The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a novel threat and traditional and new media provide people wit... more The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a novel threat and traditional and new media provide people with an abundance of information and misinformation on the topic. In the current study, we investigated who tends to trust what type of mis/information. The data were collected in Norway from a sample of 405 participants during the first wave of COVID-19 in April 2020. We focused on three kinds of belief: the belief that the threat is overrated (COVID-threat skepticism), the belief that the threat is underrated (COVID-threat belief) and belief in misinformation about COVID-19. We studied sociodemographic factors associated with these beliefs and the interplay between attitudes to COVID-19, media consumption and prevention behavior. All three types of belief were associated with distrust in information about COVID-19 provided by traditional media and distrust in the authorities' approach to the pandemic. COVID-threat skepticism was associated with male gender, reduced news consumption si...
The attempts to mitigate the unprecedented health, economic, and social disruptions caused by the... more The attempts to mitigate the unprecedented health, economic, and social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are largely dependent on establishing compliance to behavioral guidelines and rules that reduce the risk of infection. Here, by conducting an online survey that tested participants’ knowledge about the disease and measured demographic, attitudinal, and cognitive variables, we identify predictors of self-reported social distancing and hygiene behavior. To investigate the cognitive processes underlying health-prevention behavior in the pandemic, we co-opted the dual-process model of thinking to measure participants’ propensities for automatic and intuitive thinking vs. controlled and reflective thinking. Self-reports of 17 precautionary behaviors, including regular hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a face mask, served as a dependent measure. The results of hierarchical regressions showed that age, risk-taking propensity, and concern about the pandemic predicte...
Background: Previous research has demonstrated a ‘seductive allure’ of technical or reductive lan... more Background: Previous research has demonstrated a ‘seductive allure’ of technical or reductive language. Specifically, bad explanations – i.e., those presenting circular restatements of a phenomenon or other non-explanatory information – are judged better explanations when irrelevant technical language is included.Methods: Using a between subjects design we presented participants (N=996) with one of four possible vignettes that explain how covid-19 vaccinations and herd immunity works. The explanations varied along two factors: (1) Quality, explanations were either good or bad (tautological); (2) Language, explanations either contained unnecessary technical language or did not. We measured participants’ evaluation of the explanations (‘how good’ and ‘how satisfying’ they were) and subsequent intentions to vaccinate.Results: We demonstrate a novel ‘seductive allure’ effect of technical language on vaccine information. Including unnecessary technical language in informative explanation...
In a critical review of the person-situation debate, Furnham and Jaspars (1983) presented a reana... more In a critical review of the person-situation debate, Furnham and Jaspars (1983) presented a reanalysis of nearly all the published studies in the field which they claimed provided strong support for the interactionist position. This paper contests that claim by arguing that the statistics ...
Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making
People overestimate the impact of health conditions on happiness, putatively because they focus e... more People overestimate the impact of health conditions on happiness, putatively because they focus excessively on resulting negative consequences while disregarding the impact of other unchanged aspects of life on happiness. However, typically, inferences about accuracy have been based on a confound of the viewpoint of judgments(Self/Other) with whether the respondent has the condition (Have/Not-have)--an important issue because people often judge themselves as different to others. This study measured Haves' and Not-haves' judged impact on happiness--for self and other--of several chronic health conditions, and whether "defocusing" respondents improved judgment. 80 Haves and 80 Not-haves predicted the impact of health conditions on their own and others' happiness using a questionnaire, after some participated in a defocusing exercise. Haves also indicated their preferences for their health condition over other conditions. Although Haves made more accurate forecast...
Although much research has established that subjects typically overestimate the probability that ... more Although much research has established that subjects typically overestimate the probability that they have selected the correct answer to a general knowledge question there is a dearth of psychological theory to explain this phenomenon. Here we present the rationale and results of a study ...
Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science, 2005
How good are people at judging probabilities? One early benchmark used for comparison was Bayes&#... more How good are people at judging probabilities? One early benchmark used for comparison was Bayes' theorem (see Bayesian Belief Networks). Bayes' theorem defines mathematically how probabilities should be combined and can be used as a normative theory of the way ...
The widespread and unexceptional use of the term "expert" suggests that there is genera... more The widespread and unexceptional use of the term "expert" suggests that there is general public acceptance of the validity of the concept of an expert. For exam-ple, in news reports of particular "specialist" areas such as foreign politics, economics, and transport disasters, it is quite ...
The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a novel threat and traditional and new media provide people wit... more The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a novel threat and traditional and new media provide people with an abundance of information and misinformation on the topic. In the current study, we investigated who tends to trust what type of mis/information. The data were collected in Norway from a sample of 405 participants during the first wave of COVID-19 in April 2020. We focused on three kinds of belief: the belief that the threat is overrated (COVID-threat skepticism), the belief that the threat is underrated (COVID-threat belief) and belief in misinformation about COVID-19. We studied sociodemographic factors associated with these beliefs and the interplay between attitudes to COVID-19, media consumption and prevention behavior. All three types of belief were associated with distrust in information about COVID-19 provided by traditional media and distrust in the authorities' approach to the pandemic. COVID-threat skepticism was associated with male gender, reduced news consumption si...
The attempts to mitigate the unprecedented health, economic, and social disruptions caused by the... more The attempts to mitigate the unprecedented health, economic, and social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are largely dependent on establishing compliance to behavioral guidelines and rules that reduce the risk of infection. Here, by conducting an online survey that tested participants’ knowledge about the disease and measured demographic, attitudinal, and cognitive variables, we identify predictors of self-reported social distancing and hygiene behavior. To investigate the cognitive processes underlying health-prevention behavior in the pandemic, we co-opted the dual-process model of thinking to measure participants’ propensities for automatic and intuitive thinking vs. controlled and reflective thinking. Self-reports of 17 precautionary behaviors, including regular hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a face mask, served as a dependent measure. The results of hierarchical regressions showed that age, risk-taking propensity, and concern about the pandemic predicte...
Background: Previous research has demonstrated a ‘seductive allure’ of technical or reductive lan... more Background: Previous research has demonstrated a ‘seductive allure’ of technical or reductive language. Specifically, bad explanations – i.e., those presenting circular restatements of a phenomenon or other non-explanatory information – are judged better explanations when irrelevant technical language is included.Methods: Using a between subjects design we presented participants (N=996) with one of four possible vignettes that explain how covid-19 vaccinations and herd immunity works. The explanations varied along two factors: (1) Quality, explanations were either good or bad (tautological); (2) Language, explanations either contained unnecessary technical language or did not. We measured participants’ evaluation of the explanations (‘how good’ and ‘how satisfying’ they were) and subsequent intentions to vaccinate.Results: We demonstrate a novel ‘seductive allure’ effect of technical language on vaccine information. Including unnecessary technical language in informative explanation...
In a critical review of the person-situation debate, Furnham and Jaspars (1983) presented a reana... more In a critical review of the person-situation debate, Furnham and Jaspars (1983) presented a reanalysis of nearly all the published studies in the field which they claimed provided strong support for the interactionist position. This paper contests that claim by arguing that the statistics ...
Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making
People overestimate the impact of health conditions on happiness, putatively because they focus e... more People overestimate the impact of health conditions on happiness, putatively because they focus excessively on resulting negative consequences while disregarding the impact of other unchanged aspects of life on happiness. However, typically, inferences about accuracy have been based on a confound of the viewpoint of judgments(Self/Other) with whether the respondent has the condition (Have/Not-have)--an important issue because people often judge themselves as different to others. This study measured Haves' and Not-haves' judged impact on happiness--for self and other--of several chronic health conditions, and whether "defocusing" respondents improved judgment. 80 Haves and 80 Not-haves predicted the impact of health conditions on their own and others' happiness using a questionnaire, after some participated in a defocusing exercise. Haves also indicated their preferences for their health condition over other conditions. Although Haves made more accurate forecast...
Although much research has established that subjects typically overestimate the probability that ... more Although much research has established that subjects typically overestimate the probability that they have selected the correct answer to a general knowledge question there is a dearth of psychological theory to explain this phenomenon. Here we present the rationale and results of a study ...
Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science, 2005
How good are people at judging probabilities? One early benchmark used for comparison was Bayes&#... more How good are people at judging probabilities? One early benchmark used for comparison was Bayes' theorem (see Bayesian Belief Networks). Bayes' theorem defines mathematically how probabilities should be combined and can be used as a normative theory of the way ...
The widespread and unexceptional use of the term "expert" suggests that there is genera... more The widespread and unexceptional use of the term "expert" suggests that there is general public acceptance of the validity of the concept of an expert. For exam-ple, in news reports of particular "specialist" areas such as foreign politics, economics, and transport disasters, it is quite ...
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Papers by Peter Ayton