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Author

Kai Kaspar

Other affiliations: University of Osnabrück
Bio: Kai Kaspar is an academic researcher from University of Cologne. The author has contributed to research in topics: Psychology & Personality. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 69 publications receiving 1302 citations. Previous affiliations of Kai Kaspar include University of Osnabrück.
Topics: Psychology, Personality, Medicine, Perception, Blame


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meta-analysis of survey experiments reporting 460 effect sizes revealed that computerized surveys led to significantly more reporting of socially undesirable behaviors than comparable surveys administered on paper.
Abstract: In surveys, individuals tend to misreport behaviors that are in contrast to prevalent social norms or regulations. Several design features of the survey procedure have been suggested to counteract this problem; particularly, computerized surveys are supposed to elicit more truthful responding. This assumption was tested in a meta-analysis of survey experiments reporting 460 effect sizes (total N =125,672). Self-reported prevalence rates of several sensitive behaviors for which motivated misreporting has been frequently observed were compared across self-administered paper-and-pencil versus computerized surveys. The results revealed that computerized surveys led to significantly more reporting of socially undesirable behaviors than comparable surveys administered on paper. This effect was strongest for highly sensitive behaviors and surveys administered individually to respondents. Moderator analyses did not identify interviewer effects or benefits of audio-enhanced computer surveys. The meta-analysis highlighted the advantages of computerized survey modes for the assessment of sensitive topics.

247 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study confirmed that moral decisions can be explained within the framework of dual-process theories and shows that pupillometric measurements are a promising tool for investigating affective responses in dilemma situations.
Abstract: Based on the frameworks of dual-process theories, we examined the interplay between intuitive and controlled cognitive processes related to moral and social judgments. In a virtual reality (VR) setting we performed an experiment investigating the progression from fast, automatic decisions towards more controlled decisions over multiple trials in the context of a sacrificing scenario. We repeatedly exposed participants to a modified ten-to-one version and to three one-to-one versions of the trolley dilemma in VR and varied avatar properties, such as their gender and ethnicity, and their orientation in space. We also investigated the influence of arousing music on decisions. Our experiment replicated the behavioral pattern observed in studies using text versions of the trolley dilemma, thereby validating the use of virtual environments in research on moral judgments. Additionally, we found a general tendency towards sacrificing male individuals which correlated with socially desirable responding. As indicated by differences in response times, the ten-to-one version of the trolley dilemma seems to be faster to decide than decisions requiring comparisons based on specific avatar properties as a result of differing moral content. Building upon research on music-based emotion induction, we used music to induce emotional arousal on a physiological level as measured by pupil diameter. We found a specific temporal signature displaying a peak in arousal around the moment of decision. This signature occurs independently of the overall arousal level. Furthermore, we found context-dependent gaze durations during sacrificing decisions, leading participants to look prolonged at their victim if they had to choose between avatars differing in gender. Our study confirmed that moral decisions can be explained within the framework of dual-process theories and shows that pupillometric measurements are a promising tool for investigating affective responses in dilemma situations.

104 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Kai Kaspar1
TL;DR: Examination of central cognitive variables that may constitute people’s motivations for social distancing, using an app, and providing health-related data requested by two apps that differ in their direct utility for the individual user revealed some important cognitive factors that constitute people's motivation for social Distancing and using apps to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract: Background: The current COVID-19 pandemic is showing negative effects on human health as well as on social and economic life. It is a critical and challenging task to revive public life while minimizing the risk of infection. Reducing interactions between people by social distancing is an effective and prevalent measure to reduce the risk of infection and spread of the virus within a community. Current developments in several countries show that this measure can be technologically accompanied by mobile apps; meanwhile, privacy concerns are being intensively discussed. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine central cognitive variables that may constitute people’s motivations for social distancing, using an app, and providing health-related data requested by two apps that differ in their direct utility for the individual user. The results may increase our understanding of people’s concerns and convictions, which can then be specifically addressed by public-oriented communication strategies and appropriate political decisions. Methods: This study refers to the protection motivation theory, which is adaptable to both health-related and technology-related motivations. The concept of social trust was added. The quantitative survey included answers from 406 German-speaking participants who provided assessments of data security issues, trust components, and the processes of threat and coping appraisal related to the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection by social distancing. With respect to apps, one central focus was on the difference between a contact tracing app and a data donation app. Results: Multiple regression analyses showed that the present model could explain 55% of the interindividual variance in the participants’ motivation for social distancing, 46% for using a contact tracing app, 42% for providing their own infection status to a contact tracing app, and 34% for using a data donation app. Several cognitive components of threat and coping appraisal were related to motivation measurements. Trust in other people’s social distancing behavior and general trust in official app providers also played important roles; however, the participants’ age and gender did not. Motivations for using and accepting a contact tracing app were higher than those for using and accepting a data donation app. Conclusions: This study revealed some important cognitive factors that constitute people’s motivation for social distancing and using apps to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Concrete implications for future research, public-oriented communication strategies, and appropriate political decisions were identified and are discussed.

92 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
05 Jul 2011-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: It is concluded that motivational tendencies linked to personality as well as individual preferences significantly affected viewing behaviour and it is important and fruitful to consider inter-individual differences on the level of motivation and personality traits within investigations of attention processes.
Abstract: The present study investigated the dynamic of the attention focus during observation of different categories of complex scenes and simultaneous consideration of individuals' memory and motivational state. We repeatedly presented four types of complex visual scenes in a pseudo-randomized order and recorded eye movements. Subjects were divided into groups according to their motivational disposition in terms of action orientation and individual rating of scene interest. Statistical analysis of eye-tracking data revealed that the attention focus successively became locally expressed by increasing fixation duration; decreasing saccade length, saccade frequency, and single subject's fixation distribution over images; and increasing inter-subject variance of fixation distributions. The validity of these results was supported by verbal reports. This general tendency was weaker for the group of subjects who rated the image set as interesting as compared to the other group. Additionally, effects were partly mediated by subjects' motivational disposition. Finally, we found a generally strong impact of image type on eye movement parameters. We conclude that motivational tendencies linked to personality as well as individual preferences significantly affected viewing behaviour. Hence, it is important and fruitful to consider inter-individual differences on the level of motivation and personality traits within investigations of attention processes. We demonstrate that future studies on memory's impact on overt attention have to deal appropriately with several aspects that had been out of the research focus until now.

70 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
13 Dec 2016-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: An fMRI compatible sensory augmentation device, the feelSpace belt, is designed, which gives orientation information about the direction of magnetic north via vibrotactile stimulation on the waist of participants, and results suggest that training entails activity in sensory as well as higher motor centers and brain areas known to be involved in navigation.
Abstract: Theories of embodied cognition propose that perception is shaped by sensory stimuli and by the actions of the organism. Following sensorimotor contingency theory, the mastery of lawful relations between own behavior and resulting changes in sensory signals, called sensorimotor contingencies, is constitutive of conscious perception. Sensorimotor contingency theory predicts that, after training, knowledge relating to new sensorimotor contingencies develops, leading to changes in the activation of sensorimotor systems, and concomitant changes in perception. In the present study, we spell out this hypothesis in detail and investigate whether it is possible to learn new sensorimotor contingencies by sensory augmentation. Specifically, we designed an fMRI compatible sensory augmentation device, the feelSpace belt, which gives orientation information about the direction of magnetic north via vibrotactile stimulation on the waist of participants. In a longitudinal study, participants trained with this belt for seven weeks in natural environment. Our EEG results indicate that training with the belt leads to changes in sleep architecture early in the training phase, compatible with the consolidation of procedural learning as well as increased sensorimotor processing and motor programming. The fMRI results suggest that training entails activity in sensory as well as higher motor centers and brain areas known to be involved in navigation. These neural changes are accompanied with changes in how space and the belt signal are perceived, as well as with increased trust in navigational ability. Thus, our data on physiological processes and subjective experiences are compatible with the hypothesis that new sensorimotor contingencies can be acquired using sensory augmentation.

64 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that people are much more likely to believe stories that favor their preferred candidate, especially if they have ideologically segregated social media networks, and that the average American adult saw on the order of one or perhaps several fake news stories in the months around the 2016 U.S. presidential election, with just over half of those who recalled seeing them believing them.
Abstract: Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, many have expressed concern about the effects of false stories (“fake news”), circulated largely through social media. We discuss the economics of fake news and present new data on its consumption prior to the election. Drawing on web browsing data, archives of fact-checking websites, and results from a new online survey, we find: (i) social media was an important but not dominant source of election news, with 14 percent of Americans calling social media their “most important” source; (ii) of the known false news stories that appeared in the three months before the election, those favoring Trump were shared a total of 30 million times on Facebook, while those favoring Clinton were shared 8 million times; (iii) the average American adult saw on the order of one or perhaps several fake news stories in the months around the election, with just over half of those who recalled seeing them believing them; and (iv) people are much more likely to believe stories that favor their preferred candidate, especially if they have ideologically segregated social media networks.

3,959 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

3,628 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose that the brain produces an internal representation of the world, and the activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the experience of seeing, but it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal representation might produce visual consciousness.
Abstract: Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see, the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The outside world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the governing laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Several lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor adaptation, visual \"filling in,\" visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.

2,271 citations

01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: Dillman and Smyth as mentioned in this paper described the Tailored design method as a "tailored design methodology" and used it in their book "The Tailored Design Method: A Manual for Personalization".
Abstract: Resena de la obra de Don A. Dillman, Jolene D. Smyth y Leah Melani Christian: Internet, Phone, Mail and Mixed-Mode Surveys. The Tailored Design Method. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons

1,467 citations

01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) as mentioned in this paper has been shown to have visual responses to stimuli appearing abruptly at particular retinal locations (their receptive fields) and the visual representation in LIP is sparse, with only the most salient or behaviourally relevant objects being strongly represented.
Abstract: When natural scenes are viewed, a multitude of objects that are stable in their environments are brought in and out of view by eye movements. The posterior parietal cortex is crucial for the analysis of space, visual attention and movement 1 . Neurons in one of its subdivisions, the lateral intraparietal area (LIP), have visual responses to stimuli appearing abruptly at particular retinal locations (their receptive fields)2. We have tested the responses of LIP neurons to stimuli that entered their receptive field by saccades. Neurons had little or no response to stimuli brought into their receptive field by saccades, unless the stimuli were behaviourally significant. We established behavioural significance in two ways: either by making a stable stimulus task-relevant, or by taking advantage of the attentional attraction of an abruptly appearing stimulus. Our results show that under ordinary circumstances the entire visual world is only weakly represented in LIP. The visual representation in LIP is sparse, with only the most salient or behaviourally relevant objects being strongly represented.

1,007 citations