| 21. |
- Halin, Niklas, et al.
(författare)
-
Higher Task Difficulty Shields Against Background Speech
- 2015
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Performance on visual-verbal tasks is generally impaired by task-irrelevant background speech, which can have consequences for individuals who works in noisy environments (e.g., schools or offices). This study examined the role increased task difficulty plays in shielding against the effects of background speech. This issue was addressed across 4 experiments whereby the level of task difficulty on visual-verbal tasks was manipulated (e.g., by changing the font of a text to one that is harder to read). Experiments 1 to 3 qualified the general finding: that background speech impairs performance on visual-verbal tasks (proofreading and prose memory), but only when task difficulty was low, not when it was high. Moreover, experiment 4 demonstrates that higher task difficulty on the focal task (n-back) also reduces recall on a surprise memory test on the content of a to-be-ignored background story. These results suggest that an increase in task difficulty, which promotes greater task engagement, can shield against the detrimental effects of background speech and also constrain the processing of complex semantic information present in background speech.
|
|
| 22. |
- Halin, Niklas, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
-
The Effects of Sound on Proofreading : Can Task Engagement Shield from Distraction
- 2013
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Performance on various cognitive tasks is impaired by task-irrelevant speech. The objective of this study was to manipulate the detrimental effects of task-irrelevant speech on a proofreading task, by increasing task engagement using an odd font (i.e. Haettenschweiler vs. Times). Texts were proofread in three different sound conditions (i.e. quiet, task-irrelevant speech and spectrally rotated speech). The participants searched for words (i.e. either content or function words) that were either misspelled or exchanged with contextually inappropriate words. Speech impaired detection of exchanged function words, but only when the text was written in Times, not when written in the odd font. Moreover, the participants missed fewer misspelled words in the speech condition, especially in Times, and they read more slowly in this sound condition. Taken together, these results indicate that proofreading behavior changes in the presence of task-irrelevant speech, to a more superficial/structural level of text processing (hence the improvement in detection of misspelled words), in comparison to the deeper/semantic level of text processing in the quiet condition (i.e., better detection of contextually inappropriate words). Greater task engagement (as indexed by the Haettenschweiler font), however, appears to protect the participant from the effect of sound on the ability to detect contextually inappropriate words.
|
|
| 23. |
- Hartwig, Fredrik, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
-
Averaging bias in firm acquisition processes
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics. - : Elsevier. - 2214-8043 .- 2214-8051. ; 96
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When a firm acquires 100% of the shares in another firm and finances this acquisition with available funds, the debt level and return on equity of the two firms in combination goes up (under certain conditions). In three experiments, we empirically demonstrate that individuals intuitively think these variables become lower after the acquisition, contrary to what is actually the case. The findings stress the role of psychological processes in business valuation and accounting and are consistent with an averaging account of judgment under uncertainty. On this view, people's judgments of objects in combination are biased toward the average rather than the sum of the objects’ individual characteristics. The experiments also show that informing the participants of the accurate evaluations removes the bias. The third experiment reinforced these results by replicating the same pattern with a sample of “high-accounting literacy” participants who all reported formal university training in accounting. One takeaway of the study is that, in acquisition settings, investors potentially could base their assessment of firm value on false premises which in turn (at least in the short run) leads to a higher level of asset mispricing and a less efficient capital market.
|
|
| 24. |
- Hartwig, Fredrik, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
-
The relation between auditing and accounting timeliness in Swedish private firms
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1358-1988 .- 1740-0279. ; 31:3, s. 379-396
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between auditing/non-auditing and accounting timeliness among Swedish private firms.Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses regression analysis to test the relationship between auditing and two measurements of timeliness; lead time and late filing. The sample consists of Swedish private firms.Findings: The paper finds that audited firms, when compared with unaudited firms, are significantly less timely. Moreover, greater profitability was associated with more timeliness but only for audited firms. The results also show that firms being audited by a big 4-auditor are significantly timelier than firms being audited by a non-big 4 auditor.Practical implications: The findings in this paper suggests that one aspect of accounting quality, timeliness, does not seem to benefit from auditing in a Swedish context. There is a debate about whether the threshold levels in Sweden should be raised so that more firms voluntarily can opt out of audit. Those opposing a raised threshold level claim that auditing has positive effects on accounting quality and consequently that a raised level would have adverse effects. The findings in this paper do not support such a claim.Originality/value: Little is known about timeliness in private firms compared to public firms and this paper fills that void. Contrary to prior research, findings show that unaudited firms in a Swedish regulatory setting actually are timelier than their audited counterparts. This questions one of the (presumed) benefits of auditing and should stimulate more research on this issue.
|
|
| 25. |
- Holmgren, Mattias, Doktorand, 1991-
(författare)
-
A Negative Footprint Illusion in Environmental Impact Estimates
- 2020
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A major part of anthropogenic climate change is due to everyday human behavior, such as transportation, food and energy consumption. As a result, it has been argued that many barriers for mitigating climate change are psychological in nature. For example, people’s decisions and behaviors are subject to heuristics and biases which sometime harm our decisions. The benchmark of the present thesis is the finding that people believe that adding environmentally friendly items to a set of conventional items reduces the impact of the whole set. This phenomenon has been coined a negative footprint illusion (NFI). How robust is this effect, is it generalizable across judgmental dimensions and what is the mechanism that underpins the effect? This thesis concerns these three questions. Paper 1 found support for the assumption that an averaging bias underpins the NFI. On this view, the NFI appears because people intuitively respond with the average of the ‘vices’ (the unfriendly objects) and ‘virtues’ (the more environmentally friendly objects) in the combined set of objects. Paper 2 demonstrated that the NFI is insensitive to some levels of expertise. Furthermore, Paper 2 also reported the first demonstration of the NFI in the context of a within-participants design. Paper 3 found that a NFI can also be demonstrated in the context of atmospheric CO2 concentration estimates. Paper 3 also reported further evidence for the averaging bias account of the NFI and showed that the effect is at least insensitive to some variations in the framing of the problem posed to the participants. Paper 4 demonstrated that the NFI can be eliminated by priming a summative mindset before requesting participants to make the environmental impact estimates. Taken together, this thesis shows that the NFI is a robust phenomenon that can be found across various to-be-estimated stimulus materials, it appears to be underpinned by an averaging bias but can be cognitively controlled in certain conditions.
|
|
| 26. |
- Holmgren, Mattias, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
-
Are mental biases responsible for the perceived comfort advantage in "green" buildings?
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Buildings. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-5309. ; 8:2
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research has shown that merely calling an indoor environment environmentally certified will make people favor that environment over a conventional alternative. In this paper we explore whether this effect depends on participants deliberately comparing the two environments, and whether different reasons behind the certification influence the magnitude of the effect. In Experiment 1, participants in a between-subjects design assigned higher comfort ratings to an indoor environment that had been labeled "environmentally certified" in comparison with the exact same indoor environment that was unlabeled, suggesting that the effect arises even when participants do not compare the two environments when making their estimates. The results from Experiment 2 indicate that climate change mitigation (as the reason for the certification) is a slightly better trigger of the effect compared to climate change adaptation. The results suggest that studies on psychological effects of "green" buildings should experimentally control for the influence from participants' judgmental biases.
|
|
| 27. |
- Holmgren, Mattias, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
-
Averaging bias in environmental impact estimates : Evidence from the negative footprint illusion
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 55, s. 48-52
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we argue that unsustainable behaviors often stem from a common averaging bias when people estimate the environmental impact of a set of environmentally friendly and less friendly objects or actions. In Experiment 1, we show that people believe that the total carbon footprint of a category of items (a community of buildings in this case) is lower, rather than higher, when environmentally friendly (“green” buildings) items are added to the category, a negative footprint illusion. Experiment 2 showed that the carbon footprint estimate assigned to a category with a mix of environmentally friendly and less friendly objects (“green” and conventional buildings) is the average of its subsets (the “green” buildings and the conventional buildings, respectively), an averaging bias. A similar averaging process may underpin estimates of the environmental impact of people's own actions, explaining why people believe that environmentally friendly actions can compensate for less friendly actions.
|
|
| 28. |
- Holmgren, Mattias, Doktorand, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
-
Deceptive sustainability : Cognitive bias in people's judgment of the benefits of CO2 emission cuts
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 64, s. 48-55
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- People's beliefs in the actions necessary to reduce anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are important to public policy acceptability. The current paper addressed beliefs concerning how periods of small emission cuts contribute to the total CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, by asking participants to rate the atmospheric CO2 concentration for various time periods and emission rates. The participants thought that a time period with higher emission rates combined with a period of lower emission rates generates less atmospheric CO2 in total, compared to the period with high emission rates alone – demonstrating a negative footprint illusion (Study 1). The participants appeared to base their CO2 estimates on the average, rather than on the accumulated sum, of the two periods' emissions – i.e. an averaging bias (Study 2). Moreover, the effect was robust to the wordings of the problem presented to the participants (Study 3). Together, these studies suggest that the averaging bias makes people exaggerate the benefits of small emission cuts. The averaging bias could make people willing to accept policies that reduce emission rates although insufficiently to alleviate global warming.
|
|
| 29. |
- Holmgren, Mattias, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
-
Occupant perception of “green” buildings : Distinguishing physical and psychological factors
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Building and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0360-1323 .- 1873-684X. ; 114, s. 140-147
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studies have found a preference bias for “environmentally friendly” or “green” artifacts and buildings. For example, indoor environments are more favorably viewed when the building is labeled/certified “green”, in comparison with one that is not labeled/certified, even though the two environments are actually identical. The present study explored how physical properties of the indoor environment (high vs. low temperature) and labeling (“green” vs. “conventional”) interacts in their effect on environment perception. Participants performed a series of tasks in four indoor environments with different labels (low vs. high carbon footprint) and different temperatures (23°C vs. 28°C). Label and temperature were manipulated orthogonally. The participants’ environmental concern was also measured. The environmentally concerned participant assigned higher thermal acceptance and satisfaction scores to the environment labeled “low carbon footprint” (i.e., “green” certified) compared to the environment labeled “high carbon footprint” (i.e., not “green” certified), but only in the cooler thermal environment. Environmentally indifferent participants’ perception of the environment did not differ depending on label or room temperature. The results suggest that a “green” label positively influence the perception of the indoor environment for occupants, but only when the temperature is within the acceptable range as proposed in guidelines for “green” buildings.
|
|
| 30. |
- Holmgren, Mattias, Doktorand, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
-
When A+B < A : Cognitive bias in experts' judgment of environmental impact
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When ‘environmentally friendly’ items are added to a set of conventional items, people report that the total set will have a lower environmental impact even though the actual impact increases. One hypothesis is that this “negative footprint illusion” arises because people, who are susceptible to the illusion, lack necessary knowledge of the item’s actual environmental impact, perhaps coupled with a lack of mathematical skills. The study reported here addressed this hypothesis by recruiting participants (‘experts’) from a master’s program in energy systems, who thus have bachelor degrees in energy-related fields including academic training in mathematics. They were asked to estimate the number of trees needed to compensate for the environmental burden of two sets of buildings: One set of 150 buildings with conventional energy ratings and one set including the same 150 buildings but also 50 ‘green’ (energy-efficient) buildings. The experts reported that less trees were needed to compensate for the set with 150 conventional and 50 ‘green’ buildings compared to the set with only the 150 conventional buildings. This negative footprint illusion was as large in magnitude for the experts as it was for a group of novices without academic training in energy-related fields. We conclude that people are not immune to the negative footprint illusion even when they have the knowledge necessary to make accurate judgments.
|
|
