The Wisdom of the Crowd is not a Forgone Conclusion. Effects of Self-Selection on (Collaborative) Knowledge Construction

Web 2.0 has elevated the possibilities of collaboration to unprecedented levels. Therein lies great potential, as the aptly coined phenomenon "Wisdom of the Crowd" implies. When it comes to controversial topics, however, there is no safety in numbers alone. On the contrary, collaboration among only like-minded people may even exacerbate biases (e.g., Echo Chambers). Yet, it is human nature to seek out like-minded others. Consequently, the process of self-selection is crucial if the heterogeneity of opinions serves as a safeguard against undesirable effects of group processes (e.g., attitude polarization). Accordingly, online environments that invite more heterogeneous (vs. homogeneous) users should produce less biased content. We tested this hypothesis in a field study, comparing articles on the same 20 controversial topics from the online encyclopedias Conservapedia and RationalWiki with Wikipedia (and Britannica serving as a gold standard) and exploring the opinions of discussants in the three online encyclopedias. As expected, articles from Conservapedia and RationalWiki were significantly less balanced than articles from Wikipedia and Britannica. We replicated this finding in a lab study with 257 participants who self-selected to one of three online wikis (Vegan Love, Nutrition, Meat & Fish) and individually as well as collaboratively wrote an encyclopedia-like article about "Diets." As expected, Wikis with a specific focus (Vegan Love, Meat & Fish) predominantly attracted authors with a positive attitude toward this focus and, as a consequence, resulted in more biased content than in the Nutrition Wiki. Overall, our results suggest that crowds alone do not guarantee wisdom-self-selection is a crucial process that needs to be taken into account.

Seductive details hamper learning even when they do not disrupt

Previous research often revealed detrimental effects of seductive details on learning with multimedia instruction, but there are mixed findings regarding how to best explain these detrimental effects. We investigated whether the detrimental effects of seductive details are mainly mediated by the cognitive processes of diversion (deeper processing of seductive details rather than pertinent content) or disruption (unsuccessful attempts to integrate seductive details with pertinent content) by assessing the effects of instructional prompts. In an online learning experiment, participants (N = 247) learned either without seductive details (control condition) or with seductive details in one of three conditions: Participants received either a prompt informing them about the irrelevance of seductive details (irrelevance-prompt), a prompt to process seductive details and pertinent content separately (separation-prompt), or no prompt within their task instruction. We assessed recall and transfer of knowledge as dependent variables. Supporting the diversion hypothesis, participants in the no-prompt condition regarded seductive details as more relevant and consequently spent more time processing them compared to participants in the irrelevance-prompt condition, which negatively influenced their recall performance. Against the disruption hypothesis, participants in the no-prompt condition reported lower integration avoidance between seductive details and pertinent content compared to participants in the separation-prompt condition, but this led to better rather than worse transfer performance. Our results thus suggest diversion, and not disruption, to be the main process driving the seductive details effect. Reducing the details' diverting potential seems a good way to deal with seductive details in instruction.

Positive and negative emotions predict weight loss intentions and behaviors beyond theory of planned behavior constructs

PURPOSE

The current study examined the predictive utility of emotional valence (i.e., positive and negative emotions) on weight loss intentions and behaviors, beyond theory of planned behavior constructs (i.e., attitude, subjective norm, and perceived control), among a community sample of people who were overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m²).

METHODS

Participants were recruited for a longitudinal study via an online panel. They completed a baseline survey (N = 732) and a follow-up survey 6 months later (N = 526), both administered online. The surveys included measures of attitude, subjective norms, perceived control, positive and negative emotions regarding one's current weight, intentions to engage in weight loss behaviors (time 1), and having engaged in weight loss behaviors in the past 6 months (time 2).

RESULTS

Emotion explained additional variance in weight loss intentions (range ΔR² = 0.03-0.10, all ps < 0.01) and behaviors (range ΔR² = 0.01-0.02, all ps < 0.05) beyond theory of planned behavior constructs. Negative emotions mainly predicted the intake of unhealthy food and seeking social support, whereas positive emotions predicted physical activity (intention and behavior). These results suggested that the differential relations might be based on whether the strategy is approach or avoidance oriented.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on these findings, comprehensive models of weight loss behaviors should consider emotion, and the valence of such emotion, regarding current weight.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level IV, multiple time series without intervention.