Stair versus elevator use in a university residence hall setting.

OBJECTIVE: Determine the temporal and spatial characteristics of stairs versus elevator use in a university residence hall to inform future physical activity promotion efforts. PARTICIPANTS: All residents and visitors for a single, four-story residence hall dormitory building located on a college campus in Orange, CA. METHODS: Smart mat systems capable of detecting pedestrian traffic were placed in front of the stairs and elevators on each floor plus a basement. Generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) were used to compare stair versus elevator usage at different times of the day and on different floors. RESULTS: Stair versus elevator use varied much more throughout the day on floors nearest to the ground floor, with stair use most common in the morning. Overall, the elevator was used more frequently on higher floors, with less variation throughout the day. CONCLUSION: To be most effective, future stair promotion interventions should target residents on higher floors and in the morning.

Anger, frustration, boredom and the Department of Motor Vehicles: Can negative emotions impede organ donor registration?

RATIONALE: The IIFF Model (Information, Immediate and Complete Registration Mechanism, Focused Engagement, Favorable Activation) offers a checklist of considerations for interventions seeking to influence organ donor registration behavior. One aspect of the model, favorable activation, recommends considering the emotional and motivational state of a potential donor registrant. Given that most donor registrations occur at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), we considered whether emotions experienced while at the DMV could influence registration rates. OBJECTIVE: The current research effort investigated the emotions people experience while visiting the DMV, explored whether these emotions are associated with donor registration intentions, and experimentally assessed whether DMV experiences influence donor registration. METHODS: Three studies were conducted through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. In Study 1, we randomly assigned participants to either recall a prior DMV experience or to a comparison condition. Emotions associated with the recalled experiences were the dependent variable. Study 2 assessed the correlations between nine different emotions and donor registration intentions. Study 3 randomly assigned participants to recall a prior frustrating DMV experience or to a comparison condition. Intention to register to donate was the dependent variable. RESULTS: Study 1 found that recalling a prior DMV experience was associated with more negative and less positive emotions than the comparison condition. Study 2 found that increased levels of negative emotion could be problematic, as negative emotions were associated with decreased donor intentions. Study 3 found that recalling a frustrating DMV experience resulted in significantly lower intentions to register as an organ donor (vs. a control condition). CONCLUSION: Although not all DMV experiences are negative, these data indicated a relationship between the DMV and negative emotions; an association between negative emotions and lower donor registration intentions; and, a causal relationship between negative DMV experiences and decreased registration intentions.

The Effect of Inconsistency Appeals on the Influence of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertisements: An Application of Goal Disruption Theory.

Scholars across multiple domains have identified the presence of inconsistency-arousing information in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements and have suggested that these appeals, which highlight differences between people's actual and desired lives, may create psychological disequilibrium. However, experimental assessment of the distinct influence of inconsistency-arousing information in this domain is rare. Guided by goal disruption theory-a framework that outlines people's reactions to goal expectation violations-we created direct-to-consumer advertisements designed to make people's life inconsistencies salient. The influence of these ads on people's perceptions of, and intentions to use, prescription drugs was then assessed. Results from a structural equation modeling analysis supported the proposed model, indicating that compared to a control ad, an ad containing a goal expectation violation manipulation resulted in higher levels of psychological disequilibrium; in turn, psychological disequilibrium led to positive evaluations of the ad and the drug, positive outcome expectations of the drug, increased purposive harm endurance, and increased usage intentions. The current results suggest a psychological pathway that begins with a negative goal expectation violation and ends with increased usage intentions and a greater willingness to endure harm to make use possible.