PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

How to digitally stoke that old-time auction fever

New insights into what makes online auctions exciting and rewarding

2015-07-28
(Press-News.org) Whether online auctions are selling rare Pokemon cards or fine art, the science behind inciting the highest bids gets a boost from a paper to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Retailing. Researchers from Germany and Australia teamed up to explore how bidders' emotions are affected by different types of auctions and how those emotions affect their bidding. In "Auction Fever! How Time Pressure and Social Competition Affect Bidders' Arousal and Bids in Retail Auctions," the three authors - Marc T.P. Adam of the University of Newcastle, Professor Jan Krämer of the University of Passau, and Marius B. Müller of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - designed experiments to explicitly study the interaction of time pressure and social competition on bidders' excitement level, or arousal, and bids. The authors demonstrated that auctions where both time pressure and social competition are intense lead to so-called auction fever and higher bids. The catch is that the competition has to be other people, not computer-generated. "Arousal needs a focus in order to culminate in auction fever, and this focus stems from the social competition of bidding against human opponents," they write. Further, in comparing ascending auctions, where the bidders drop out as the clock and price advance, with descending auctions, where the winning bid is made as the price drops, the authors found that participants' experience in ascending auctions was more rewarding for them. In an increasingly crowded online market for auctions, auctioneers who want to create a more exciting shopping experience for consumers and higher revenues for their sites are advised to focus on ascending auction formats that highlight the presence of other human bidders.

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Sleepy fruitflies get mellow

2015-07-28
PHILADELPHIA - Whether you're a human, a mouse, or even a fruitfly, losing sleep is a bad thing, leading to physiological effects and behavioral changes. One example that has been studied for many years is a link between sleep loss and aggression. But it can be difficult to distinguish sleep loss effects from stress responses, especially in rodent or human models. A team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania used fruitflies to probe deeper into the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern aggression and sleep. They ...

Firms 'underinvest' in long-term cancer research

2015-07-28
Pharmaceutical firms "underinvest" in long-term research to develop new cancer-fighting drugs due to the greater time and cost required to conduct such research, according to a newly published study co-authored by MIT economists. Specifically, drugs to treat late-stage cancers are less costly to develop than drugs for earlier-stage cancers, partly because the late-stage drugs extend people's lives for shorter durations of time. This means that the clinical trials for such drugs get wrapped up more quickly, too -- and provide drug manufacturers more time to control patented ...

Penn Vet study shows immune cells in the skin remember and defend against parasites

2015-07-28
Just as the brain forms memories of familiar faces, the immune system remembers pathogens it has encountered in the past. T cells with these memories circulate in the blood stream looking for sites of new infection. Recently, however, researchers have shown that memory T cells specific to viral infections can also set up residence in particular tissues. There, they stand guard, ready to respond quickly to the first sign of reinfection. Now, research led by a team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine shows that these resident memory T cells ...

New eye-tracker method shows 'preferred retinal location' in both eyes

2015-07-28
July 28, 2015 - Eyes with central vision loss adapt by developing a new fixation point in a different part of the retina, called the preferred retinal location (PRL). Now for the first time, a new method makes it possible to identify PRLs in both eyes simultaneously, reports a study in the August issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer. The new eye-tracker technique may help in developing visual rehabilitation approaches to improve binocular vision for the many older adults ...

Cellphones can steal data from 'air-gapped computers' according to Ben Gurion University researchers

2015-07-28
BEER-SHEVA, Israel...July 28, 2015 - Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) Cyber Security Research Center have discovered that virtually any cellphone infected with a malicious code can use GSM phone frequencies to steal critical information from infected "air-gapped" computers. Air-gapped computers are isolated -- separated both logically and physically from public networks -- ostensibly so that they cannot be hacked over the Internet or within company networks. Led by BGU Ph.D. student Mordechai Guri, the research team discovered how to turn ...

Doctor Google: How age and other factors influence online health information searches

2015-07-28
Consumers have access to multiple Web sites to search for online health information and can be far more involved in managing their own medical issues than ever before. However, this wealth of resources can make finding accurate information difficult, especially because it is often spread across multiple sites. A new study published in the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making aims to evaluate the types of search strategies that Internet users adopt when trying to solve a complicated health problem. Joseph Sharit, a professor in the Department of Industrial ...

Endangered icebreakers: The future of Arctic research, exploration and rescue at risk

2015-07-28
Alexandria, VA - The United States' Icebreaker Fleet - operated by the U.S. Coast Guard - consists of just two ships that are used for everything from search and rescue to national security operations to scientific research. In our August cover story, EARTH Magazine examines the various roles icebreakers play, especially in Arctic research, and how insufficient funding is affecting the icebreakers' roles. Icebreakers are becoming more important every year, as more commerce is conducted in Arctic regions as seasonal ice cover decreases. Yet over recent fiscal cycles, Congress ...

Neurology researchers evaluate evidence base for tests for clinical cognitive assessment

2015-07-28
West Orange, NJ. July 28, 2015 Recommendations for improving clinical cognitive testing were reported by the American Academy of Neurology's (AAN) Behavioral Neurology Section (BNS) Group, led by Kirk R. Daffner, MD, of Boston, Mass. The Group focused on the Neurobehavioral Status Exam (NBSE), conducting evidence-based reviews of testing used for five domains - attention, language, memory, spatial cognition, and executive function). "Improving clinical cognitive testing" (doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000001763) was published online ahead of print on July 10, 2015, in Neurology, ...

Where memory is encoded and retrieved: New findings in a long-standing debate

2015-07-28
Are the same regions and even the same cells of the brain area called hippocampus involved in encoding and retrieving memories or are different areas of this structure engaged? This question has kept neuroscientists busy for a long time. Researchers at the Mercator Research Group "Structure of Memory" at RUB have now found out that the same brain cells exhibit activity in both processes. They have published their results in the journal "Hippocampus". Hippocampus: the key to memory In the course of their project, Dr Nozomu Nakamura and Prof Dr Magdalena Sauvage from ...

Majority rule: Why conformity can actually be a good thing

2015-07-28
Like to go your own way? Most of us actually prefer to follow the pack, according to UBC research. That's one of the outcomes from a study published in Evolution and Human Behavior that examines how mathematical models predict human behaviour. The research tested theories about when people should rely on "social information" - information that we learn vicariously from others - and when we should choose to go it alone. "People are conformist - and that's a good thing for cultural evolution," said Michael Muthukrishna, a Vanier and Liu Scholar and recent PhD recipient ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Individuals with multiple sclerosis face substantially greater risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19, despite high rates of vaccination

Study shows obesity in childhood associated with a more than doubling of risk of developing multiple sclerosis in early adulthood

Rice Emerging Scholars Program receives $2.5M NSF grant to boost STEM education

Virtual rehabilitation provides benefits for stroke recovery

Generative AI develops potential new drugs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Biofuels could help island nations survive a global catastrophe, study suggests

NJIT research team discovering how fluids behave in nanopores with NSF grant

New study shows association of historical housing discrimination and shortfalls in colon cancer treatment

Social media use may help to empower plastic surgery patients

Q&A: How to train AI when you don't have enough data

Wayne State University researchers uncover potential treatment targets for Zika virus-related eye abnormalities

Discovering Van Gogh in the wild: scientists unveil a new gecko species

Small birds spice up the already diverse diet of spotted hyenas in Namibia

Imaging detects transient “hypoxic pockets” in the mouse brain

Dissolved organic matter could be used to track and improve the health of freshwaters

Indoor air quality standards in public buildings would boost health and economy, say international experts

Positive associations between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

New imaging method illuminates oxygen's journey in the brain

Researchers discover key gene for toxic alkaloid in barley

New approach to monitoring freshwater quality can identify sources of pollution, and predict their effects

Bidirectional link between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

Cell division quality control ‘stopwatch’ uncovered

Vaccine protects cattle from bovine tuberculosis, may eliminate disease

Andrew Siemion to receive the SETI Institute’s 2024 Drake Award

New study shows how the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus enters our cells

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy proves effective for locally advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma

Study flips treatment paradigm in bilateral Wilms tumor, shows resistance to chemotherapy may point toward favorable outcomes

Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

Discovery suggests new strategy against follicular lymphoma

Making the future too bright: how wishful thinking can point us in the wrong direction

[Press-News.org] How to digitally stoke that old-time auction fever
New insights into what makes online auctions exciting and rewarding