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

Virtual boundaries: How environmental cues affect motivation and task-oriented behavior

2012-09-21
(Press-News.org) NEW YORK - September 21, 2012 - Much of our daily lives are spent completing tasks that involve a degree of waiting, such as remaining on hold while scheduling a doctor's appointment or standing in line at an ATM. Faced with a wait, some people postpone, avoid, or abandon their task. Others endure the wait but feel dissatisfied and frustrated by the experience.

Are there ways to improve our outlook and mindset while waiting? A new study shows that seemingly irrelevant environmental cues—such as queue guides, or barriers commonly used in banks and airports—can serve as virtual boundaries that divide those waiting into two categories: those who are inside the system and those who are outside the system. In several experiments, Leonard Lee, associate professor of marketing at Columbia Business School, working with Min Zhao and Dilip Soman of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, showed that in-system individuals demonstrate increased action initiation, persistence in completing tasks, and overall optimism.

Prior studies have shown that situational cues can have a significant impact on behavior. For example, playing French music in a wine shop has been shown to increase purchases of French wine. This new research shows that even cues that are not directly related to an individual's goal can have a substantial effect in a task environment, influencing cognition and the subsequent manner in which the task is completed.

Consciously and unconsciously, people tend to locate physical markers in their environments to create and define boundaries. The researchers explored whether objects and patterns in a waiting environment—ranging from queue guides and area carpets to the location of another person—can create virtual boundaries that divide those waiting between in-system and out-system categories. After crossing the virtual boundary, the researchers hypothesized, an individual would adopt an implemental mindset, which is characterized by a more optimistic view of goal-relevant information and greater action-orientation.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted studies that examined how environmental cues activate the implemental mindset, both behaviorally and cognitively. In one experiment, the researchers placed queue guides at various distances from a busy ATM, so that some of those waiting were in-system and others were out-system. The in-system customers were more likely to remain in line to complete their transaction, the researchers found. A separate study using queue guides showed that the point at which customers initiated task-related action—in this case, taking their ATM cards from their wallets or purses—corresponded to the point at which they crossed the virtual boundary and entered the in-system category.

These findings add to the growing literature on the unconscious effects of environmental cues on motivations and behavior. In addition to its application to everyday tasks, using cues to activate the implemental mindset may have broader implications in cases in which the decision to wait can have serious consequences. For example, motivating patients waiting for a kidney transplant to maintain an optimistic outlook can have a beneficial effect on their well-being. A short call from a nurse could serve as a virtual boundary that grants in-system status and raises patients' spirits, the researchers suggest.

### About Columbia Business School Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard, the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School is at the forefront of management education for a rapidly changing world. The school's cutting-edge curriculum bridges academic theory and practice, equipping students with an entrepreneurial mindset to recognize and capture opportunity in a competitive business environment. Beyond academic rigor and teaching excellence, the school offers programs that are designed to give students practical experience making decisions in real-world environments. The school offers MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA) degrees, as well as non-degree Executive Education programs. For more information, visit www.gsb.columbia.edu.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Historian uncovers rare writings by 18th century political icon

2012-09-21
Three political essays by one of the greatest British statesmen of the last 250 years have been discovered by a historian at Queen Mary, University of London. The new finds constitute the earliest political writings by Edmund Burke (1729-97), dating from around 1757, when he was 27-years-old, a period often described as the 'missing years' of his biography. Professor Richard Bourke, from the School of History at Queen Mary, came across the early essays among a series of notebooks belonging to William Burke, a close friend and distant relation of parliamentarian, Edmund. ...

Mount Sinai researchers identify predictors for inpatient pain

2012-09-21
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified reliable predictors of pain by surveying patients throughout their hospital stays about the severity of their pain and their levels of satisfaction with how their pain was managed by hospital staff. Using this data, interdisciplinary teams treating patients were able to identify patients at higher risk for pain prior to, or immediately upon, their admission to the hospital, and create and implement intervention plans resulting in patients reporting lower levels of pain and higher levels of satisfaction with ...

Documenting women's experiences with chromosome abnormalities found in new prenatal test

2012-09-21
PHILADELPHIA – We often hear that "knowledge is power." But, that isn't always the case, especially when the knowledge pertains to the health of an unborn child, with murky implications, at best. A new study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, begins to document this exception to the general rule. Barbara Bernhardt, MS, CGC, a genetic counselor at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues contacted a small group of women who are participating in a larger Columbia University study investigating ...

Addictive properties of drug abuse may hold key to an HIV cure

2012-09-21
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida State University researcher is on a mission to explore the gene-controlling effects of addictive drugs in pursuit of new HIV treatments. Working under the support of a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Florida State biologist Jonathan Dennis is studying a unique ability shared between a promising class of HIV treatments known as histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) and psychostimulant drugs such as cocaine. "Current HIV treatments do just that — they treat the disease by preventing the spread of HIV in ...

How do we make moral judgments? Insights from Psychological Science

2012-09-21
New research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, provides intriguing insights into some of the factors that influence how we make moral judgments. Reappraising Our Emotions Allows Cooler Heads to Prevail We might like to think that our judgments are always well thought-out, but research suggests that our moral judgments are often based on intuition. Our emotions seem to drive our intuitions, giving us the gut feeling that something is 'right' or 'wrong.' In some cases, however, we seem to be able to override these ...

'Forest killer' plant study explores rapid environmental change factors

2012-09-21
TEMPE (Sept. 21, 2012) - It's called mile-a-minute weed or "forest killer." Mikania micrantha is an exotic, invasive species that spreads quickly, covering crops, smothering trees and rapidly altering the environment. Researchers at Arizona State University are spearheading a four-year research project that will explore what factors cause people and the environment to be vulnerable to rapid environmental change, such as an invasion by Mikania. Study findings likely will serve as a harbinger of the future as humans increasingly experience abrupt, extreme conditions associated ...

Study shows anaesthetic-related deaths reduced dramatically

2012-09-21
LONDON, ON – A team of researchers led by London's Dr. Daniel Bainbridge have compiled data from 87 studies worldwide that shows post-anaesthetic deaths have declined as much as 90 percent since before the 1970s. During the same period, the risk of dying from any cause within 48 hours of surgery has decreased by 88 percent. The study covered outcomes in both developed and developing countries, with the findings published in the current issue of the high-profile journal The Lancet. The study calls for use of evidence-based interventions to reduce the disparities between ...

Research identifies protein that regulates key 'fate' decision in cortical progenitor cells

2012-09-21
Cold Spring Harbor, NY – Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have solved an important piece of one of neuroscience's outstanding puzzles: how progenitor cells in the developing mammalian brain reproduce themselves while also giving birth to neurons that will populate the emerging cerebral cortex, the seat of cognition and executive function in the mature brain. CSHL Professor Linda Van Aelst, Ph.D., and colleagues set out to solve a particular mystery concerning radial glial cells, or RGCs, which are progenitors of pyramidal neurons, the most common type ...

Growing corn to treat rare disease

2012-09-21
The seeds of greenhouse-grown corn could hold the key to treating a rare, life-threatening childhood genetic disease, according to researchers from Simon Fraser University. SFU biologist Allison Kermode and her team have been carrying out multidisciplinary research toward developing enzyme therapeutics for lysosomal storage diseases - rare, but devastating childhood genetic diseases – for more than a decade. In the most severe forms of these inherited diseases, untreated patients die in early childhood because of progressive damage to all organs of the body. Currently, ...

LifeShield Builds Web Presence for Regional Authorized Dealers

2012-09-21
LifeShield Security authorized dealers throughout the country can now connect with consumers on a regional level through locally relevant websites that help to identify customers and prospects. Sites also offer special wireless home security deals to each region that are constantly changing. "Local dealers understand the security challenges particular to their own regions and therefore can be more successful at recruiting new customers," said Shannon Dominello, CMO, LifeShield. "Regional sites provide a legitimate local web presence for each dealer that ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Pioneering neuroendocrinologist's century of discovery launches major scientific tribute series

Gendered bilingualism in post-colonial Korea

Structural safety monitoring of buildings with color variations

Bio-based fibers could pose greater threat to the environment than conventional plastics

Bacteria breakthrough could accelerate mosquito control schemes

Argonne to help drive AI revolution in astronomy with new institute led by Northwestern University

Medicaid funding for addiction treatment hasn’t curbed overdose deaths

UVA co-leads $2.9 million NIH investigation into where systems may fail people with disabilities

With the help of AI, UC Berkeley researchers confirm Hollywood is getting more diverse

Weight loss interventions associated with improvements in several symptoms of PCOS

Federal government may be overpaying for veterans’ health care in Medicare Advantage plans

Researchers awarded $2.5 million grant to increase lung cancer screenings in underserved communities

New trigger proposed for record-smashing 2022 Tonga eruption

Lupus Research Alliance announces Lupus Research Highlights at ACR Convergence 2024

Satellite imagery may help protect coastal forests from climate change

The secrets of baseball's magic mud

Toddlers understand concept of possibility

Small reductions to meat production in wealthier countries may help fight climate change, new analysis concludes

Scientists determine why some patients don’t respond well to wet macular degeneration treatment, show how new experimental drug can bridge gap

Did the world's best-preserved dinosaurs really die in 'Pompeii-type' events?

Not the usual suspects: Novel genetic basis of pest resistance to biotech crops

Jill Tarter to receive Inaugural Tarter Award for Innovation in the search for life beyond earth

Survey finds continued declines in HIV clinician workforce

Researchers home in on tumor vulnerabilities to improve odds of treating glioblastoma

Awareness of lung cancer screening remains low

Hospital COVID-19 burden and adverse event rates

NSF NOIRLab astronomers discover the fastest-feeding black hole in the early universe

Translational science reviews—a new JAMA review

How the keto diet could one day treat autoimmune disorders

Influence of tool corner radius on chip geometrical characteristics of machining Zr-based bulk metallic glass

[Press-News.org] Virtual boundaries: How environmental cues affect motivation and task-oriented behavior