Effects of perceived scarcity on COVID-19 consumer stimulus spending: The roles of ontological insecurity and mutability in predicting prosocial outcomes.

In 2021, the United States government provided a third economic impact payment (EIP) for those designated as experiencing greater need due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a particular focus on scarcity and ontological insecurity, we collected time-separated data prior to, and following, the third EIP to examine how these variables shape consumer allocation of stimulus funds. We find that scarcity is positively associated with feelings of ontological insecurity, which, interestingly, correlates to a allocation of stimulus funds toward charitable giving.

Market segmentation strategies can be used to overcome COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and other health crises.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact everyone to some degree, it has become clear that experts from many disparate fields must work together to overcome such public health crises. Even now, a significant portion of U.S.

The Effect of Skeuomorphic Digital Interfaces on the Illusion of Control over Gambling Outcomes.

The current research focuses on how the use of "skeuomorphs" in digital design interacts with an illusion of control to influence gambling behavior. Skeuomorphism is a design concept in which an aspect of a modern item is made to represent its outdated counterpart, even if this representation serves no functional purpose, such as hands "dealing" cards or horses "racing" on the screen of a digital machine. It is proposed that the inclusion of these non-essential links to physical objects in digital gambling games interacts with a player's illusion of control over the outcome to influence behavior.

Filling the Organ Donor Pool by Giving Priority.

Context: Many of the alternatives for procuring donor organs are considered either ineffective, unethical, or illegal. One possibility that may not face such challenges is a priority system whereby individuals who register as an organ donor are given priority to receive an organ over those who have not registered. However, providing extrinsic rewards can sometimes paradoxically reduce the target behavior, especially for those who are more altruistically motivated.