Do patients prefer a human doctor, artificial intelligence, or a blend, and is this preference dependent on medical discipline? Empirical evidence and implications for medical practice.

Today the doctor-patient relationship typically takes place in a face-to-face setting. However, with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) systems, two further interaction scenarios are possible: an AI system supports the doctor's decision regarding diagnosis and/or treatment while interacting with the patient, or an AI system could even substitute the doctor and hence a patient interacts with a chatbot (i.e., a machine) alone. Against this background, we report on an online experiment in which we analyzed data from N = 1,183 people. The data was collected in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). The participants were asked to imagine they had been suffering from medical conditions of unknown origin for some time and that they were therefore visiting a health center to seek advice from a doctor. We developed descriptions of patient-doctor interactions (referred to as vignettes), thereby manipulating the patient's interaction partner: (i) human doctor, (ii) human doctor with an AI system, and (iii) an AI system only (i.e., chatbot). Furthermore, we manipulated medical discipline: (i) cardiology, (ii) orthopedics, (iii) dermatology, and (iv) psychiatry. Based on this 3 × 4 experimental within-subjects design, our results indicate that people prefer a human doctor, followed by a human doctor with an AI system, and an AI system alone came in last place. Specifically, based on these 12 hypothetical interaction situations, we found a significant main effect of a patient's interaction partner on trust, distrust, perceived privacy invasion, information disclosure, treatment adherence, and satisfaction. Moreover, perceptions of trust, distrust, and privacy invasion predicted information disclosure, treatment adherence, and satisfaction as a function of interaction partner and medical discipline. We found that the situation in psychiatry is different from the other three disciplines. Specifically, the six outcome variables differed strongly between psychiatry and the three other disciplines in the "human doctor with an AI system" condition, while this effect was not that strong in the other conditions (human doctor, chatbot). These findings have important implications for the use of AI in medical care and in the interaction between patients and their doctors.

[Videoconference Fatigue Coping Strategies]. / Bewältigungsstrategien von Videoconference Fatigue.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people's professional and private lives globally and has led to an increasing use of digital technologies, especially video conferencing systems (e.g. Zoom, Webex, Teams, Skype). Despite the possible advantages of these systems (e.g. savings in emissions by avoiding travelling), a negative phenomenon has been reported in science and practice: Videoconference Fatigue (VCF) (often synonymously referred to as Zoom Fatigue). This term describes the exhaustion and fatigue that results from the use of videoconferencing systems. In this article we report on an analysis of the academic literature, the aim of which is to document the current state of research on coping strategies. The analysis of coping strategies helps to better understand the phenomenon of VCF and to prevent or reduce fatigue and exhaustion. Furthermore, the results reported here are a basis for future work. Specifically, as of May 2022, we have identified 48 scientific articles on VCF, 37 of which also deal with coping strategies. We divide these strategies into organizational (e.g. taking breaks during and between meetings), personal (e.g. avoiding multitasking) and technological (e.g. use of the "together mode" in Teams). An important finding of our analysis is that with the exception of one paper, the effectiveness of the coping strategies has not yet been empirically examined and thus proven. This opens up enormous future research potential.

Videoconference fatigue from a neurophysiological perspective: experimental evidence based on electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG).

In the recent past, many organizations and people have substituted face-to-face meetings with videoconferences. Among others, tools like Zoom, Teams, and Webex have become the "new normal" of human social interaction in many domains (e.g., business, education). However, this radical adoption and extensive use of videoconferencing tools also has a dark side, referred to as videoconference fatigue (VCF). To date only self-report evidence has shown that VCF is a serious issue. However, based on self-reports alone it is hardly possible to provide a comprehensive understanding of a cognitive phenomenon like VCF. Against this background, we examined VCF also from a neurophysiological perspective. Specifically, we collected and analyzed electroencephalography (continuous and event-related) and electrocardiography (heart rate and heart rate variability) data to investigate whether VCF can also be proven on a neurophysiological level. We conducted a laboratory experiment based on a within-subjects design (N = 35). The study context was a university lecture, which was given in a face-to-face and videoconferencing format. In essence, the neurophysiological data-together with questionnaire data that we also collected-show that 50 min videoconferencing, if compared to a face-to-face condition, results in changes in the human nervous system which, based on existing literature, can undoubtedly be interpreted as fatigue. Thus, individuals and organizations must not ignore the fatigue potential of videoconferencing. A major implication of our study is that videoconferencing should be considered as a possible complement to face-to-face interaction, but not as a substitute.

Negative psychological and physiological effects of social networking site use: The example of Facebook.

Social networking sites (SNS), with Facebook as a prominent example, have become an integral part of our daily lives and more than four billion people worldwide use SNS. However, the (over-)use of SNS also poses both psychological and physiological risks. In the present article, we review the scientific literature on the risk of Facebook (over-)use. Addressing this topic is critical because evidence indicates the development of problematic Facebook use ("Facebook addiction") due to excessive and uncontrolled use behavior with various psychological and physiological effects. We conducted a review to examine the scope, range, and nature of prior empirical research on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Our literature search process revealed a total of 232 papers showing that Facebook use is associated with eight major psychological effects (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological effects (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state). The review also describes how Facebook use is associated with these effects and provides additional details on the reviewed literature, including research design, sample, age, and measures. Please note that the term "Facebook use" represents an umbrella term in the present work, and in the respective sections it will be made clear what kind of Facebook use is associated with a myriad of investigated psychological variables. Overall, findings indicate that certain kinds of Facebook use may come along with significant risks, both psychologically and physiologically. Based on our review, we also identify potential avenues for future research.

Interruption science as a research field: Towards a taxonomy of interruptions as a foundation for the field.

Interruptions have become ubiquitous in both our personal and professional lives. Accordingly, research on interruptions has also increased steadily over time, and research published in various scientific disciplines has produced different perspectives, fundamental ideas, and conceptualizations of interruptions. However, the current state of research hampers a comprehensive overview of the concept of interruption, predominantly due to the fragmented nature of the existing literature. Reflecting on its genesis in the 1920s and the longstanding research on interruptions, along with recent technological, behavioral, and organizational developments, this paper provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of the various attributes of an interruption, which facilitates the establishment of interruption science as an interdisciplinary research field in the scientific landscape. To obtain an overview of the different interruption attributes, we conducted a systematic literature review with the goal of classifying interruptions. The outcome of our research process is a taxonomy of interruptions, constituting an important foundation for the field. Based on the taxonomy, we also present possible avenues for future research.

On the associations between videoconference fatigue, burnout and depression including personality associations.

Videoconference fatigue (hereafter VC fatigue) presents a new psychological construct, which gained momentum in course of the COVID-19 pandemic with the rise of videoconferences taking place in everyday (work-)life. In order to better characterize VC fatigue, it is of importance not only to investigate associations with age, gender and personality (as has been done earlier and will be revisited). Besides, it is crucial to shed light on relevant psychopathological constructs co-occurring with VC fatigue. In the present survey study, based on data from N = 311 participants recruited via the Internet we investigated the associations between VC fatigue, burnout and depression, and we specifically took the personality trait neuroticism as potential predisposing variable into account. These four constructs were robustly positively associated with each other. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that the positive associations between neuroticism and burnout/depression might in parts be mediated by VC fatigue. However, future studies are needed to disentangle cause and effect between the aforementioned variables. The present study, to our knowledge, is among the first to reveal associations between VC fatigue and psychopathologies. Moreover, in this paper we present a German version of the Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue scale (ZEF) by Fauville and colleagues.

Attentional and Behavioral Disengagement as Coping Responses to Technostress and Financial Stress: An Experiment Based on Psychophysiological, Perceptual, and Behavioral Data.

Discontinuance of information systems (IS) is a common phenomenon. It is thus critical to understand the decision process and psychophysiological mechanisms that underlie the intention and corresponding behaviors to discontinue IS use, particularly within the digital financial technology usage context, where continuance rates remain low despite increased adoption. Discontinuance has been identified as one coping behavior to avoid stressful situations. However, research has not yet explored this phenomenon toward digital financial technologies. This manuscript builds upon a pilot study that investigated the combined influence of technostress and financial stress on users' responses toward digital financial decision-making tasks and aims to disentangle the specific impacts of unexpected technology behaviors and perceived financial loss on attentional and behavioral disengagement as coping responses, which may lead to discontinuance from digital financial technology usage. A two-factor within-subject design was developed, where perceived techno-unreliability as variable system response time delays under time pressure and perceived financial loss as negative financial outcomes were manipulated in a 3 × 2 design. Psychophysiological, perceptual, and behavioral data were collected from N = 15 participants while performing an adapted version of the Iowa Gambling Task. The results indicate that unexpected technology behaviors have a far greater impact than perceived financial loss on (1) physiological arousal and emotional valence, demonstrated by decreased skin conductance levels and curvilinear emotional valence responses, (2) feedback processing and decision-making, corroborated by curvilinear negative heart rate (BPM) and positive heart rate variability (HRV) responses, decreased skin conductance level (SCL), increased perceptions of system unresponsiveness and techno-unreliability, and mental workload, (3) attentional disengagement supported by curvilinear HRV and decreased SCL, and (4) behavioral disengagement as coping response, represented by curvilinear decision time and increasingly poor financial decision quality. Overall, these results suggest a feedforward and feedback loop of cognitive and affective mechanisms toward attentional and behavioral disengagement, which may lead to a decision of disengagement-discontinuance as a coping outcome in stressful human-computer interaction situations.

On the stress potential of videoconferencing: definition and root causes of Zoom fatigue.

As a consequence of lockdowns due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the resulting restricted social mobility, several billion people worldwide have recently had to replace physical face-to-face communication with computer-mediated interaction. Notably, the adoption rates of videoconferencing increased significantly in 2020, predominantly because videoconferencing resembles face-to-face interaction. Tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex are used by hundreds of millions of people today. Videoconferencing may bring benefits (e.g., saving of travel costs, preservation of environment). However, prolonged and inappropriate use of videoconferencing may also have an enormous stress potential. A new phenomenon and term emerged, Zoom fatigue, a synonym for videoconference fatigue. This paper develops a definition for Zoom fatigue and presents a conceptual framework that explores the major root causes of videoconferencing fatigue and stress. The development of the framework draws upon media naturalness theory and its underlying theorizing is based on research published across various scientific fields, including the disciplines of both behavioral science and neuroscience. Based on this theoretical foundation, hypotheses are outlined. Moreover, implications for research and practice are discussed.

Exploring Online and In-Store Purchase Willingness: Associations With the Big Five Personality Traits, Trust, and Need for Touch.

Nowadays, customers can utilize both online and in-store retail channels. Consequently, it is crucial for retailers to understand the possible drivers of retail channel selection, including customers' personalities, degrees of trust, and product touch preferences. Unfortunately, current omnichannel research only scarcely addresses the effects of personality, trust, and desire to touch a product before purchasing it on willingness to purchase and how those effects vary between online and in-store shopping. Thus, we conducted an exploratory study. Our analysis of survey data (N = 1,208)-which controls for respondents' age, gender, and education-reveals that across both the willingness to purchase in-store and online, a higher level of e-vendor trust is a significant, positive predictor. However, we also identify several channel-related differences, including that Trust Propensity, as well as the Big Five traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness are significantly positively related to in-store, but not online, purchase willingness. We also find that Instrumental Need for Touch (defined as goal-motivated touch of a product) is positively related to in-store, but negatively related to online, purchase willingness. Finally, we highlight opportunities for future research and discuss how retail managers might enhance customer experiences in their physical and online stores.

Electronic Performance Monitoring in the Digital Workplace: Conceptualization, Review of Effects and Moderators, and Future Research Opportunities.

The rise of digital and interconnected technology within the workplace, including programs that facilitate monitoring and surveillance of employees is unstoppable. The COVID-19-induced lockdowns and the resulting increase in home office adoption even increased this trend. Apart from major benefits that may come along with such information and communication technologies (e.g., productivity increases, better resource planning, and increased worker safety), they also enable comprehensive Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) which may also have negative effects (e.g., increased stress and a reduction in job satisfaction). This conceptual article investigates EPM to better understand the development, adoption, and impact of EPM systems in organizations. The EPM literature published since the 1980s constitutes the basis for this conceptual article. We present a framework which is intended to serve as foundation for future studies. Moreover, we reviewed more than three decades of empirical EPM research and identified six major outcomes that are influenced by the use of an EPM system, as well as a large number of moderator variables. Based on our conceptual analyses and the resulting insights, which also include privacy, ethical, and cultural considerations, we discuss future research opportunities where we also refer to design implications for EPM systems.

The Digital Stressors Scale: Development and Validation of a New Survey Instrument to Measure Digital Stress Perceptions in the Workplace Context.

This article reports on the development of an instrument to measure the perceived stress that results from the use and ubiquity of digital technology in the workplace. Based upon a contemporary understanding of stress and a set of stressors that is a substantial update to existing scales, the Digital Stressors Scale (DSS) advances the measurement of digital stress. Initially, 138 items were constructed for the instrument and grouped into a set of 15 digital stressors. Based on a sample of N = 1,998 online questionnaires completed by individuals representative of the US employed population, the scale was refined using exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and PLS-SEM. The resulting and final scale consists of ten stressor categories reflective of one higher-order construct and a total of 50 items. Through a nomological network that includes important outcome variables of digital stress (emotional exhaustion, innovation climate, job satisfaction, user satisfaction) it was then demonstrated that the DSS provides substantial explanatory power, particularly related to emotional exhaustion and user satisfaction. Thus, the DSS constitutes a state-of-the-art self-report instrument to measure the extent of distress appraisal related to digital technologies in the workplace and helps to explain further how and why information and communication technologies can lead to adverse outcomes in individuals, thereby providing the starting point for job related organizational interventions.

Linking Internet Communication and Smartphone Use Disorder by taking a closer look at the Facebook and WhatsApp applications.

INTRODUCTION: Smartphones are ubiquitous in the digital society. Although this powerful device is useful because it supports and simplifies many tasks in everyday life, a growing number of researchers is concerned that smartphones might have detrimental effects on the human brain and related psychological processes. Evidence indicates that social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook are essential drivers of smartphone usage. Thus, a critical, yet unexplored issue is how excessive use of those platforms is related to Smartphone Use Disorder (SUD). Furthermore, since the roles of life satisfaction and fear of missing out (FoMo) have been demonstrated to be of particular importance for Internet Use and Internet Communication Disorder, those constructs were examined in the context of SUD. METHODS: In total, n = 2299 participants filled in questionnaires assessing SUD, WhatsApp and Facebook Use Disorder, FoMO, life satisfaction, and reported owning a WhatsApp and Facebook account. RESULTS: The study revealed that SUD was linked to WhatsApp Use Disorder, and to a lesser extent, to Facebook Use Disorder. Associations between SUD and WhatsApp Use Disorder were most strongly pronounced in females. Additionally, FoMo predicted SUD, WhatsApp, Facebook Use Disorder, and (fully) mediated the relationship between life satisfaction and those variables. CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study suggest that WhatsApp use plays an important role to understand SUD. Regarding the mediating role of FoMO, the present work might help disentangle inconsistent results on the link between life satisfaction and (excessive) social networking sites use.

Non-invasive brain stimulation in information systems research: A proof-of-concept study.

One of the founding experiments in the field of Neuro-Information-Systems (NeuroIS), which aims at exploring the neural correlates of the technology acceptance model, suggests that perceived ease of use (PEoU) is associated with activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) while perceived usefulness is associated with activity in the insula, caudate nucleus and anterior cingulate cortex. To further assess the link between DLPFC and PEoU, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was applied over bilateral DLPFC (F3 and F4) immediately before an online shopping task. Forty-two participants were divided in three stimulation groups: left anodal/right cathodal, left cathodal/right anodal and sham. No change in PEoU was observed post stimulation but participants in the left anodal/right cathodal stimulation group took longer to make a purchase compared to sham stimulation and had different visual fixation patterns over the buy buttons. This is, to our knowledge, the first use of non-invasive brain stimulation in the field of NeuroIS. Although the involvement of DLPFC in PEoU could not be confirmed, the present study suggests that non-invasive brain stimulation may be a useful research tool in NeuroIS.

Digitally enhanced recovery: Investigating the use of digital self-tracking for monitoring leisure time physical activity of cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation.

Research has shown that physical activity is essential in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease (CVD). Smart wearables (e.g., smartwatches) are increasingly used to foster and monitor human behaviour, including physical activity. However, despite this increased usage, little evidence is available on the effects of smart wearables in behaviour change. The little research which is available typically focuses on the behaviour of healthy individuals rather than patients. In this study, we investigate the effects of using smart wearables by patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation. A field experiment involving 29 patients was designed and participants were either assigned to the study group (N = 13 patients who finished the study and used a self-tracking device) or the control group (N = 16 patients who finished the study and did not use a device). For both groups data about physiological performance during cardiac stress test was collected at the beginning (baseline), in the middle (in week 6, at the end of the rehabilitation in the organized rehabilitation setting), and at the end of the study (after 12 weeks, at the end of the rehabilitation, including the organized rehabilitation plus another 6 weeks of self-organized rehabilitation). Comparing the physiological performance of both groups, the data showed significant differences. The participants in the study group not only maintained the same performance level as during the midterm examination in week 6, they improved performance even further during the six weeks that followed. The results presented in this paper provide evidence for positive effects of digital self-tracking by patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation on performance of the cardiovascular system. In this way, our study provides novel insight about the effects of the use of smart wearables by CVD patients. Our findings have implications for the design of self-management approaches in a patient rehabilitation setting. In essence, the use of smart wearables can prolong the success of the rehabilitation outside of the organized rehabilitation setting.

Parkinson Patients' Initial Trust in Avatars: Theory and Evidence.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor system and cognitive and behavioral functions. Due to these impairments, PD patients also have problems in using the computer. However, using computers and the Internet could help these patients to overcome social isolation and enhance information search. Specifically, avatars (defined as virtual representations of humans) are increasingly used in online environments to enhance human-computer interaction by simulating face-to-face interaction. Our laboratory experiment investigated how PD patients behave in a trust game played with human and avatar counterparts, and we compared this behavior to the behavior of age, income, education and gender matched healthy controls. The results of our study show that PD patients trust avatar faces significantly more than human faces. Moreover, there was no significant difference between initial trust of PD patients and healthy controls in avatar faces, while PD patients trusted human faces significantly less than healthy controls. Our data suggests that PD patients' interaction with avatars may constitute an effective way of communication in situations in which trust is required (e.g., a physician recommends intake of medication). We discuss the implications of these results for several areas of human-computer interaction and neurological research.

Trust behavior in Parkinson's disease: results of a trust game experiment.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by motor symptoms, but in which behavioral and cognitive disturbances are also common. Trust, due to its pervasiveness in society, has become a major research topic in several scientific disciplines. However, empirical evidence for trust behavior in neurological patients, and specifically for movement disorders such as PD, is missing. Evidence from healthy subjects, however, indicates that three brain regions are involved in trust perceptions and behavior, namely the limbic system, basal ganglia, and frontal cortex. PD affects all these brain regions. Therefore, we hypothesized that PD patients and healthy controls show differences in trust behavior. METHODS: We conducted an experiment using the trust game, an established paradigm to investigate trust behavior in both patient and healthy populations alike, controlling for risky decision making. Twenty patients suffering from PD diagnosed according to UK PDS Brain Bank criteria and twenty healthy controls (matched for age, gender, education, and income) were recruited. We excluded those suffering from clinically relevant neuropsychiatric comorbidities. RESULTS: We found that PD patients exhibit significantly lower levels of trust than do healthy controls. Importantly, our results cannot be explained by lower levels of risk-taking. Moreover, our results indicate that the trust deficit is independent of medication, disease duration, and severity of motor symptoms. CONCLUSION: Application of a standard procedure for measuring trust behavior revealed that PD patients exhibit lower levels of trust in other humans than do healthy controls. Against this background we make a call for further research to determine the underlying pathophysiology of reduced trust in PD.

Correlation of plasma and salivary oxytocin in healthy young men - experimental evidence.

OBJECTIVES: The neuroactive hormone oxytocin (OT) has significant influence on human behavior, and it has been measured peripherally in venous blood and in saliva in many behavioral neuroscience studies. Assessment of salivary hormone levels is popular due to non-invasiveness, but there is a controversy as to whether OT can be reliably measured in saliva and how possible time lags between plasma and salivary OT levels influence correlation. DESIGN AND METHODS: In order to shed light on the question whether salivary and plasma OT levels correlate, we designed an experiment where healthy young men had to look at a presentation of trustworthy faces on a computer screen (faces were taken from an established database in trust research). During three points in time, plasma and saliva samples were collected and analyzed using ELISA. RESULTS: Plasma and salivary OT levels did not correlate even when considering a time lag of 15 or 30 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that plasma and salivary OT levels do not correlate in healthy young men, and hence comparison of results across plasma and salivary studies is neither informative nor warranted. However, we recommend replicating this study based on mixed-gender samples.

Identifying decision strategies: a process- and outcome-based classification method.

This article presents a classification method that makes possible the detection of important decision strategies that people use in nonrisky multiattribute decision tasks. The classification method incorporates a multimethod approach that combines elements of both structural modeling and process tracing. We begin with a discussion of nine common characteristics of decision strategies and then classify 13 decision strategies on the basis of these characteristics. Next, we demonstrate that six of the characteristics can be used to develop one outcome-based and three process-based metrics. In addition, we present an algorithm that shows how to use the metrics. We demonstrate that using our metrics in conjunction with a measure for direction of search allows identification of most of the 13 decision strategies. Finally, we outline the potential of our research for the design of decision support systems such as online shops.