UNASSIGNED: Engaging a support partner during behavioral weight loss (BWL) programs can improve outcomes. However, little information is available about those selected as support partners. The study aimed to (1) characterize support partners and qualities of the relationship, (2) assess differences in relationship dynamics across relationship types, and (3) assess differences in supportive relationships by participant gender.
UNASSIGNED: Upon entering a 24-month BWL program, participants (N = 323) nominated a support person from their existing social networks. Participants completed self-report measures at baseline, including the Working Alliance Inventory and study-specific measures assessing characteristics of the support person and comfort in communicating with them.
UNASSIGNED: Spouse/partners were chosen by 43.3% of all participants. Among married participants, 80.9% of men and 53.8% of women chose their spouse/partner. Working alliance was lower when the support partner was a spouse/partner versus a friend (p < 0.05, r = -0.19). Comfort talking about exercise with a support partner was higher than talking about eating or weight (p < 0.001, η2p= 0.05).
UNASSIGNED: A variety of friends and family can be selected as support partners during BWL. Programs should attend to the unique needs of men versus women when identifying sources of support.

Once a mass health crisis breaks out, it causes concern among whole societies. Thus, understanding the individual\'s behavior in response to such events is key in government crisis management. From the perspective of social influence theory, this study adopts the empirical research method to collect data information in February 2020 through online survey, with a view to comprehensively describe the individuals\'conformity behavior during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. The individual\'s conformity behavior and new influencing factors were identified. The results revealed that affective risk perception, cognitive risk perception, and individual risk knowledge had a positive significant impact on normative influence. Affective risk perception and individual risk knowledge had a positive significant on informative influence. Cognitive risk perception did not significantly impact informative influence. Informative influence and normative influence had a positive effect on conformity behavior. These results have significant implications for the management behavior of the government.

UNASSIGNED: Social norm appeals are effective in promoting sustainable majority behavior but could backfire when the target behavior is only performed by a minority of people. However, emphasizing that an increasing number of people have started engaging in the behavior or that the majority approve the behavior might prevent such negative effects. However, only a few studies have investigated the combination of descriptive minority and injunctive majority social norm appeals, with inconsistent results. Some studies of minority behavior suggest that the characteristics of recipients might determine the inconsistent results regarding the impact of minority social norm appeals and that social norm appeals could have a greater impact on individuals with weaker environment related dispositions.
UNASSIGNED: Two two-wave studies investigated how descriptive minority appeals, injunctive majority appeals, and their combination can be used to motivate sustainable minority behavior and what role environment related dispositions play in this context. In the first part, perceived social norms, environment related dispositions, behavioral intentions, and pre-attitudes were measured. Two weeks later, respondents participated in a 3 (descriptive social norm appeal: static vs. dynamic vs. absent) × 2 (injunctive majority social norm appeal: present vs. absent) between-subjects experiment and watched an explainer video on voluntary carbon offsets that included various social norm appeals.
UNASSIGNED: In both studies, we found that social norm appeals influenced perceived social norms. However, persuasive effects were only observed in the first study, and an injunctive majority appeal increased persuasive outcomes, but there were no differences between the descriptive conditions and no differences in their impact depending on individuals\' environment related dispositions in either study.
UNASSIGNED: A single exposure may be insufficient to exert persuasive effects and the change in perceived social norms may first need to be internalized. In online explainer videos, the effects of social norm appeals could be amplified by algorithm-based suggestions and when social norm appeals draw attention to norm-conforming content. However, further research is required on the long-term effects and their possible amplification via social media.

UNASSIGNED: This study aims to investigate the elderly digital engagement (acceptance and utilization of technology), with a focus on the widespread application of financial technology: mobile banking (m-banking).
UNASSIGNED: Guided by social influence theory, the research examines the various social dynamics that encourage elderly engagement with m-banking and the moderating effects of their digital literacy. Data was gathered online utilizing a disjunctive approach and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
UNASSIGNED: The study reveals that both word-of-mouths (WOMs) and peer engagement significantly influence the elderly\'s perceived usefulness of the platform, thereby influencing their m-banking engagement. Additionally, the level of digital literacy among older adults was found to impact their perceived usefulness of m-banking services. Interestingly, digital literacy among older adults negatively moderates the positive associations of WOMs and peer engagement on perceived usefulness.
UNASSIGNED: These insights advance our understanding of how social interactions can steer technological engagement, particularly for the silver generation with diverse levels of digital literacy. As society ages and becomes increasingly digitized, it is imperative to promote digital engagement among the elderly and foster a more inclusive digital environment.

Children autonomously make sound moral judgments based on internal criteria, but they tend to make erroneous judgments in the presence of social influences, and the reasons for these errors are not well understood. Thus, the current research investigated how the presence of observers who can see and listen to 3-year-old children\'s judgments but who do not present their opinions influences children\'s conformity in moral judgment behavior. In Experiment 1, the children (N = 30) were presented with pictures depicting prosocial behaviors and asked whether the behaviors were acceptable. The children\'s tendency to change their answers after hearing the counterintuitive opinions of informants was then measured. The results showed that the children\'s moral judgments were more likely to conform to that of the group in the presence of observers. Experiment 2 aimed to determine the reason children were more likely to conform to a group when being watched by observers in Experiment 1. Children (N = 30) were randomly assigned to two conditions with different observer conditions as follows. Observers were either wearing headsets, indicating that they could not hear the children\'s responses, or had them hanging around their necks, indicating that they could. The results showed that children\'s conformity behavior depended on whether observers could hear what they were saying. The current findings are expected to help elucidate not only social factors that affect children\'s moral judgments but also the developmental mechanism of an observer effect.

The reported study compared the impact of four influence strategies (agency assignment, enhanced active choice, deviance regulation marking, and temporal framing) on English- and Spanish-speaking parents\' reported intention to vaccinate their children for HPV. An online experiment was conducted to examine the impact of the strategies. In a fractional factorial design, participating parents (N = 1663) were exposed to combinations of influence strategies in text messages presented as reminders they might receive from a healthcare provider about their child\'s eligibility for the vaccine series. The results indicated small but significant impacts of agency assignment, enhanced active choice, and deviance regulation marking on parents\' reported vaccination intentions. The study adds to the research literature on HPV vaccination communication in two important respects. First, it demonstrated how incorporating evidence-based influence strategies into reminder messages can increase parents\' vaccination intentions, an important precursor and predictor of actual vaccine uptake. Second, it sets an important precedent by examining the effects of influence strategies on vaccination intentions across different languages.

We study a transcript of discourse recorded on an open mic during the mass suicide/murder of 909 members of a religious community in Jonestown in 1978. The \'Jonestown massacre\' is often cited in psychology textbooks as a warning example of how powerful situations and charismatic leaders can lead ordinary people to extreme and destructive behaviours. These accounts suggest that individuals lose control of reason and will such that their behaviour becomes subject to outside control. We develop an alternative explanation of the mass killing as identity-based collective action. Our analysis shows how a shared understanding of the community\'s situation and the options available to them were constructed and contested in discourse. We demonstrate how Jim Jones served as impresario, entrepreneur and champion of identity, recognizing his followers\' agency, initiating collective meaning-making and mobilizing action. Jones engaged his followers in jointly constructing the situation as hopeless, developing a shared view of their situated social identity and collectively formulating the identity-congruent solution of collective suicide as a hopeful act of collective agency. Our analysis points to the importance of addressing the conditions that sustain narratives of collective hopelessness and helping groups successfully choose non-extremist pathways out of hopelessness.

BACKGROUND: High-risk alcohol consumption among young adults frequently occurs in the presence of peers who are also drinking. A high-risk drinking situation may consist of particular social network members who have a primary association with drinking. Fine-grained approaches such as ecological momentary assessment (EMA) are growing in popularity for studying real-time social influence, but studies using these approaches exclusively rely on participant self-report. Passive indicators of peer presence using Bluetooth-based technology to detect real-time interactions have the potential to assist in the development of just-in-time interventions.
OBJECTIVE: This study seeks to examine the feasibility and acceptability of using a Bluetooth-based sensor and smartphone app to measure social contact in real-world drinking situations.
METHODS: Young adults (N=20) who drink heavily and report social drinking will be recruited from the community to participate in a 3-week EMA study. Using a social network interview, index participants will identify and recruit 3 of their friends to carry a Bluetooth beacon. Participants will complete a series of EMA reports on their own personal Android devices including random reports; morning reports; first-drink reports; and signal-contingent reports, which are triggered following the detection of a beacon carried by a peer participant. EMA will assess alcohol use and characteristics of the social environment, including who is nearby and who is drinking. For items about peer proximity and peer drinking, a customized peer list will be presented to participants. Feedback about the study protocol will be ascertained through weekly contact with both index and peer participants, followed by a qualitative interview at the end of the study. We will examine the feasibility and acceptability of recruitment, enrollment of participants and peers, and retention. Feasibility will be determined using indexes of eligibility, enrollment, and recruitment. Acceptability will be determined through participant enrollment and retention, protocol compliance, and participant-reported measures of acceptability. Feasibility and acceptability for peer participants will be informed by enrollment rates, latency to enrollment, compliance with carrying the beacon, and self-reported reasons for compliance or noncompliance with beacon procedures. Finally, EMA data about peer proximity and peer drinking will support the validity of the peer selection process.
RESULTS: Participant recruitment began in February 2023, and enrollment was completed in December 2023. Results will be reported in 2025.
CONCLUSIONS: The protocol allows us to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a Bluetooth-based sensor for the detection of social contact between index participants and their friends, including social interactions during real-world drinking situations. Data from this study will inform just-in-time adaptive interventions seeking to address drinking in the natural environment by providing personalized feedback about a high-risk social context and alerting an individual that they are in a potentially unsafe situation.
UNASSIGNED: DERR1-10.2196/50650.

This review explores the Metaverse, focusing on user perceptions and emphasizing the critical aspects of usability, social influence, and interoperability within this emerging digital ecosystem. By integrating various academic perspectives, this analysis highlights the Metaverse\'s significant impact across various sectors, emphasizing its potential to reshape digital interaction paradigms. The investigation reveals usability as a cornerstone for user engagement, demonstrating how social dynamics profoundly influence user behaviors and choices within virtual environments. Furthermore, the study outlines interoperability as a paramount challenge, advocating for establishing unified protocols and technologies to facilitate seamless experiences across disparate Metaverse platforms. It advocates for the adoption of inclusive, ergonomically oriented designs aimed at enhancing user participation. It addresses the ethical and societal challenges posed by the Metaverse, including concerns related to digital harassment, invasive marketing practices, and breaches of privacy. Additionally, the review identifies existing gaps in the literature, particularly regarding the Metaverse\'s implications for healthcare, its impact on educational outcomes, and the urgent need for empirical data concerning its long-term effects on user psychology and behavior. By providing a comprehensive synthesis of the current understanding of user experiences and challenges within the Metaverse, this paper contributes to the academic dialogue, laying the groundwork for future research initiatives. It aims to steer the development of the Metaverse towards a trajectory that is ethically sound, socially responsible, inclusive, and aligned with societal expectations, thereby fostering a digital realm that upholds the highest standards of integrity and inclusivity.

This paper provides a dataset that thoroughly explores online impulsive buying behavior, offering a comparative analysis between Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) users and non- Buy Now Pay Later users in Indonesia. Utilizing the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, the research investigates the nuanced interplay of external stimuli, cognitive and emotional responses, and resulting in impulsive purchasing behaviour. The dataset, derived from a detailed survey of 810 online consumers, unveils distinctive patterns in the impulsive buying behaviors of these two user groups, shedding light on the impact of Buy Now Pay Later stimuli on consumer decision-making. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) are employ using SmartPLS 4.0 to assess the reliability and validity of the survey data. This research contributes valuable insights for understanding the dynamics of online impulsive buying in the context of emerging digital payment systems. This dataset can contribute to formulating strategic marketing and other crucial decisions by Buy Now Pay Later (E-Paylater) providers. Furthermore, this dataset can be utilized for data analysis by various stakeholders seeking information on the purchasing decisions of digital consumer groups based on age, gender, education, and income levels. Regulators of Buy Now Pay Later can also leverage this data to support the creation of regulations and educational programs promoting the responsible usage of Buy Now Pay Later services. This dataset can also be utilized by academics in the field of consumer behavior to analyze the influence of stimuli originating from payment facilities such as Buy Now Pay Later on individuals as organisms, ultimately leading to the emergence of impulsive buying behavior.