Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to report research testing scales developed from a combinat... more Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to report research testing scales developed from a combination of vested interest (VI) theory and the extended parallel process model of fear appeals. The scales were created to measure variables specified by an expanded model of VI: certainty, salience, immediacy, self-efficacy, response-efficacy, and susceptibility.Design/methodology/approach– A survey was designed with subscales for each element and combined with additional disaster and risk perception variables. Survey data were collected from two populations in the US state of Oklahoma. Results from scale development and regression analyses are reported.Findings– Results show that the scales are robust and flexible to contextual modification. The scales return good to excellent reliabilities, providing evidence that the variables articulated by VI theory predict perceived salience and perceived preparedness.Practical implications– This study adds to the research pointing to the efficacy of VI theory in providing insight into the perceptual barriers to preparedness. These results demonstrate that perceived vestedness can be a valuable tool in crafting messages to inform audiences of risks and motivate them to prepare.Social implications– These results can facilitate the creation of more effective hazard and risk messages. Related research shows households that are prepared for natural and manmade hazards enjoy higher rates of survivability and lower levels of consequences.Originality/value– This paper presents new results concerning perceived vestedness and the utility of the scales. The research should be of value to practitioners and policymakers concerned with motivating public audiences to prepare for natural and manmade hazards.
Lately, increasing concern has focused on the incessant and intrusive use of smartphones across a... more Lately, increasing concern has focused on the incessant and intrusive use of smartphones across a wide range of interpersonal and relational contexts. Of concern is that many people appear to snub someone during face-to-face interactions by focusing more on their smartphone than on their relational partner, namely, phubbing. Individuals with insecure attachment styles may phub their intimate others more often. However, such relationships have not been examined. This study used a cross-sectional design to examine key relationships between insecure attachment styles on phubbing. An online survey was conducted to examine the relationships between the variables of this study ( N = 444 , 72% female: mean age 20). The analyses revealed both anxious-preoccupied and dismissive-avoidant attachment styles to be positively associated with phubbing. Moreover, both insecure attachment styles indirectly predicted phubbing through problematic smartphone use (PSU). Insecure attachment styles appear...
Making accurate, unbiased decisions is critical in high-stakes professions such as law enforcemen... more Making accurate, unbiased decisions is critical in high-stakes professions such as law enforcement, intelligence analysis, and medicine, since the decisions can have severe consequences. In this chapter, we discuss what makes persuasive games effective for training professionals to recognize their cognitive biases, improve their knowledge about decision-making biases, and learn ways of mitigating bias. We describe our experience designing three games for professional training in cognitive biases and deception detection. This chapter focuses on the combination of decisionmaking, education, and game theories that drives our design. This is then followed by a discussion of our experiments and measurements for testing the effectiveness of our designs.
Using lnteractive Media Tools to Test Substance Abuse Prevention Messages Michael Burgoon, Eusebi... more Using lnteractive Media Tools to Test Substance Abuse Prevention Messages Michael Burgoon, Eusebio M. Alvaro, Katherine Broneck, Claude Miller, Joseph R. Grandpre, John R. Hall, and Cynthia A. Frank University of Arizona Social awareness of public health issues has ...
International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 2019
Extant research indicates that professional law enforcement officers (LEOs) are generally no bett... more Extant research indicates that professional law enforcement officers (LEOs) are generally no better than untrained novices at detecting deception. Moreover, traditional training methods are often less effective than no training at all at improving successful detection. Compared to the traditional training, interactive digital games can provide an immersive learning environment for deeper internalization of new information through simulated practices. VERITAS—an interactive digital game—was designed and developed to train LEOs to better detect reliable deception cues when questioning suspects and determining the veracity of their answers. The authors hypothesized that reducing players' reactance would mitigate resistance to training, motivate engagement with materials, and result in greater success at deception detection and knowledge. As hypothesized, LEOs playing VERITAS showed significant improvement in deception detection from the first to the second scenario within the game;...
Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital gam... more Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital games train people to avoid cognitive biases? The goal of this study is to investigate the affordance of different educational media in training people about cognitive biases and to mitigate cognitive biases within their decision-making processes. Method. A between-subject experiment was conducted to compare a digital game, a traditional slideshow, and a combined condition in mitigating two types of cognitive biases: anchoring bias and representativeness bias. We measured both immediate effects and delayed effects after four weeks. Results. The digital game and slideshow conditions were effective in mitigating cognitive biases immediately after the training, but the effects decayed after four weeks. By providing the basic knowledge through the slideshow, then allowing learners to practice bias-mitigation techniques in the digital game, the combined condition was most effective at mitigating...
According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the a... more According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the appeal of charismatic leaders. To assess this idea, we investigated how thoughts about death and the 9/11 terrorist attacks influence Americans' attitudes toward current U.S. President George W. Bush. Study 1 found that reminding people of their own mortality (mortality salience) increased support for Bush and his counterterrorism policies. Study 2 demonstrated that subliminal exposure to 9/11-related stimuli brought death-related thoughts closer to consciousness. Study 3 showed that reminders of both mortality and 9/11 increased support for Bush. In Study 4, mortality salience led participants to become more favorable toward Bush and voting for him in the upcoming election but less favorable toward Presidential candidate John Kerry and voting for him. Discussion focused on the role of terror management processes in allegiance to charismatic leaders and political decision making.
International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 2013
This paper describes the process of rapid iterative prototyping used by a research team developin... more This paper describes the process of rapid iterative prototyping used by a research team developing a training video game for the Sirius program funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). Described are three stages of development, including a paper prototype, and builds for alpha and beta testing. Game development is documented, and the process of playtesting is reviewed with a focus on the challenges and lessons-learned. Advances made in the development of the game through the playtesting process are discussed along with implications of the rapid iterative prototyping approach.
A serious video game was created to teach players about cognitive bias and encourage mitigation o... more A serious video game was created to teach players about cognitive bias and encourage mitigation of both confirmation bias and the fundamental attribution error. Multiplayer and single-player versions of the game were created to test the effect of different feedback sources on bias mitigation performance. A total of 626 participants were randomly assigned to play the single player/multiplayer game once or repeatedly. The results indicate the single player game was superior at reducing confirmation bias and that repeated plays and plays of longer duration were more effective at mitigating both biases than a control condition where participants watched a training video.
ABSTRACT Contemporary inoculation scholarship has focused on the process of resistance to persuas... more ABSTRACT Contemporary inoculation scholarship has focused on the process of resistance to persuasion, and recently begun to examine various incidental effects that may accompany inoculation treatments. This study considers how talk fits within both of these areas, not only as a byproduct of inoculation, but also as a potentially important contributor to the process of resistance. Results indicate inoculation not only enhances talk about the target issue, but such talk appears to bolsters resistance to subsequent counterattitudinal messages. Les effets de la discussion postinoculation sur la résistance aux influences La littérature contemporaine sur l’inoculation s’est concentrée sur le mécanisme de la résistance à la persuasion, et a récemment commencéà examiner différents effets contingents qui pourraient accompagner des traitements d’inoculation. Cette étude examine les manières par lesquelles la discussion correspond à ces deux domaines, non seulement comme effet secondaire de l’inoculation, mais aussi comme un participant possiblement important au mécanisme de résistance. Les résultats indiquent que l’inoculation ne fait pas qu’augmenter la discussion à propos de l’enjeu cible, mais que cette discussion semble renforcer la résistance à des messages de contre-attitude subséquents. Mots clés : inoculation, résistance, discussion, contre-argumentation, modélisation par équation structurelle Der Wirkung von Postinokulationsgesprächen auf den Widerstand gegen Beeinflussung Die aktuelle Inokulationsforschung fokussiert auf den Prozess des Widerstands gegen Persuasion und begann unlängst damit, die verschiedenen zufälligen Effekte, die bei Inokulationstreatments auftreten können, zu untersuchen. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht integriert Gespräche in beide dieser Forschungsfelder, und zwar nicht nur als Nebenprodukt von Inokulation, sondern als potentiell wichtiger Faktor im Prozess des Widerstands. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, dass Inokulation nicht nur Gespräche über das Zielthema anregt, sondern dass Gespräche den Widerstand gegen nachfolgende Botschaften gegen die eigene Einstellung zu stützen scheinen. Schlüsselbegriffe: Inokulation, Widerstand, Gespräche, Counterarguing, Strukturgleichungsmodelle
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to report research testing scales developed from a combinat... more Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to report research testing scales developed from a combination of vested interest (VI) theory and the extended parallel process model of fear appeals. The scales were created to measure variables specified by an expanded model of VI: certainty, salience, immediacy, self-efficacy, response-efficacy, and susceptibility.Design/methodology/approach– A survey was designed with subscales for each element and combined with additional disaster and risk perception variables. Survey data were collected from two populations in the US state of Oklahoma. Results from scale development and regression analyses are reported.Findings– Results show that the scales are robust and flexible to contextual modification. The scales return good to excellent reliabilities, providing evidence that the variables articulated by VI theory predict perceived salience and perceived preparedness.Practical implications– This study adds to the research pointing to the efficacy of VI theory in providing insight into the perceptual barriers to preparedness. These results demonstrate that perceived vestedness can be a valuable tool in crafting messages to inform audiences of risks and motivate them to prepare.Social implications– These results can facilitate the creation of more effective hazard and risk messages. Related research shows households that are prepared for natural and manmade hazards enjoy higher rates of survivability and lower levels of consequences.Originality/value– This paper presents new results concerning perceived vestedness and the utility of the scales. The research should be of value to practitioners and policymakers concerned with motivating public audiences to prepare for natural and manmade hazards.
Lately, increasing concern has focused on the incessant and intrusive use of smartphones across a... more Lately, increasing concern has focused on the incessant and intrusive use of smartphones across a wide range of interpersonal and relational contexts. Of concern is that many people appear to snub someone during face-to-face interactions by focusing more on their smartphone than on their relational partner, namely, phubbing. Individuals with insecure attachment styles may phub their intimate others more often. However, such relationships have not been examined. This study used a cross-sectional design to examine key relationships between insecure attachment styles on phubbing. An online survey was conducted to examine the relationships between the variables of this study ( N = 444 , 72% female: mean age 20). The analyses revealed both anxious-preoccupied and dismissive-avoidant attachment styles to be positively associated with phubbing. Moreover, both insecure attachment styles indirectly predicted phubbing through problematic smartphone use (PSU). Insecure attachment styles appear...
Making accurate, unbiased decisions is critical in high-stakes professions such as law enforcemen... more Making accurate, unbiased decisions is critical in high-stakes professions such as law enforcement, intelligence analysis, and medicine, since the decisions can have severe consequences. In this chapter, we discuss what makes persuasive games effective for training professionals to recognize their cognitive biases, improve their knowledge about decision-making biases, and learn ways of mitigating bias. We describe our experience designing three games for professional training in cognitive biases and deception detection. This chapter focuses on the combination of decisionmaking, education, and game theories that drives our design. This is then followed by a discussion of our experiments and measurements for testing the effectiveness of our designs.
Using lnteractive Media Tools to Test Substance Abuse Prevention Messages Michael Burgoon, Eusebi... more Using lnteractive Media Tools to Test Substance Abuse Prevention Messages Michael Burgoon, Eusebio M. Alvaro, Katherine Broneck, Claude Miller, Joseph R. Grandpre, John R. Hall, and Cynthia A. Frank University of Arizona Social awareness of public health issues has ...
International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 2019
Extant research indicates that professional law enforcement officers (LEOs) are generally no bett... more Extant research indicates that professional law enforcement officers (LEOs) are generally no better than untrained novices at detecting deception. Moreover, traditional training methods are often less effective than no training at all at improving successful detection. Compared to the traditional training, interactive digital games can provide an immersive learning environment for deeper internalization of new information through simulated practices. VERITAS—an interactive digital game—was designed and developed to train LEOs to better detect reliable deception cues when questioning suspects and determining the veracity of their answers. The authors hypothesized that reducing players' reactance would mitigate resistance to training, motivate engagement with materials, and result in greater success at deception detection and knowledge. As hypothesized, LEOs playing VERITAS showed significant improvement in deception detection from the first to the second scenario within the game;...
Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital gam... more Objective. Humans systematically make poor decisions because of cognitive biases. Can digital games train people to avoid cognitive biases? The goal of this study is to investigate the affordance of different educational media in training people about cognitive biases and to mitigate cognitive biases within their decision-making processes. Method. A between-subject experiment was conducted to compare a digital game, a traditional slideshow, and a combined condition in mitigating two types of cognitive biases: anchoring bias and representativeness bias. We measured both immediate effects and delayed effects after four weeks. Results. The digital game and slideshow conditions were effective in mitigating cognitive biases immediately after the training, but the effects decayed after four weeks. By providing the basic knowledge through the slideshow, then allowing learners to practice bias-mitigation techniques in the digital game, the combined condition was most effective at mitigating...
According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the a... more According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the appeal of charismatic leaders. To assess this idea, we investigated how thoughts about death and the 9/11 terrorist attacks influence Americans' attitudes toward current U.S. President George W. Bush. Study 1 found that reminding people of their own mortality (mortality salience) increased support for Bush and his counterterrorism policies. Study 2 demonstrated that subliminal exposure to 9/11-related stimuli brought death-related thoughts closer to consciousness. Study 3 showed that reminders of both mortality and 9/11 increased support for Bush. In Study 4, mortality salience led participants to become more favorable toward Bush and voting for him in the upcoming election but less favorable toward Presidential candidate John Kerry and voting for him. Discussion focused on the role of terror management processes in allegiance to charismatic leaders and political decision making.
International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 2013
This paper describes the process of rapid iterative prototyping used by a research team developin... more This paper describes the process of rapid iterative prototyping used by a research team developing a training video game for the Sirius program funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). Described are three stages of development, including a paper prototype, and builds for alpha and beta testing. Game development is documented, and the process of playtesting is reviewed with a focus on the challenges and lessons-learned. Advances made in the development of the game through the playtesting process are discussed along with implications of the rapid iterative prototyping approach.
A serious video game was created to teach players about cognitive bias and encourage mitigation o... more A serious video game was created to teach players about cognitive bias and encourage mitigation of both confirmation bias and the fundamental attribution error. Multiplayer and single-player versions of the game were created to test the effect of different feedback sources on bias mitigation performance. A total of 626 participants were randomly assigned to play the single player/multiplayer game once or repeatedly. The results indicate the single player game was superior at reducing confirmation bias and that repeated plays and plays of longer duration were more effective at mitigating both biases than a control condition where participants watched a training video.
ABSTRACT Contemporary inoculation scholarship has focused on the process of resistance to persuas... more ABSTRACT Contemporary inoculation scholarship has focused on the process of resistance to persuasion, and recently begun to examine various incidental effects that may accompany inoculation treatments. This study considers how talk fits within both of these areas, not only as a byproduct of inoculation, but also as a potentially important contributor to the process of resistance. Results indicate inoculation not only enhances talk about the target issue, but such talk appears to bolsters resistance to subsequent counterattitudinal messages. Les effets de la discussion postinoculation sur la résistance aux influences La littérature contemporaine sur l’inoculation s’est concentrée sur le mécanisme de la résistance à la persuasion, et a récemment commencéà examiner différents effets contingents qui pourraient accompagner des traitements d’inoculation. Cette étude examine les manières par lesquelles la discussion correspond à ces deux domaines, non seulement comme effet secondaire de l’inoculation, mais aussi comme un participant possiblement important au mécanisme de résistance. Les résultats indiquent que l’inoculation ne fait pas qu’augmenter la discussion à propos de l’enjeu cible, mais que cette discussion semble renforcer la résistance à des messages de contre-attitude subséquents. Mots clés : inoculation, résistance, discussion, contre-argumentation, modélisation par équation structurelle Der Wirkung von Postinokulationsgesprächen auf den Widerstand gegen Beeinflussung Die aktuelle Inokulationsforschung fokussiert auf den Prozess des Widerstands gegen Persuasion und begann unlängst damit, die verschiedenen zufälligen Effekte, die bei Inokulationstreatments auftreten können, zu untersuchen. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht integriert Gespräche in beide dieser Forschungsfelder, und zwar nicht nur als Nebenprodukt von Inokulation, sondern als potentiell wichtiger Faktor im Prozess des Widerstands. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, dass Inokulation nicht nur Gespräche über das Zielthema anregt, sondern dass Gespräche den Widerstand gegen nachfolgende Botschaften gegen die eigene Einstellung zu stützen scheinen. Schlüsselbegriffe: Inokulation, Widerstand, Gespräche, Counterarguing, Strukturgleichungsmodelle
For much of inoculation theory’s 50-year history, research has focused on intrapersonal processes... more For much of inoculation theory’s 50-year history, research has focused on intrapersonal processes of resistance such as threat and subvocal counterarguing. More recently, atten- tion has shifted to interpersonal processes of inoculation-conferred resistance, specifically, postinoculation talk (PIT). This study examined the substance of PIT, and how people may talk to one another for reassurance and advocacy following an inoculation. Findings indicate advocacy attempts were significantly greater within the inoculation condition. Those inoculated were more likely to a) pass along material included in the inoculation treatment, b) share issue-relevant novel material, c) talk about topics related to the target issue, and d) be challenged by conversational partners when attempting advocacy. Results help explain what inoculated individuals talk about following an inoculation treatment, and how PIT may spread the process of resistance along social networks.
The efficacy of inoculation theory has been confirmed by decades of empirical research, yet optim... more The efficacy of inoculation theory has been confirmed by decades of empirical research, yet optimizing its effectiveness remains a vibrant line of investigation. The present research turns to psychological reactance theory for a means of enhancing the core mechanisms of inoculation—threat and refutational preemption. Findings from a multisite study indicate reactance enhances key resistance outcomes, including: threat, anger at attack message source, negative cognitions, negative affect, anticipated threat to freedom, anticipated attack message source derogation, perceived threat to freedom, perceived attack message source derogation, and counterarguing. Most importantly, reactance-enhanced inoculations result in lesser attitude change—the ultimate measure of resistance.
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Papers by Claude Miller