Zurich University of the Arts

Under certain conditions, output related performance measurement and pay-for-performance produce negative outcomes. We argue that in public service, these negative effects are stronger than in the private sector. We combine Behavioural Economics and Management Control Theory to determine under which conditions this is the case. We suggest as alternatives to the dominant output related pay-for-performance systems selection and socialization, exploratory use of output performance measures, and awards.

Abstract Water contamination by organic pollutants is ubiquitous and hence a global concern due to detrimental effects on the environment and human health. Here, it is demonstrated that amyloid fibrils aerogels are ideal adsorbers for removing organic pollutants from water. To this end, amyloid fibrils prepared from β‑lactoglobulin, the major constituent of milk whey protein, are used as building blocks for the fabrication of the aerogels. The adsorption of Bentazone, Bisphenol A, and Ibuprofen, as model pollutants, is evaluated under quasi‐static conditions, without use of energy or pressure. Through adsorption by amyloid fibrils aerogel, excellent removal efficiencies of 92%, 78%, and 98% are demonstrated for Bentazone, Bisphenol A, and Ibuprofen, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum adsorption capacity of amyloid fibrils aerogel for Bentazone, Bisphenol A, and Ibuprofen is 54.2, 50.6, and 69.6 mg g −1 , respectively. To shed light on the adsorption equilibrium process, adsorption isotherms, binding constants, saturation limits, and the effect of pH are evaluated. Finally, the regeneration of the aerogel over three consecutive cycles is studied, exhibiting high reusability with no significant changes in its removal performance. These results point at amyloid fibrils aerogels as a sustainable, efficient, and inexpensive technology for alleviating the ubiquitous water contamination by organic pollutants.

Actors of public interest today have to fear the adverse impact that stems from social media platforms. Any controversial behavior may promptly trigger temporal, but potentially devastating storms of emotional and aggressive outrage, so called online firestorms. Popular targets of online firestorms are companies, politicians, celebrities, media, academics and many more. This article introduces social norm theory to understand online aggression in a social-political online setting, challenging the popular assumption that online anonymity is one of the principle factors that promotes aggression. We underpin this social norm view by analyzing a major social media platform concerned with public affairs over a period of three years entailing 532,197 comments on 1,612 online petitions. Results show that in the context of online firestorms, non-anonymous individuals are more aggressive compared to anonymous individuals. This effect is reinforced if selective incentives are present and if aggressors are intrinsically motivated.

OBJECTIVE: Informed medical decision making requires comprehending statistical information. We aimed to improve the understanding of conveying health-related statistical information with graphical representations compared with numerical representations. First, we investigated whether the iconicity of representations (i.e., their abstractness vs. concreteness) affected comprehension and recall of statistical information. Second, we investigated whether graph literacy helps to identify individuals who comprehend graphical representations better than numerical representations. METHOD: Participants (N = 275) were randomly assigned to receive different representations of health-related statistical information, ranging from very low iconicity (numbers) to very high iconicity (icon arrays including photographs). Comprehension and recall of the information were assessed. Additionally, participants rated the accessibility of the information and the attractiveness of the representation. Graph literacy was assessed by means of a recently developed scale. RESULTS: The only difference between representations that affected comprehension and recall was the difference between graphics and numbers; the actual level of iconicity of graphics did not matter. Individuals with high graph literacy had better comprehension and recall when presented with graphics instead of numbers, and they rated graphical information as more accessible than numerical information, whereas the reverse was true for individuals with low graph literacy, F(4, 185) = 2.60, p = .04, η(p)(²) = .05, and F(4, 245) = 2.71, p = .03, η(p)(2) = .04, respectively. Both groups judged graphical representations as more attractive than numerical representations. CONCLUSION: An assessment of graph literacy distinguished individuals who are best informed with graphical representations of statistical information from those who are better informed with numerical representations.

Research summary : Awards are a valuable strategic resource. Motivation theory and the emerging body of empirical literature suggest that awards can have a significant effect on employee motivation and corporate performance, though not always in the intended direction. Awards can also destroy value. The organizational award literature has so far largely neglected this important issue. We develop a synthesis of the dimensions critical for successful award bestowals, and analyze under which conditions awards generate firm‐specific value that is sustained and difficult for competitors to imitate. The process of value creation and capture is contingent on the given firm's organizational characteristics and nature of production. The article concludes by laying out empirical implications. JEL codes: M52, M54, J24, J30. Managerial summary : Awards are widely used in the corporate sector. They fundamentally differ from monetary incentives, which risk crowding out employees' intrinsic motivation. Among the variety of awards, two general types can be distinguished: confirmatory awards based on explicit, pre‐determined performance criteria, and discretionary awards, which rely on broad performance evaluations and may be used ex post to honor outstanding performance. Appropriately designed and adjusted to the specific firm's characteristics, awards enhance employees' motivation and corporate performance. They express recognition and support their recipients' perceived competence and social status. Awards help to retain valuable employees and to establish role models. However, awards may also backfire, for instance, when they provoke envy among coworkers. We propose when awards risk destroying value and when they are particularly useful . Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Confidence in the health care system implies an expectation that sufficient and appropriate treatments will be provided if needed. The COVID-19 public health crisis is a significant, global, and (mostly) simultaneous test of the behavioral implications arising from this confidence. We explore whether populations reporting low levels of confidence in the health care system exhibit a stronger behavioral reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. We track the dynamic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across 38 European countries and 621 regions by employing a large dataset on human mobility generated between February 15 and June 5, 2020 and a broad range of contextual factors (e.g., deaths or policy implementations). Using a time-dynamic framework we find that societies with low levels of health care confidence initially exhibit a faster response with respect to staying home. However, this reaction plateaus sooner, and after the plateau it declines with greater magnitude than does the response from societies with high health care confidence. On the other hand, regions with higher confidence in the health care system are more likely to reduce mobility once the government mandates that its citizens are not to leave home except for essential trips, compared to those with lower health care system confidence. Regions with high trust in the government but low confidence in the health care system dramatically reduce their mobility, suggesting a correlation for trust in the state with respect to behavioral responses during a crisis.

The standard reaction to the problem of surveillance is to demand the protection of privacy. This article, however, argues that the conventional notion of privacy, based, as it is, on the separation of the individual from their environment, is no longer useful in the context of ubiquitous electronic communication. Rather than defending ever shrinking areas of privacy, we should refocus our efforts and demand accountability from those design and employ the new communication systems.

Awards in the form of orders, medals, decorations, prizes, and titles are ubiquitous in monarchies and republics, private organizations, and not-for-profit and profit-oriented firms. Nevertheless, this kind of nonmaterial extrinsic incentive has been given little attention in the social sciences, including psychology. The demand for awards relies on an individual's desire for distinction, and the supply of awards is governed by the desire to motivate. The technique of analytic narratives is used to show that a number of empirically testable propositions about awards are consistent with observable data.

Abstract This article explores a number of the productivity and marketing difficulties that are hindering the establishment of sustainable livelihoods in small‐scale agriculture in Sierra Leone. The emergence of the artisanal gold mining and trading sector in the central part of the country and synergies between farming and mining cycles are discussed. It is argued that small‐scale agriculture and artisanal mining are not livelihood alternatives but are instead livelihood complements. The potentially catalysing role of gold income in reinvigorating non‐mining activities is critically examined. Recent findings that explain the differing profitability of farming and mining are presented. Finally, a policy outlook is offered on how these fragile dynamics could be harnessed to promote sustainable livelihoods in rural Sierra Leone. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BACKGROUND: Research rankings based on bibliometrics today dominate governance in academia and determine careers in universities. METHOD: Analytical approach to capture the incentives by users of rankings and by suppliers of rankings, both on an individual and an aggregate level. RESULT: Rankings may produce unintended negative side effects. In particular, rankings substitute the "taste for science" by a "taste for publication." We show that the usefulness of rankings rests on several important assumptions challenged by recent research. CONCLUSION: We suggest as alternatives careful socialization and selection of scholars, supplemented by periodic self-evaluations and awards. The aim is to encourage controversial discourses in order to contribute meaningful to the advancement of science.

Given the worldwide popularity of hair dyeing, there is an urgent need to understand the toxicities and risks associated with exposure to chemicals found in hair dye formulations. Hair dyes are categorized as oxidative and nonoxidative in terms of their chemical composition and ingredients. For several decades, the expert panel's Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) has assessed the safety of many of the chemicals used in hair dyes; however, a comprehensive review of hair dye ingredients and the risk of exposure to hair dyeing has not been documented. Herein, we review the safety of the various chemicals in oxidative and nonoxidative hair dyes, toxicities associated with hair dyeing, and the carcinogenic risks related to hair dyeing. While many compounds are considered safe for users at the concentrations in hair dyes, there are conflicting data about a large number of hair dye formulations. The CIR expert panel has ratified a number of coloring ingredients for hair dyes and banned a series of chemicals as carcinogenic to animals and unsafe for this application. The use of these chemicals as raw materials for producing hair dyes may result in the synthesis of other contaminants with potential toxicities and increased risk of carcinogenesis. It is an open question whether personal or occupational hair dyeing increases the risk of cancer; however, in specific subpopulations, a positive association between hair dye use and cancer occurrence has been reported. To address this question, a better understanding of the chemical and mechanistic basis of the reported toxicities of hair dye mixtures and individual hair dye ingredients is needed. It is anticipated that in-depth chemical and systems toxicology studies harnessing modern and emerging techniques can shed light on this public health concern in the future.

Abstract There is an urgent need to transition our economy, society, and culture towards systems and actions that facilitate ecological sustainability. Such radical change requires equally radical transformation of approaches to decision making and resource use. Sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) is often presented as the answer to meeting the triple‐bottom‐line challenges that businesses face; however, there are very real limits to what it can achieve. SE is in the early stages of adopting tools at the technological frontier that offer empirical guidance at every point of an entrepreneurial decision‐making process. Big Data (BD) advances the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to inform decision making, while also charting pathways to achieve desired outcomes. So far, the interactions between AI, BD, and SE have been generally under‐studied. In this primarily conceptual paper, we address the lack of work consolidating and synthesizing these literatures. We suggest that AI and BD readily contribute to further sustainable development of the weak form, but that it also holds great promise for achieving the strong sustainability ideal. We offer two propositions regarding how the integration of AI and BD can inform/support SE. We conclude by mapping out potential avenues for future research.

Premature birth is stressful for infants and parents and can adversely affect the parent–infant dyad. This mixed-methods pilot study evaluates whether creative music therapy (CMT) can alleviate anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms in parents and support the bonding process with their infant. Sixteen parent couples were included. Ten couples were randomly allocated to the music therapy group (MTG) and six to the control group (CG). All couples completed psychological questionnaires measuring anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as an implicit measure of parent–infant attachment at two weeks postpartum (T1), at approximate neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization halftime (T2), and two weeks after the infant had been discharged (T3). At T1 and T2, the parents additionally completed a questionnaire assessing the degree of stress they experienced at the NICU. Qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured, problem-centered interview with MTG parents at T3. The results of the quantitative analyses revealed reductions in anxiety levels from T1 to T2 (p = 0.002) as well as decreases in depressive symptoms from T2 to T3 (p = 0.022). No such changes were apparent in the CG. In fact, parental stress increased from T1 to T2 (p = 0.016). Significant increases in attachment across time were also observed within the MTG, but not in the CG. The qualitative inquiry confirmed that CMT can support the parent–infant relationship. Being in musical interaction evoked feelings of joy and relaxation in the parents and encouraged them to interact more profoundly with their infant. The results call for a more extensive powered follow-up study to further investigate CMT’s potential for parental well-being and parent–infant bonding.

Web search engines have become indispensable tools for finding information online effectively. As the range of information, context and users of Internet searches has grown, the relationship between the search query, search interest and user has become more tenuous. Not all users are seeking the same information, even if they use the same query term. Thus, the quality of search results has, at least potentially, been decreasing. Search engines have begun to respond to this problem by trying to personalise search in order to deliver more relevant results to the users. A query is now evaluated in the context of a user’s search history and other data compiled into a personal profile and associated with statistical groups. This, at least, is the promise stated by the search engines themselves. This paper tries to assess the current reality of the personalisation of search results. We analyse the mechanisms of personalisation in the case of Google web search by empirically testing three commonly held assumptions about what personalisation does. To do this, we developed new digital methods which are explained here. The findings suggest that Google personal search does not fully provide the much-touted benefits for its search users. More likely, it seems to serve the interest of advertisers in providing more relevant audiences to them.

We present the design approach and evaluation of our prototype called "Ranger". Ranger is a robotic toy box that aims to motivate young children to tidy up their room. We evaluated Ranger in 14 families with 31 children (2-10 years) using the Wizard-of-Oz technique. This case study explores two different robot behaviors (proactive vs. reactive) and their impact on children's interaction with the robot and the tidying behavior. The analysis of the video recorded scenarios shows that the proactive robot tended to encourage more playful and explorative behavior in children, whereas the reactive robot triggered more tidying behavior. Our findings hold implications for the design of interactive robots for children, and may also serve as an example of evaluating an early version of a prototype in a real-world setting.

Today's spectrum of playful fitness solutions features systems that are clearly game-first or fitness-first in design; hardly any sufficiently incorporate both areas. Consequently, existing applications and evaluations often lack in focus on attractiveness and effectiveness, which should be addressed on the levels of body, controller, and game scenario following a holistic design approach. To contribute to this topic and as a proof-of-concept, we designed the ExerCube, an adaptive fitness game setup. We evaluated participants' multi-sensory and bodily experiences with a non-adaptive and an adaptive ExerCube version and compared them with personal training to reveal insights to inform the next iteration of the ExerCube. Regarding flow, enjoyment and motivation, the ExerCube is on par with personal training. Results further reveal differences in perception of exertion, types and quality of movement, social factors, feedback, and audio experiences. Finally, we derive considerations for future research and development directions in holistic fitness game setups.

Underlying the recent focus on embodied and interactive aspects of social understanding are several intuitions about what roles the body, interaction processes, and interpersonal experience play. In this paper, we introduce a systematic, hands-on method for investigating the experience of interacting and its role in intersubjectivity. Special about this method is that it starts from the idea that researchers of social understanding are themselves one of the best tools for their own investigations. The method provides ways for researchers to calibrate and to trust themselves as sophisticated instruments to help generate novel insights into human interactive experience. We present the basics of the method, and two empirical studies. The first is a video-study on autism, which shows greater refinement in the way people with autism embody their social interactions than previously thought. The second is a study of thinking in live interactions, which provides insight into the common feeling that too much thinking can hamper interaction, and into how this kind of interactional awkwardness might be unblocked.

The present study investigated 24 individuals suffering from chronic tinnitus (TI) and 24 nonaffected controls (CO). We recorded resting-state EEG and collected psychometric data to obtain information about how chronic tinnitus experience affects the cognitive and emotional state of TI. The study was meant to disentangle TI with high distress from those who suffer less from persistent tinnitus based on both neurophysiological and behavioral data. A principal component analysis of psychometric data uncovers two distinct independent dimensions characterizing the individual tinnitus experience. These independent states are distress and presence, the latter is described as the perceived intensity of sound experience that increases with tinnitus duration devoid of any considerable emotional burden. Neuroplastic changes correlate with the two independent components. TI with high distress display increased EEG activity in the oscillatory range around 25 Hz (upper β-band) that agglomerates over frontal recording sites. TI with high presence show enhanced EEG signal strength in the δ-, α-, and lower γ-bands (30-40 Hz) over bilateral temporal and left perisylvian electrodes. Based on these differential patterns we suggest that the two dimensions, namely, distress and presence, should be considered as independent dimensions of chronic subjective tinnitus.

'Birdly' is an installation which explores the experience of a bird in flight. It tries to capture the mediated flying experience, with several methods. Unlike a common flight simulator you do not control a machine you embody a bird, the Red Kite.

The phenomenon of eSports is omnipresent today. International championships and their competitive athletes thrill millions of spectators who watch as eSports athletes and their teams try to improve and outperform each other. In order to achieve the necessary cognitive and physical top form and to counteract general health problems caused by several hours of training in front of the PC or console, eSports athletes need optimal cognitive, physical and mental training. However, a gap exists in eSports specific health management, including prevention of health issues and training of these functions. To contribute to this topic, we present in this mini review possible avenues for holistic training approaches for cognitively, physically and mentally fitter and more powerful eSports athletes based on interdisciplinary findings. We discuss exergames as a motivating and promising complementary training approach for eSports athletes, which simultaneously combines physical and cognitive stimulation and challenges in an attractive gaming environment. Furthermore, we propose exergames as innovative full-body eSports-tournament revolution. To conclude, exergames bring new approaches to (physical) eSports, which in turn raise new topics in the growing eSports research and development community.