Browsing by Author "Weber, Bernd"

Car designers and critics often refer to car fronts as faces, thus, interpreting the lights as eyes and the grille as nose/mouth. Perceiving nonhuman objects as human is called anthropomorphizing and behavioral studies indicate that fostering this tendency in products leads to several desirable responses on the customer's side. So far, studies on this topic lack process measures in order to prove this to be the underlying mechanism leaving room for several other explanations. An fMRI study comparing the processing of female, male and car faces indicates that the general pattern of activation overlaps remarkably between human and car faces and the activation of the reward circuit is similar for female and car faces. This result points to the potential of applying laws of beauty established in the domain of human faces to car designs to increase their liking.

Collecting biomarkers as part of general purpose surveys offers scientists - and socila scientists in particular - the ability to study biosocial phenomena, e.g. the realtion between genes and human behavior. We explore the feasibility of collecting buccal cells for genetic analyses with normal interviewers as part of a pretest for the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) using a probability sample. We introduce a new non-invasive technique for collecting cell material for genetic analyses and test its quality. We found no technical difficulites in collecting the genetic material and almost all samples collected could be analyzed. However, one third of interviewers reported it was hard to convince panel members to participate. The "biomarker wave" showed no reduction in response rate compared to the previous wave that included no biomarkers and the sample exhibited very little selectivity. We conclude that collecting cell material for genetic analyses with normal interviewers is feasible with no apparent same-wave attrition, though so far we cannot rule out attrition in subsequent waves.

The present research is aimed at providing insights into the complex nature of product anthropomorphism with respect to gender and emotional expressions of employed faces and shows on the basis of a fMRI study that cars resemble female faces and are best liked when they simultaneously look aggressive and friendly.

In this paper we study the role of absolute versus relative income using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While being scanned in two adjacent MRI scanners, pairs of subjects had to simultaneously perform a simple estimation task that entailed monetary rewards for correct answers. We show that a variation in the comparison subject's payment affects blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses in the ventral striatum. This brain region is engaged in the prediction and registration of primary rewards such as food delivery as well as more abstract forms of rewards like money. In particular, we show that activation in the ventral striatum increases in absolute income and - for a given level of absolute income - decreases in lower relative income. Using a male and a female sample allows us to study whether the perception of relative and absolute incomes is gender specific. We find that the effects of absolute and relative incomes are strong and relatively similar for both genders. Finally, we analyze the importance of "joy of winning", i.e., the impact of outperforming another subject. Our results suggest that the mere fact of outperforming the other subject positively affects reward related brain areas.

Whether social comparison affects individual well-being is of central importance for understanding behavior in any social environment. Traditional economic theories focus on the role of absolute rewards, whereas behavioral evidence suggests that social comparisons influence well-being and decisions. We investigated the impact of social comparisons on reward-related brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While being scanned in two adjacent MRI scanners, pairs of subjects had to simultaneously perform a simple estimation task that entailed monetary rewards for correct answers. We show that a variation in the comparison subject's payment affects blood oxygenation level-dependent responses in the ventral striatum. Our results provide neurophysiological evidence for the importance of social comparison on reward processing in the human brain

The integration of neuroscientific methods in Information Systems(IS) research to better understand how the brain interacts with IS relevant context has gained in importance. Many papers that highlight the potential of neuroIS and that discuss methodological issues associated with using functional brain imaging already exist. However, neuroIS researchers have to keep in mind that the emergence of complex mental processes such as trust in IS contexts is based on activity in a network of brain regions rather than on activity in one area alone. Accordingly, we introduce psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis, a technique that one can use to analyze fMRI data. Specifically, we review how one can conduct PPI analysis, provide a concrete research example, and show how this analysis can inform IS trust research. Thus, we introduce neuroIS Researchers working in the domain of functional brain imaging to advanced fMRI analyses methods and show, based on the example of trust, how These methods can enhance our understanding of the nature of IS constructs.