We present five studies investigating the effects of approach and avoidance behaviours when individuals do not enact them but, instead, learn that others have performed them. In Experiment 1, when ...participants read that a fictitious character (model) had approached a previously unknown product, they ascribed to this model a liking for the object. In contrast, they ascribed to the model a disliking for the avoided product. In Experiment 2, this result emerged, with a smaller effect size, even when it was clear that the behaviours followed specific instructions from a third party. The model had been a mere executor instead of behaving autonomously. Finally, in Experiments 3, 4, and 5, we showed, with direct and indirect measures of attitudes, that reading that the model had approached vs avoided products was sufficient to create preferences in the participant for the approached one, regardless of whether it was explained that the model was a mere executor. This research highlights the largely unexplored effects of vicarious approach/avoidance behaviours. Theoretical and practical implications and possible developments of this line of research are discussed.
Brand avoidance – a services perspective Berndt, Adele; Petzer, Daniel J; Mostert, Pierre
European business review,
03/2019, Volume:
31, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into brand avoidance of service brands and explore whether the different types of brand avoidance identified in a product context apply to service ...providers.
Design/methodology/approach
Because of the exploratory nature of the study, the critical incident method and semi-structured interviews were used to achieve the purpose of the study.
Findings
The findings suggest that five types of brand avoidance, as identified in studies involving product brands, can be identified as impacting service brands. In addition, the findings show that advertising avoidance should be expanded to communication avoidance because of the multifarious communication influences that were identified. The study proposes a framework to deepen the understanding of the types of brand avoidance affecting service brands.
Research limitations/implications
Since the different types of brand avoidance previously identified are also evident in a services environment, service providers should develop strategies to deal with the different types of service brand avoidance. The findings are broad in scope because of the exploratory nature of the study, and a detailed analysis of each type of service brand avoidance is still required.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on the various types of brand avoidance and their manifestation in the services context. The study contributes by showing that the broader concept of communication, not only advertising, should be considered when studying brand avoidance in a service context.
This paper presents our method for enabling a UAV quadrotor, equipped with a monocular camera, to autonomously avoid collisions with obstacles in unstructured and unknown indoor environments. When ...compared to obstacle avoidance in ground vehicular robots, UAV navigation brings in additional challenges because the UAV motion is no more constrained to a well-defined indoor ground or street environment. Unlike ground vehicular robots, a UAV has to navigate across more types of obstacles - for e.g., objects like decorative items, furnishings, ceiling fans, sign-boards, tree branches, etc., are also potential obstacles for a UAV. Thus, methods of obstacle avoidance developed for ground robots are clearly inadequate for UAV navigation. Current control methods using monocular images for UAV obstacle avoidance are heavily dependent on environment information. These controllers do not fully retain and utilize the extensively available information about the ambient environment for decision making. We propose a deep reinforcement learning based method for UAV obstacle avoidance (OA) which is capable of doing exactly the same. The crucial idea in our method is the concept of partial observability and how UAVs can retain relevant information about the environment structure to make better future navigation decisions. Our OA technique uses recurrent neural networks with temporal attention and provides better results compared to prior works in terms of distance covered without collisions. In addition, our technique has a high inference rate and reduces power wastage as it minimizes oscillatory motion of UAV.
When avoiding threat conflicts with approaching rewards, balanced responses to threat and reward information is required to guide functional behavior. Elevated threat avoidance characterizes anxious ...psychopathology. However, little is known about the mutual impact of threat and reward information on approach-avoidance behavior and its link to anxiety.
High trait-anxious and low-anxious individuals (N = 74) repeatedly choose between two options. A threat/high-reward option was linked to two outcomes: a varying chance to receive an aversive stimulus and a varying high reward. A safe/low-reward option was linked to absence of the aversive stimulus and a low reward.
Avoidance of the threat/high-reward option increased with increasing threat. Despite threat, low-anxious individuals increasingly approached the threat/high-reward option when rewards increased. High- compared to low-anxious individuals showed elevated avoidance, but only in the presence of high competing rewards.
Future research should examine boundary conditions by manipulating type and motivational value of appetitive and aversive outcomes (e.g., food as primary reinforcer).
These findings suggest that a weaker impact of rewards competing with threat contributes to elevated threat avoidance in anxious psychopathology. Costly avoidance may thus be a factor involved in anxious psychopathology.
•Anxious and non-anxious chose between threat/high-reward vs. safe/low-reward option.•Avoidance increased with threat, but non-anxious approached when rewards increased.•Anxious individuals avoided more, but only in presence of high competing rewards.•Costly, but not low-cost avoidance may characterize anxious psychopathology.•Exploratory analyses yield faster, stronger impact of threat vs. reward information.
Although many believe that creativity associates with a vulnerability to psychopathology, research findings are inconsistent. Here we address this possible linkage between risk of psychopathology and ...creativity in nonclinical samples. We propose that propensity for specific psychopathologies can be linked to basic motivational approach and avoidance systems, and that approach and avoidance motivation differentially influences creativity. Based on this reasoning, we predict that propensity for approach-based psychopathologies (e.g., positive schizotypy and risk of bipolar disorder) associates with increased creativity, whereas propensity for avoidance-based psychopathologies (e.g., anxiety, negative schizotypy, and depressive mood) associates with reduced creativity. Previous meta-analyses resonate with this proposition and showed small positive relations between positive schizotypy and creativity and small negative relations between negative schizotypy and creativity and between anxiety and creativity. To this we add new meta-analytic findings showing that risk of bipolar disorder (e.g., hypomania, mania) positively associates with creativity (k = 28, r = .224), whereas depressive mood negatively associates (albeit weakly) with creativity (k = 39, r = −.064). Our theoretical framework, along with the meta-analytic results, indicates when and why specific psychopathologies, and their inclinations, associate with increased or, instead, reduced creativity.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Four experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that performance is particularly undermined by time pressure when people are avoidance motivated. The results supported this hypothesis across ...three different types of tasks, including those well suited and those ill suited to the type of information processing evoked by avoidance motivation. We did not find evidence that stress-related emotions were responsible for the observed effect. Avoidance motivation is certainly necessary and valuable in the self-regulation of everyday behavior. However, our results suggest that given its nature and implications, it seems best that avoidance motivation is avoided in situations that involve (time) pressure.
Classic motivational conflicts theory (Lewin, 1931) distinguishes between approach-approach, and avoidance-avoidance conflicts. Previous research has focused solely on testing the theory's prediction ...that avoidance-avoidance conflicts are more difficult to resolve than approach-approach ones, using outcome measures (decision time and self-reports). The theory, however, specifies a force-fields mechanism to account for this difference in conflict resolution difficulty, whereby avoidance-avoidance conflicts (compared to approach-approach ones) elicit more (a) oscillations and (b) return to the middle point between options. However, this force-fields mechanism has never been empirically tested, arguably due to a lack of the tools to do so. In five studies (
= 534 U.K. residents), we use mouse-tracking measures to provide insight into the force-fields mechanism. We show that the force-fields' mechanistic properties-oscillations and returns to the middle point-distinguish the two types of conflict and uniquely account for conflict resolution difficulty beyond standard conflict-strength measures. Moreover, we test a novel, theory-driven prediction and robustly show a differential pattern of increased oscillations as a function of the decision-maker's proximity to the decision options. Finally, we test a boundary condition moderating the influence of conflict type on both the force-fields' mechanistic properties and conflict resolution difficulty. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Persistence was recently identified to have three dimensions: persistence despite difficulties (PDD), persistence despite fear (PDF), and inappropriate persistence (IP). To promote the study of ...multidimensional persistence, we integrate the approach/avoidance framework with PDD, PDF, and IP. We assess the relations of these three dimensions with both known and novel outcomes, and we also test whether approach and avoidance motivations mediate these effects. From a time-separated study, our results show that PDD and PDF produce beneficial work and well-being outcomes, whereas IP produces detrimental work and well-being outcomes. Approach motivations also mediated the relations of PDD with outcomes, whereas avoidance motivations mediated the relations of PDF and IP with outcomes. These results support that the approach/avoidance framework is a viable perspective to understand the outcomes of persistence. We recommended that future researchers should assess the broader proposals of the approach/avoidance framework regarding persistence, and we also suggest that future researchers can now link persistence with other outcomes previously associated with approach and avoidance motivations.
Summary
Shade affects all aspects of plant growth and development, including seed germination, hypocotyl elongation, petiole growth, leaf hyponasty, and flowering time. Here, we found that mutations ...in the key Arabidopsis karrikins signal perception‐associated KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE 2 (KAI2) gene, encoding an α/β‐fold hydrolase, and the MORE AXILLARY GROWTH 2 (MAX2) gene, encoding an F‐box protein, led to greater hypocotyl elongation under shade avoidance conditions.
We further verified that these phenotypes were caused by perception of the endogenous KAI2‐ligands (KLs), and that this phenotype is independent of strigolactone biosynthetic or signaling pathways. Upon perception of a KL, it is probable that the target protein forms a complex with the KAI2/MAX2 proteins, which are degraded through the action of the 26S proteasome.
We demonstrated that SUPPRESSOR OF MAX2‐1 (SMAX1) is the degradation target for the KAI2/MAX2 complex in the context of shade avoidance. KAI2 and MAX2 require SMAX1 to limit the hypocotyl growth associated with shade avoidance. Treatment with l‐kynurenine, an inhibitor of auxin accumulation, partially restored elongation of kai2 mutant hypocotyls under simulated shade. Furthermore, KAI2 is involved in regulating auxin accumulation and polar auxin transport, which may contribute to the hypocotyl shade response.
In addition, SMAX1 gene overexpression promoted the hypocotyl shade response. RNA‐sequencing analysis revealed that SMAX1‐overexpression affected the expression of many auxin homeostasis genes, especially under simulated shade. Altogether, our data support the conclusion that KL signaling regulates shade avoidance by modulating auxin homeostasis in the hypocotyl.
Previous research has shown that approaching a stimulus makes it more positive, while avoiding a stimulus makes it more negative. The present research demonstrates that approach-avoidance behaviors ...have the potential to charge stimulus attributes such as color with evaluative meaning. This evaluation carries over to other stimuli with that feature. We address the latter point by assessing the influence of colors that were approached or avoided on the perceived attractiveness of persons wearing those colors. We show that wearing a certain color makes people appear more attractive when this color is associated with approach rather than avoidance. In line with a self-perception account of these effects, we obtained approach-avoidance effects on stimulus attributes only when participants carried out approach-avoidance behaviors toward these colors or imagined doing so. This set of experiments adds to the evaluative learning literature by demonstrating approach-avoidance effects on stimulus attributes and that these effects carry over to new classes of stimuli and new tasks. Moreover, we systematically investigated boundary conditions for these effects. Finally, with this research we introduce an ontogenetic perspective to research into colors and their influence on psychological functioning.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
PDF
