / Stress och tidspress är idag allt mer närvarande på arbetsmarknaden. På de finansiella marknaderna kan en värdepappersmäklare tvingas ta beslut om investeringar under hög kognitiv belastning och under en extrem tidspress. Forskningen av beslut under risk har genom prospect theory gett oss nya insikter om vilka beslut vi människor tar. Prospect theory har visat att människor är risksökande vid förlustfrågor och riskaversiva vid vinstfrågor. Prospect theorys värdefunktion är definierad över vinst och förlust. Förluster väger tyngre än vinster. Trots att mycket forskning genomförts på beslut vid risk har ingen tidigare forskning hur tidspress påverkar beslut vid risk med hjälp av hudkonduktans tidigare genomförts. Denna uppsats hade som mål att genom ett randomiserat experiment med 23 deltagare undersöka hur tidspress påverkar individers beslut kopplade till risk. Vidare är syftet att också analysera om upplevd stress medierar en eventuell effekt av tidspress genom att använda hudkonduktans. Resultatet visar att det finns en ökad riskaversion vid vinstfrågor. Denna riskaversion var även statistiskt säkerställd på 1% nivå när varje deltagares svar användes och nästan på 5% nivå då medelvärden från varje deltagare användes. Vid förlustfrågor fanns ett risksökande beteende men den var ej statistiskt säkerställd på 5% nivå. Stressnivåerna som uppmättes med hudkonduktans visade att den tidspressade gruppen blev stressade. Dock var inga stressdata signifikanta på 5% nivå.

The aim is to develop guidance for indoor design that inspire a desire to read. The background is that there is dissatisfaction with the work environments in open offices. The starting point for the thesis is that "Prospect-Refuge" theory is atttracting interest among architects working with outdoor environments. The theory's basis is that the natural selection has resulted in a preference for places where one can "see wihout being seen". The case study builds on 77 questionnaire answers and 14 interviews. The contacts have included dialogue about lighting design and reading dogs. The librarians would like their libraries to invest in reading recesses, but they also worry about risks with not visible areas. There is interest in stimulating, intelligible library layouts with cosy seating's where the readers feel safe to have their "back free", i.e. that nobody will approach (from behind) without being detected. However, almost all library investments in indoor environments are restricted to faults and risks, usually related to physical accessibility. None of the interviewees' are aware of any policy document that promote library investments in comfortable circumstances for reading. The library persons view is that the Reading-Refuge concept has the potential to be useful as a guide for development of settings for reading. The concluding part make use of theories about restorative recovery. There is a need for reading environments that match people's inherited and acquired abilities to build and manage mental energy. The thesis concludes with tangible recommendations for design of reading-promoting library layout, reading refuges and lighting design. This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science.

Corporate governance models segregate the role of risk manager and risk taker to allow for independent challenge of risk-related decisions. Numerous studies have demonstrated that broad personality traits predict risk-related behaviour. While prospect theory revealed a natural preference towards risk-taking in a negative risk frame, studies have also shown the influence of personality traits on risk preference. We investigated the less reported subject of the potential influence of risk stakeholder personality on risk decision making in the corporate environment. We expected to observe that the personality traits of risk takers and risk managers will differ as a consequence of occupational self-selection. Further, we expected that such personality differences will produce disparate risk preferences between risk takers and risk managers, supporting the governance expectation of independent challenge of risk-related decisions. A sample of investment banking risk stakeholders (n = 100) completed the HEXACO–PI–R as well as a vignette-based risky choice questionnaire involving positively and negatively framed financial risk scenarios. We found homogeneity in personality traits between risk takers and risk managers but observed a noticeable bias toward risk-taking in the negative frame by risk managers. High Honesty–Humility and Conscientiousness scores in both groups may negate the risk of irresponsible risk-taking or undesirable risk behaviour. The results of this study confirm the importance of personality screening for job applicants and should also alert risk practitioners to potential weaknesses in the independent challenge of risk-related decisions as a result of personality homogeneity among risk stakeholders.

Corporate governance models segregate the role of risk manager and risk taker to allow for independent challenge of risk-related decisions. Numerous studies have demonstrated that broad personality traits predict risk-related behaviour. While prospect theory revealed a natural preference towards risk-taking in a negative risk frame, studies have also shown the influence of personality traits on risk preference. We investigated the less reported subject of the potential influence of risk stakeholder personality on risk decision making in the corporate environment. We expected to observe that the personality traits of risk takers and risk managers will differ as a consequence of occupational self-selection. Further, we expected that such personality differences will produce disparate risk preferences between risk takers and risk managers, supporting the governance expectation of independent challenge of risk-related decisions. A sample of investment banking risk stakeholders (n = 100) completed the HEXACO–PI–R as well as a vignette-based risky choice questionnaire involving positively and negatively framed financial risk scenarios. We found homogeneity in personality traits between risk takers and risk managers but observed a noticeable bias toward risk-taking in the negative frame by risk managers. High Honesty–Humility and Conscientiousness scores in both groups may negate the risk of irresponsible risk-taking or undesirable risk behaviour. The results of this study confirm the importance of personality screening for job applicants and should also alert risk practitioners to potential weaknesses in the independent challenge of risk-related decisions as a result of personality homogeneity among risk stakeholders.

New donor acquisition and current donor promotion are the two major programs in fundraising for higher education, and developing proper targeting strategies plays an important role in the both programs. This thesis presents machine learning solutions as targeting strategies for the both programs based on readily available alumni data in almost any institution. The targeting strategy for new donor acquisition is modeled as a donor identification problem. The Gaussian na ̈ıve bayes, random forest, and support vector machine algorithms are used and evaluated. The test results show that having been trained with enough samples, all three algorithms can distinguish donors from rejectors well, and big donors are identified more often than others.While there is a trade off between the cost of soliciting candidates and the success of donor acquisition, the results show that in a practical scenario where the models are properly used as the targeting strategy, more than 85% of new donors and more than 90% of new big donors can be acquired when only 40% of the candidates are solicited. The targeting strategy for donor promotion is modeled as a promising donor(i.e., those who will upgrade their pledge) prediction problem in machine learning.The Gaussian na ̈ıve bayes, random forest, and support vector machine algorithms are tested. The test results show that all the three algorithms can distinguish promising donors from non-promising donors (i.e., those who will not upgrade their pledge).When the age information is known, the best model produces an overall accuracy of 97% in the test set. The results show that in a practical scenario where the models are properly used as the targeting strategy, more than 85% of promising donors can be acquired when only 26% candidates are solicited. / Graduate / liangye714@gmail.com

The present work seeks to incorporate a popular descriptive, empirically grounded model of human preference under risk, prospect theory, into the equilibrium theory of noncooperative games. Three primary, candidate definitions are systematically identified on the basis of classical characterizations of Nash Equilibrium; in addition, three equilibrium subtypes are defined for each primary definition, in order to enable modeling of players' reference points as exogenous and fixed, slowly and myopically adaptive, highly flexible and non-myopically adaptive. Each primary equilibrium concept was analyzed both theoretically and empirically; for the theoretical analyses, prospect theory, game theory, and computational complexity theory were all summoned to analysis. In chapter 1, the reader is provided with background on each of these theoretical underpinnings of the current work, the scope of the project is described, and its conclusions briefly summarized. In chapters 2 and 3, each of the three equilibrium concepts is analyzed theoretically, with emphasis placed on issues of classical interest (e.g. existence, dominance, rationalizability) and computational complexity (i.e, assessing how difficult each concept is to apply in algorithmic practice, with particular focus on comparison to classical Nash Equilibrium). This theoretical analysis leads us to discard the first of our three equilibrium concepts as unacceptable. In chapter 4, our remaining two equilibrium concepts are compared empirically, using average-level data originally aggregated from a number of studies by Camerer and Selten and Chmura; the results suggest that PT preferences may improve on the descriptive validity of NE, and pose some interesting questions about the nature of the PT weighting function (2003, Ch. 3). Chapter 5 concludes, systematically summarizes theoretical and empirical differences and similarities between the three equilibrium concepts, and offers some thoughts on future work.

L'objectif central de cette thèse est d'étudier le comportement de fraude fiscale des contribuables quand ils ne déclarent qu'une partie de leur revenu. Le premier chapitre complète la littérature existante en étudiant le niveau de déclaration du revenu et les effets de changements des taux de taxe, de pénalité et de probabilité de contrôle, en considérant des fonctions d'imposition et de pénalité non linéaire, dans le cadre de la théorie de l'espérance de l'utilité.Le cadre fourni par la théorie des perspectives cumulatives est ensuite utilisé dans le second chapitre. L'accent est mis sur la dépendance des décisions du contribuable vis-à-vis du revenu de référence introduit par cette théorie. Le troisième chapitre caractérise le barème optimal d'imposition du revenu et la stratégie de contrôle et de pénalité que doit mettre en place l'État quand le comportement de fraude des contribuables vérifie les propriétés de la théorie des perspectives. / This dissertation analyzes the tax evasion behavior of taxpayers when they do not declare their entire income. The first chapter studies the declaration of the taxpayer and the effects of changes in the tax rate, the penalty rate and the probability of audit. The tax and the penalty functions are assumed to be non linear. The setting is provided by expected utility theory. The setting provided by cumulative prospect theory is used in the second chapter. Reference dependence, which is a central point in this theory, is particularly studied. The third chapter characterizes the optimal income tax and audit schemes under taxe evasion behavior, when of tax payers behave as predicted by prospect theory.