Unit 10

Unit 10:
Decision Making on the Internet
 Unit 10: Assignment #1 (due before 11:59 pm Central on MON MAR 31):

  1. First, it’s a great idea to learn (from Grammarist.com) the best way to spell judgment.
  2. Next, choose one of the following questions and complete its associated activities.
    1. Should you trust Wikipedia?
    2. How can you avoid Internet scams?
    3. Should you believe that rumor?
      • Read Eddy’s (2014) article, “Meet the Mysterious Creator of Rumor-Debunking Site, Snopes.com.”
      • Read Dean’s (2017) article, “Snopes and the Search for Facts in a Post-Fact World.”
      • Read Jones’s (2018) tweet.
      • Learn how to use Snopes.com.
      • Search on Snopes.com for a non-political rumor you’ve heard (via email, Facebook, or word of mouth). By non-political, we mean not related to any elected official (or any person who has run for office or is running for office).
      • Now, imagine the following situation: A friend or relative has sent you a text telling you the rumor you learned about on Snopes.com.
      • Go to Unit 10: Assignment #1 and #3 Discussion Board and make a post of at least 200 words in which you write an email to this friend or relative telling them what you learned about the rumor on Snopes.com and explaining to them what Snopes.com is, according to the materials you were assigned to read. (Be sure to mention all the materials you were required to read, using the authors’ names.)
    4. Should you click on (or forward) that link to gossip?
      • Watch Sally Kohn’s (2014) TED talk, “Don’t Like Clickbait? Don’t Click.” (A transcript is available in 30 languages here.)
      • Watch Monica Lewinsky’s (2015) TED talk, “The Price of Shame.” (A transcript is available in 40 languages here.)
      • Imagine the following situation: A friend or relative has posted on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter a link to what you judge to be gossip (e.g., a link to celebrities’ private photos, made available through hacking).
      • Go to Unit 10: Assignment #1 and #3 Discussion Board and make a post of at least 200 words in which you write a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (private) message to your friend or relative about your decision to click or not click on the link they posted, based on what you learned from Sally Kohn’s and Monica Lewinsky’s TED talks. (Be sure to mention both TED talks that you watched, using the TED-talk presenters’ names.)

Unit 10: Assignment #2 (due before 11:59 pm Central on TUE APR 1):

  1. Choose one of the following articles, each of which has empirically examined an aspect of judgment and decision-making on the Internet.
    1. Cuesta-Valiño et al. (2023) “The Effects of the Aesthetics and Composition of Hotels’ Digital Photo Images on Online Booking Decisions“
    2. Armutcu et al. (2023) “Tourist Behaviour: The Role of Digital Marketing and Social Media“
    3. Kusno et al. (2023) “Dominant Factors Influencing Consumer Satisfaction with the Online Purchase Decision Process through Social Commerce: A Study of Organic Black Rice in Indonesia“
    4. Chen, Beaudoin, & Hong (2017) “Securing Online Privacy: An Empirical Test on Internet Scam Victimization, Online Privacy Concerns, and Privacy Protection Behaviors”
    5. Glover et al. (2015) “Hospital Evaluations by Social Media: A Comparative Analysis of Facebook Ratings among Performance Outliers”
    6. Hanauer et al. (2014) “Parental Awareness and Use of Online Physician Rating Sites”
    7. Hu, Koh, & Reddy (2013) “Ratings Lead You To The Product, Reviews Help You Clinch It: The Dynamics and Impact of Online Review Sentiments on Products Sales”
    8. Jensen & Hjalager (2013) “The Role of Demographics and Travel Motivation in Travelers’ Use of the Internet Before, During, and After a Trip”
    9. Luca (2016) “Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com”
    11. Niemelä & Dingemanse (2017) “Trustworthiness of Online Beer Ratings as a Source of Social Information”
    12. Pesonena & Pasanen (2017) “A Closer Look at Tourist Information Search Behavior when Traveling Abroad: What Is the Role of Online Marketing in Choice of Destination?“”
    13. Phillips et al. (2016) “Understanding the Impact of Online Reviews on Hotel Performance: An Empirical Analysis”
    14. Prayag, Hall, & Wood (2017) “Feel Good! Perceptions and Emotional Responses of Bed & Breakfast Providers in New Zealand Toward Trip Advisor”
    15. Proserpio & Zervas (2016) “Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews”
    16. Singh et al. (2017) “Predicting the ‘Helpfulness’ of Online Consumer Reviews”
    17. Zervas, Proserpio, & Byers (2015) “A First Look at Online Reputation on Airbnb, Where Every Stay Is Above Average”
  2. Go to Unit 10: Assignment #2 Discussion Board and create a new post of at least 200 words in which you first identify and then describe the article you read, by answering the following questions:
    1. What did the researchers study?
    2. Why did the researchers study what they studied?
    3. What did the researchers learn from their study?
    4. Do the researchers’ conclusions make sense to you?
    5. Do you have any personal experience with judgment and decision-making in this area of Internet use?

Unit 10: Assignment #3 (due before 11:59 pm Central on WED APR 2):

  1. Go to the Unit 10: Assignment #1 and #3 Discussion Board and read all the posts written by all the other members of your section.
  2. Review from the Course Syllabus the “Best Way to Respond to Another Student’s Discussion Board Post.” Remember that your responses should always include at least two of the four recommended components.
  3. Then, write two response posts.
    1. One response post should be to a student who answered the same question that you did.
    2. The other response post should be to a student who answered a different question than you did.
    3. If no other student answered the same question as you did, then you may respond to two students, each of whom answered different questions than you did.
    4. Each of your two response posts should be at least 200 words.
    5. If two other students in your section have not yet posted on the Unit 10: Assignment #1 Discussion Board, you will need to wait until they do OR until the due date for Unit 10: Assignment #1 has passed.
    6. You will not be held responsible for responding to two other students’ posts if the Unit 10: Assignment #1 due date has passed, and two other students have not yet posted on Unit 10: Assignment #1 Discussion Board.

Unit 10: Assignment #4 (due before 11:59 pm Central on FRI APR 4):

  1. From any source, find one product that has received at least three satirical (which means sarcastic, mocking, and humorous) reviews on Amazon.com. [If you aren’t sure you know what the word satirical means, be sure to look it up!]
  2. And speaking of Amazon reviews, for fun, read through these negative [but apparently NOT satirical] one-star Amazon reviews. NOTE: A one-star rating is the lowest rating on Amazon reviews. Therefore, these one-star reviews are supposedly complaining about the books they received via Amazon. Supposedly!
  3. Go to Unit 10: Assignment #4 Discussion Board and do the following:
    1. First, identify the product by its name, with a link to the product’s listing on Amazon.com (remember to use the correct procedure for embedding a URL from the Course How To for “How To Embed a URL into a Discussion Board Post”).
    2. Second, embed a photo of the product (remember to use the correct procedure for embedding a photo, including sizing requirements, from the Course How To for “How To Embed an Image into a Discussion Board Post”).
    3. Third, tell us how many reviews you are posting (e.g., you can write “Here are three satirical reviews”).
    4. Fourth, copy/paste into your post at least three of the satirical reviews (please do NOT post any non-satirical posts); and
    5. Fifth, try to delete any extra blank lines (meaning more than one blank line) in between reviews (or elsewhere in your post; one blank line in between your reviews or your paragraphs is always fine!).
    6. Sixth, you must choose a product (and reviews) that no one else in your section has posted.

Unit 10: Assignment #5 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN APR 6):

  1. Meet online with your NEW Chat Group (which you formed during Unit 8) for a one-hour text-based Group Chat at a time/date that your Chat Group previously arranged.
  2. Prior to your one-hour Group Chat, each member of the Chat Group MUST do the following:
    1. First, watch Professor Gernsbacher’s lecture video, “Judgment and Decision Making on the Internet” [a captioned version is here, and a transcript is available here].
    2. Second, read through xkcd’s comic “Star Ratings” to further understand the Representativeness Heuristic as applied to Internet shopping.
    3. Third, review the three primary decision-making heuristics by reading through this handout.
  3. Begin your one-hour Group Chat by doing the following: Each Chat Group member indicates ONE of the nine “How Are You Feeling at the START of Today’s Group Chat?” images. More than one Chat Group member can indicate the same image if that’s how they are feeling, and please refer to each image by its number.
  4. During your one-hour Group Chat do the following:
    1. First, discuss the examples Professor Gernsbacher provides in the handout of how the three primary decision-making heuristics apply to non-Internet use.
    2. Second, discuss the examples Professor Gernsbacher provides in her lecture video of how the three primary decision-making heuristics apply to Internet use.
    3. Third, as a group, brainstorm one additional Internet-use example for each of the three primary decision-making heuristics.
  5. At the end of your one-hour Group Chat,
    1. First, nominate one member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Chat) to make a post on the Unit 10: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that summarizes your Group Chat in at least 200 words.
    2. Second, nominate another member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Group Chat using the browser Chrome on their laptop, rather than on their mobile device) to save the Chat transcript, in PDF, as described in the Course How To (under the topic, “How To Save and Attach a Chat Transcript”), and attach the Chat transcript, in PDF, to a Unit 10: Assignment #5 Discussion Board post.
    3. Third, nominate a third member of your Chat Group (who also participated in the Chat) to make another post on the Unit 10: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that states the name of the assignment (Unit 10: Assignment #5), the full name of your Chat Group, the first and last name of each Chat Group member who participated in the Group Chat, the day (e.g., SUN, MON, TUEs) and date of your Group Chat (e.g., SEP 3, SEP 4, SEP 6), and the start and stop time of your Group Chat.
    4. If only two persons participated in the Chat, then one of those two persons needs to do two of the above three tasks.
    5. Before ending the Chat, do the following:
      • Each Chat Group member needs to indicate ONE of the nine “How Are You Feeling at the END of Today’s Group Chat?” images. More than one Chat Group member can indicate the same image if that’s how they are feeling, and please refer to each image by its number.
      • NOTE: The “How Are You Feeling at the END of Today’s Group Chat” grid of images differs from the “How Are You Feeling at the START of Today’s Group Chat” grid of images.
      • As a group, arrange the day, date, and start and stop time for the Group Chat you will need to hold during the next Unit (Unit 11: Assignment #5).

Unit 10: Assignment #6 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN APR 6):

  1. Complete the Unit 10 Course Review Sheet (which is a fillable PDF; refer to previous Units’ instructions for how to download onto your own device, save on your own device, rename on your own device, and then fill in on your own device — by typing, not copying — a fillable PDF).
    1. Rename the unfilled PDF to be YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit10_CourseReview.pdf; then fill it in by typing, not copying.
    2. Remember that each Course Review Sheet in this course will be cumulative, so be sure to fill in by typing ALL pages.
  2. Make progress on your Term Project.
    1. If you’ve chosen the Whole Course option, overview/journal the current unit (Unit 10).
      • Take a partial screenshot of your overview/journal of Unit 10 in your presentation medium (i.e., in your blog, Tumblr, Pinterest board, website, video, podcast, Prezi, Slideshare, PPT, Keynote, or Google slide deck). Make sure your partial screenshot shows the Unit number of the Unit being overviewed/journaled.

    2. If you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, finalize your complete outline of your entire Term Project.

      • Take a partial screenshot of your final outline. By final, we mean the outline you will follow precisely when assembling your Term Project.
    3. Compose at least 200 words describing
      • which project you’ve chosen (if you’ve chosen the Whole Course option of assembling a detailed overview of the course for an audience other than college students, be sure to identify your intended audience; if you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, be sure to tell us which topic/question you’ve chosen)
      • which presentation medium you’ve chosen,
      • and the work you completed on your Term Project during this unit. Remember that you should be allocating about two hours per Unit to your Term Project.
    4. Save your at-least-200 words as a PDF that includes your partial screenshot and that is named YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit10_TermProject.pdf. The text in your partial screenshot does not count toward the at-least-200 words you are required to compose.
  3. Go to Unit 10: Assignment #6 (which is an Assignment link, not a Discussion Board) and
    1. use the “File Upload” tool to attach/upload your completed Unit 10 Course Review Sheet (click “Choose File” to attach/upload your filled-in PDF);
    2. click on “+ Add Another File” to attach/upload your 200-word composition about your Term Project (saved in PDF; remember to include your screenshot in your PDF); and
    3. immediately after submitting your assignment, check to make sure that your filled-in PDF is really filled-in (isn’t empty) and that your PDF about your Term Project is also attached and complete.

Congratulations, you have finished Unit 10! Onward to Unit 11!