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On user-generated content platforms, individuals and firms alike seek to build and expand their follower base to eventually increase the reach of the content they upload. The bulk of the seeding literature in marketing suggests targeting users with a large follower base, that is, high-status influencers. In contrast, some recent studies find targeting lower-status influencers to be a more effective seeding policy. This multimethod article shifts the focus from the follower base of the seeding target to the focal content creator. The authors propose accelerating natural triadic closure by leveraging first-degree followers as interconnectors to target second-degree followers, that is, the nearby (low-status) influencers (who are interconnected with the focal content creator). Empirical studies document that this seeding target is much more effective for building and expanding the follower base, compared with targeting influencers who are not interconnected with the focal content creator—that is, the remote (both high- and low-status) influencers—by 2,300% and 46%, respectively. These studies on the acceleration of natural triadic closure are augmented by a preregistered field experiment to obtain convergent validity of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This randomized experiment on a social media platform in Pakistan measures the impact of two treatments that use ex-ante moderation to control misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic compared to standard ex-post moderation. One treatment never posts misinformation, while the other rebuts it. We also disseminate official information about the pandemic on the platform. The treatments reduce daily users by 19%. This reduces exposure to official information by 29% more than exposure to misinformation. A conceptual framework posits that this can be explained by the fact that, in this setting, official information is more trusted and disseminated than misinformation.

To encourage farsighted behaviors, previous research suggests that marketers should invite consumers to precommit to adopting these behaviors "later." However, the authors propose that people will draw different inferences from different types of precommitment offers, and that these inferences can help explain when precommitment is (and is not) effective at increasing adoption of farsighted behaviors. Specifically, the authors theorize that simultaneously offering consumers the opportunity to adopt a farsighted behavior now or later (i.e., offering "simultaneous precommitment") may signal that the behavior is not urgently recommended; however, offering consumers the opportunity to adopt that behavior immediately and then, only if they decline, inviting them to adopt it later (i.e., offering "sequential precommitment") may signal just the opposite. In a multisite field experiment (N = 5,196), the authors find that simultaneously giving consumers the chance to increase their savings now or later reduced retirement savings. Two preregistered lab studies (N = 5,080) show that simultaneous precommitment leads people to infer that taking action is not urgently recommended, and such inferences predict less adoption of recommended behaviors. Importantly, offering sequential precommitment increases inferred urgency, predicting greater adoption. Together, this research advances knowledge about the limits and potential of precommitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debt accumulation has been linked to materialism, impulsivity, shortsightedness, self-control, and lifestyle preferences. However, applying stigma theory allows novel insights into debt accumulation for middle-class individuals who access a variety of credit-related products. The authors define anticipated stigmatization of debt as the negative judgment and discrimination an individual expects to experience because of their consumer indebtedness. Results from a series of studies demonstrate that although financial stress motivates behaviors designed to reduce debt, debtors who anticipate stigmatization perform a variety of concealment behaviors (secrecy, social spending, and help avoidance) that hinder debt reduction and have negative effects on well-being. To understand how to help these individuals, the authors collaborated with a financial education company, designing a field experiment to examine the efficacy of a behavior change course. Individuals who anticipated stigmatization and formed new social connections in a community-based condition reduced their consumer debt. Although the emotional effect of community-based support has been examined in other stigma contexts, this study is the first to investigate the effect on well-being in a debt context and link social benefits to actual behavior change in terms of debt reduction behaviors and debt repayment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates how shopping on a weekday or a weekend moderates the impact of music on supermarket sales. Contrary to the intuitive beliefs of interviewed store managers, a meta-analysis, two field studies, and a controlled experimental study indicate that playing pleasant music (vs. no music) in supermarkets on weekdays enhances sales, an effect not found on weekends. Theorizing and interviews with shoppers suggest a potential reason for this week-part difference: Shoppers are more mentally depleted on weekdays (vs. weekends). A final study demonstrates and tests mental depletion as the driving factor for how shoppers are affected by music during different week parts. When consumers are depleted (e.g., on weekdays) music increases affect, which mediates the impact of music on sales. The results of the studies further indicate that week part plays a significant role in determining the impact of in-store music on sales. This article concludes with a discussion of the substantive and theoretical importance of incorporating the impact of week parts to predict in-store marketing effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We collaborated with a leading fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturer to investigate how intelligent image processing (IIP)-based shelf monitoring aids manufacturers' shelf management by using data from a quasi-experiment and a field experiment. We discovered that such artificial intelligence (AI) assistance significantly and consistently improves product sales. Several underlying mechanisms were revealed by our quantitative and qualitative analysis. First, retailers are more likely to comply due to the greater monitoring effectiveness enabled by AI assistance. Second, the positive effect of IIP-based shelf monitoring partially persists after it is terminated, implying that human learning takes place. Third, the value of IIP-based shelf monitoring can be attributed to independent retailers rather than chain retailers. Since the degree of contract heterogeneity is the major difference between these retailers in terms of monitoring, this finding further suggests that AI is relatively more scalable when coping with more heterogeneous instances. Apart from these great benefits, we demonstrate the low marginal costs of implementing IIP-powered shelf monitoring, which indicates its long-term applicability and potential to generate incremental value. Our research contributes to several literature streams and provides managerial insights for practitioners who consider AI-assisted operational models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-advertising-based mobile apps face several critical challenges when trying to monetize their free services—among them, the choice of pricing strategies (hard landing vs. soft landing; i.e., a "pay or churn" paywall vs. continuing to offer limited free services to existing users after monetization) and aspects of product design (whether to provide exclusive secondary offerings to paying users). The authors implemented a large-scale randomized field experiment with an app firm to test the causal effects of such pricing and product design strategies. Results show that both soft landing and exclusive secondary offerings decrease existing app users' willingness to subscribe, but there is a positive interaction between these two strategies on subscriptions. The authors propose a theoretical framework, discuss potential mechanisms that might be at play, and conduct robustness checks to rule out several alternative explanations. A customer survey by the firm and an experiment on Prolific provide further support for the theoretical mechanism. To assess generalizability, the authors conducted a second field experiment and obtained consistent results. They also report the results from the actual implementation of the best-performing strategy by the firm. This research provides guidance on possible theoretical underpinnings of users' responses and important managerial implications for app monetization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates whether charities can enhance fundraising effectiveness by increasing donors' sense of agency. This article introduces two strategies that allow donors to target individual charitable projects, either via the choice options (targeting-via-options) or via the suggested donation amounts (targeting-via-amounts). A large-scale field experiment involving more than 40,000 prospective donors manipulates the ability to control the allocation of the charity's resources and finds that enhancing donor agency boosts fundraising revenue by 42%. A causal forest analysis indicates significant donor heterogeneity, with a subset of donors being three times more responsive to the opportunity to target their gift than the average donor. Inactive donors, "clumpy" donors (who exhibit uneven donation patterns), and donors who concentrate their gifts during the popular giving periods are less responsive to interventions, whereas frequent, generous, and long-tenured donors are more responsive to them. Three experiments offer stronger internal validity regarding the manipulations and process evidence that agency—and not emotion—is responsible for the increased donation effects. An optimization analysis provides implications for how charities can leverage these insights to manage their fundraising campaigns to greater success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For online retailers, increasing click-through rates and reducing dropout rates are critical to success. In this study, we examine the effect of verbatim repetition of the website's headline message on the proceed button, based on research on processing fluency. In our field study involving 956 online platform visitors, we found that verbatim repetitions of the header message on the proceed button resulted in an increase in the conversion rate by more than 10 percentage points compared to gist repetitions and new messages. Our findings highlight the importance of simple verbatim features and demonstrate the successful application of processing fluency research to impact consumer behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

4,8‐Dihydroxy‐1‐tetrahydronaphthone (4,8‐DHT), an allelochemical, was isolated from the Carya cathayensis epicarp and was discovered to have phytotoxicity in laboratory tests. In this study, field experiments were designed to assess the phytotoxicity of 4,8‐DHT on weeds in Cerasus yedoensis and Lagerstroemia indica forestlands after pre‐ and post‐emergence application, in addition to physiological effect on Lindernia procumbens were also measured. The phytotoxic results of 4,8‐DHT demonstrated that the total inhibition rate of weeds was 81.3% and 68.2% in C. yedoensis forestland and L. indica forestland after pre‐emergence applied for 24 days in 2021, and enhanced by 9.9% and 27.8% compared with post‐emergence treatment. Especially, in C. yedoensis forestland, a high concentration of 4,8‐DHT sprayed at the pre‐emergence stage after 8 days had a significant inhibition rate on all weeds except Cyperus rotundus, and was still above 80.0% after 24 days of exposure. Comprehensive control efficacy of 4,8‐DHT indicates that pre‐emergence application is more favorable for weeds control. Physiological analysis showed that 4,8‐DHT stimulated the contents of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and proline and declined in the activities of antioxidant enzymes, meanwhile, accompanied by a decrease in the root vitality and chlorophyll content in L. procumbens. These results warrant further investigations of 4,8‐DHT applied in early pre‐emergence as a potential source of weed control agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorus (P) is crucial for plant functions like root growth, energy transfer, photosynthesis, and cell division. Yet, its soil efficiency is hindered by high fixation, low solubility, and immobility. Besides, its increased availability and subsequent plant uptake requires availability of sufficient moisture, as increased soil moisture contents higher dissolution of P occurs leading to increased root development, which, ultimately, increase nutrient uptake by plants. We performed a field experiment to check the effect of different P application levels along with different irrigation schemes in improving P uptake efficiency of maize and its related growth and yield attributes. In different treatments, irrigation was provided at recommended levels, skipped at milking and flowering stages to check the impacts of moisture contents on soil P availability. We observed that among different P levels, application of P at 90 kg ha-1 along with recommended irrigation level enhanced different maize traits, such as shoot length (13.4%), root length (51%), shoot fresh and dry weights (35 and 25%), root fresh and dry weights (37 and 42%), SPAD value (17%), chlorophyll 'a and b' (16 and 7%), P use efficiency (255%), harvest index (43%) and carotenoid contents (26%), as compared to control followed by P at 120 kg ha-1. Furthermore, in terms of soil nutrient attributes, P at 90 kg ha-1 along with recommended irrigation level enhanced soil organic matter (17%), active carbon (22%), available P (122%) and extractable potassium (36%), as compared to control. A consecutive decline in all the measured attributes was pragmatic under skipped irrigation systems under all the P application levels. We concluded that P application at 90 kg ha-1 combined with recommended irrigation levels can significantly increase P use efficiency of maize along with increased soil P availability and related growth and yield attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: Artificial intelligence (AI) assistants—software agents that can perform tasks or services for individuals—are among the most promising AI applications. However, little is known about the adoption of AI assistants by service providers (i.e., physicians) in a real-world healthcare setting. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the AI smartness (i.e., whether the AI assistant is powered by machine learning intelligence) and the impact of AI transparency (i.e., whether physicians are informed of the AI assistant). Methodology/results: We collaborate with a leading healthcare platform to run a field experiment in which we compare physicians' adoption behavior, that is, adoption rate and adoption timing, of smart and automated AI assistants under transparent and non-transparent conditions. We find that the smartness can increase the adoption rate and shorten the adoption timing, whereas the transparency can only shorten the adoption timing. Moreover, the impact of AI transparency on the adoption rate is contingent on the smartness level of the AI assistant: the transparency increases the adoption rate only when the AI assistant is not equipped with smart algorithms and fails to do so when the AI assistant is smart. Managerial implications: Our study can guide platforms in designing their AI strategies. Platforms should improve the smartness of AI assistants. If such an improvement is too costly, the platform should transparentize the AI assistant, especially when it is not smart. Funding: This research was supported by a Behavioral Research Assistance Grant from the C. T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. H. Zhao acknowledges support from Hong Kong General Research Fund [9043593]. Y. (R.) Tan acknowledges generous support from CEIBS Research [Grant AG24QCS]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.0093. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We design and implement a correspondence experiment to test for differences in real estate agent response to Chinese clients. In the full sample, real estate agents are no more likely to respond to white clients than Chinese clients. Subsample results show statistically significant differential treatment of Chinese clients in rural areas and in some states. White real estate agents favor white clients (7.90% higher response rate), and Chinese real estate agents favor Chinese clients by a wide margin (151.11% higher response rate). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product recommendations can benefit consumers' online product search via multiple underlying mechanisms, such as showing products that offer them high value, facilitating navigation on the website, or exposing more product information. However, it is unclear ex ante which is the primary underlying mechanism that drives the benefits of product recommendations to consumers. We conducted a randomized field experiment to estimate the benefits of an item-based collaborative filtering (CF) recommendation system to consumers. We collect unique data on the affinity scores computed by an item-based CF algorithm to develop measures of a product's net value and horizontal (taste) fit for consumers. Our results indicate that product recommendations help consumers search for higher-value products that are lower priced, fit their tastes better, or both. Besides that, we find that the ability to find higher-value products (rather than easy navigation or exposure to more product information) is the primary driver for consumers' higher purchase probabilities under recommendations. We further find a higher benefit of recommendations in product categories with higher price dispersion and heterogeneity in consumers' tastes, providing additional evidence for the lower price and better horizontal fit mechanisms. Finally, we find that when made available, consumers substitute their usage of other search tools on the website with product recommendations. Our findings have important implications for online retailers, policymakers, regulators, and item-based CF recommendation system design. This paper was accepted by D. J. Wu, information systems. Funding: This work was supported by the Public Utility Research Center of the University of Florida, the Hi! PARIS Fellowship, the HEC Foundation, and the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University [Grant 102720]. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4951. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monetary incentives are widely used to align employee actions with employer objectives. We conducted a field experiment in a retail chain to evaluate whether an attendance bonus could reduce employee absenteeism. Apprentices in 232 stores were randomly assigned to a control group or one of two treatment groups in which a monetary or time-off attendance bonus was introduced for one year. We find that neither variant of the attendance bonus led to a systematic reduction in absenteeism. On the contrary, the monetary attendance bonus increased absenteeism substantially by around 50% on average, which corresponds to more than five additional days absent per employee and year. This effect was driven by the most recently hired apprentices. Survey results reveal that the monetary attendance bonus shifted the perception of absenteeism as acceptable behavior. The backfiring effect persisted beyond the end of the experiment, indicating a lasting erosion of social norms. This paper was accepted by Marie Claire Villeval, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: Funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation) [Grant EXC 2126/1–390838866] is gratefully acknowledged. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.00484. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To shed light on the influence of interpersonal fairness on tax compliance, the California Franchise Tax Board conducted a field experiment to examine how efficiency of Interactive Voice Response (hereafter, IVR) systems affects tax collection. We find that taxpayers calling the temporary phone line with greater IVR system efficiency (treatment group) pay a significantly larger percentage of their tax deficiencies than the control group during the study period, and this difference is driven by IVR system efficiency. We also find that improving IVR system efficiency increases the likelihood of making payments within the treatment group. Our results support embracing interpersonal fairness principles to encourage tax payments. Our research extends the literature on the service paradigm of tax compliance by providing U.S.-based evidence and has implications for the tax authorities seeking to improve tax compliance efficiency, as tax collection generally becomes more difficult and costly with time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This field experiment investigates how different levels of aggregation in relative performance information (RPI) impact employee performance in environments with multiple tasks. We randomly assign store employees of a retail chain to three groups: RPI on overall performance (control group), RPI on separate tasks, and RPI on both overall performance and separate tasks. We do not find evidence that providing separate task RPI instead of overall RPI affects performance or effort allocation. However, providing RPI on both overall performance and separate tasks seems to reduce performance, especially in the low‐return task. This suggests that detailed RPI directs employees' attention to the smaller benefits of low‐return tasks. We further find that only 30.5% of the employees accessed their performance reports, highlighting a distinction between providing RPI in the field and the laboratory. This study is based on a registered report accepted by the Journal of Accounting Research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND RESULTS CONCLUSION Pear yield is a primary source of income for smallholder farmers in China, yet significant yield disparities exist among different smallholders. Systematic analyses of limiting factors and the feasibility of solutions at the smallholder level are limited. This study employs a novel DEED (Describe, Explain, Explore, and Design) research cycle centered on smallholders to formulate yield‐improving strategies.A comprehensive survey of 173 smallholders in the Yangtze River pear district, encompassing Zhejiang province, Jiangxi province, and Shanghai city, was conducted to delineate the current yield status. The boundary line analysis model was applied to elucidate the contributions of various yield‐limiting factors. Findings reveal an average yield ranging from 16.7 to 19.3 t ha−1, with a potential highest yield of 37.5 t ha−1. Fertilizer nitrogen (N) was identified as the most pervasive yield‐limiting factor, constituting 62.7% of the average limitation at the regional level and 37.7% at the individual smallholder level, surpassing other yield‐related factors in all three regions. Subsequently, a 2‐year field optimization experiment was conducted to explore the potential for yield improvement through adjustments in N fertilizer rates. Compared with traditional farmer management (FM), the N fertilizer optimization treatment (OPT) resulted in a 38.1% and 22.5% increase in yield for 2022 and 2023, respectively.These results identify N fertilizer application rate as the most important yield‐limiting factor and verify the feasibility of optimizing N fertilizer management practices for improving pear yield. This study integrates farmer surveys, boundary line models, and field experiments to provide valuable insights into addressing yield disparities among smallholders in the pear industry. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ample evidence that foreigners suffer from discrimination when trying to integrate. Extreme situations, however, can alter the population's attitude towards foreigners. One example of such an extreme situation is the position of Ukrainians in Poland since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It drastically changed the composition and share of the foreign-born population in Poland. In this paper, we examined the attitude towards people with Ukrainian-sounding and other foreign-sounding names in Poland, and whether it has changed. We used an experimental approach, within which we contacted amateur football coaches asking to join a trial training session using typical native- and Belarussian-, German-, and Ukrainian-sounding names. Half of the clubs received an additional signal showing support for Ukraine. Furthermore, a limited subset of participants completed post-experiment surveys. The survey gave us an opportunity to understand why the respondents discriminate. The results show that people with foreign-sounding names receive fewer responses. Surprisingly, people with Ukrainian names are the exception. They received more responses than natives. Signaling support for Ukraine had a positive but not statistically significant effect on the response rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maize, one of the most important cereal crops in Bangladesh, is severely contaminated by fumonisin, a carcinogenic secondary metabolite produced by Fusarium including Fusarium proliferatum. Biocontrol with Bacillus strains is an effective approach to controlling this F. proliferatum as Bacillus has proven antagonistic properties against this fungus. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine how native Bacillus strains can reduce fumonisin in maize cultivated in Bangladesh, where BDISO76MR (Bacillus subtilis) strains showed the highest efficacy both in vitro in detached cob and in planta under field conditions. The BDISO76MR strain could reduce the fumonisin concentration in detached cob at 98.52% over untreated control, by inhibiting the conidia germination and spore formation of F. proliferatum at 61.56% and 77.01%, respectively in vitro. On the other hand, seed treatment with formulated BDISO76MR showed higher efficacy with a reduction of 97.27% fumonisin contamination compared to the in planta cob inoculation (95.45%) over untreated control. This implies that Bacillus-based formulation might be a potential approach in mitigating fumonisin contamination in maize to ensure safe food and feed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The development of urban underground complexes (UUCs) has great positive significance for improving urban safety. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the key factors of the people's behavior of evacuation route selection (BERS) for fire emergencies and UUCs' development. This study aims to find out the factors affecting people's BERS in the evacuation process of UUCs. Design/methodology/approach: This study aims to find out the factors affecting people's BERS in the evacuation process of UUCs. To achieve this goal, the authors conducted a field experiment in F City. Furthermore, the people's BERS are obtained by using a structural equation model and compared with the field test results. Findings: The authors found that the key factors for people's BERS are lighting conditions, route distance, flow direction guidance and indication. The results of this study contribute to the safety field by providing key factors for fire emergencies. It can also be used to improve fire safety management, evacuation strategies and assist in the development of intelligent evacuation systems. Originality/value: The results of this study contribute to the safety field by providing key factors for fire emergencies. It can also be used to improve fire safety management, evacuation strategies and assist in the development of intelligent evacuation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conduct a large-scale natural field experiment with a Fortune 500 company to test several light-touch approaches to attract minorities to high-profile positions. A total of 5,000 prospective applicants were randomized into treatments that vary a small portion of recruiting materials. We find that self-selection at two early-career stages exhibits a substantial race gap. We then show that this gap can be strongly influenced by several treatments, with some closing the race gap and increasing application rates of minorities by 40% and others being particularly effective for minority women. These effects are not accompanied by any declines in application rates of majority group job seekers. In addition, we do not find that endorsing the "business case" for diversity reduces the race gap or raises application rates by minorities or women. The heterogeneities we find by gender, race, and career stage shed light on the underlying drivers of self-selection barriers among minorities. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: The authors thank the Brigham Young University College of Family, Home, and Social Science for generous research support. This research was funded in part by the Lowe Institute of Political Economy at Claremont McKenna College as well as the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship grant Nr. 190100252. Christina Rott thanks the School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, for research support through the Hermine Weijland Fellowship. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4909. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The four-eyed fir bark beetle Polygraphus proximus Blandford (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) has become an aggressive invader in Siberia's fir forests in recent decades. However, its spread in the invaded area is not yet complete; this species is absent so far in most of the Siberian fir Abies sibirica Ledeb. range. To predict this process, appropriate models are needed, including at the local level. One of the essential parameters for modeling is the flight characteristics of imago. To evaluate its flight potential, we placed slabs (sections of the bark with a thin sapwood layer) in an area without forests or with forests with an absence of fir at the end of May. The beetles overwintered under the bark in these slabs. We also placed short fir trap logs at distances ranging from 50 to 1500 m in the four cardinal directions from the release point to attract migrating beetles. After the beetles from the slabs had completed their migration, we evaluated the number of parental pairs (male and female) of the four-eyed fir bark beetle on the trap logs (p) and their number per dm2 (pS). The sole factor that affected the colonization of host objects in our experiment was the distance from the release point. The relationship between p and pS and the distance to the release point can be accurately represented by a negative exponential curve. This experiment established a flight distance of 1500 m, with calculated values of 4919 m for p and 2965 m for pS. However, an analysis of similar experiments and studies using flight mills suggests that these values may not be extreme in an environment with few and sparse host objects. In conditions of abundant food supply, the actual flight distance of P. proximus beetles is significantly less than the theoretically possible maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field experiment was conducted to explore in what ways CO2 labeling impacts customers' product selection. The objective of this study is the connection between eco‐labeling and the number of sales (customers' purchasing choices) made regardless of the price determinant. We performed a controlled investigation within 2 weeks, adding a CO2 label to the meals during the second week. The labeling icon showed the lifecycle emissions as a number and had a three‐level, high‐medium‐low graphical signal. The difference in sales between the 2 weeks was analyzed via chi‐squared and student t‐tests. There was a significant shift from meals associated with high CO2 emissions toward meals associated with lower CO2 quantity (chi‐square test, p = 0.001). There was likewise a significant 6% decrease in CO2 equivalent emissions per weight unit of purchased meals. As the shares of plant, meat, and fish‐based meals were similar for Week 1 and 2, the label was not potent enough to convince customers to change their diet styles. The reduction of CO2 emissions was achieved mainly through shifts in the direction of lower‐emitting meat and fish dishes. The obtained results depict that consumers pay attention to labeling while making purchasing choices, which has implications for marketing practice. The study implies that customers tend to select products with a lower environmental impact over others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital theorists posit that association members are key agents for propagating norms of trust and trustworthiness from within associations toward the society as a whole. Nevertheless, others claim that social capital is primarily bonding, that is, it helps ingroup members better achieve internal goals, but little benefits or even costs carry over to the rest of society. We deploy experimental methods to probe into whether social capital in associations has a predominantly bridging or bonding nature. We compare members' behavior in anonymous Trust Games with behavior by a demographically comparable sample of non-members. We find that (a) Members are significantly more trusting and trustworthy than the general population both when interacting with fellow members and with people from the general population; (b) Members trust and repay trust from people from the general public nearly at the same level as they do with fellow members. Therefore, most of social capital existing within associations "bridges" over to the rest of society. We quantify 83% of additional trust, and 71% of additional trustworthiness existing in associations vis-à-vis society at large to be bridging and the remainder to be bonding. (c) Association members are no more optimistic or less accurate in predicting others' behavior than people from the general public. (d) Increased involvement in association activities is not correlated with increased pro-sociality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose and test a model of loyalty in games. Players can mutually maintain loyalty by working towards a common goal that is pareto-superior to any Nash equilibrium without it. Loyalty imposes a psychological cost on defecting in an ongoing cooperation, which is thus sustained. We distinguish loyalty from reciprocity and explain how it complements guilt aversion with two dynamic games from a field experiment conducted in a Pakistani factory. The evidence supports the validity of loyalty, which has a stronger effect within than between groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social norm interventions hold the potential to change people's behavior. Five field experiments (N = 1,163) examined the effects of a simple and easily realizable social norm nudge based on the social media format "Be like Bill." The nudge consisted of a stick figure named Toni that communicated descriptive and injunctive norms regarding pro-environmental or pro-social behaviors. Nudge conditions were compared to no-intervention control conditions. Experiment 1 (N = 179) focused on paper towel consumption in a women's restroom at a German university. The nudge condition used less paper towels than the control condition, d = 0.48. Experiment 2 (N = 183) replicated this result (d = 0.32) in a more diverse setting of a women's restroom at a German Christmas market. Experiment 3 (N = 250) examined differences in the effects of prescriptive (i.e., 'do-norm') versus proscriptive (i.e., 'do not-norm') social norms on paper towel consumption again in a university women's restroom. The effectiveness of both social norm nudge conditions was shown in comparison to the control condition (d = 0.46; d = 0.40), while the prescriptive and proscriptive social norm manipulations did not differ. Experiment 4 (N = 206) applied the nudging approach to the use of plastic lids in a coffee shop, where no effect was found. Finally, Experiment 5 (N = 345) focused on the pro-social behavior of mask wearing in a bakery toward the end of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in Germany. In the nudge condition, more visitors put on face masks compared to the control group, d = 0.39. Limitations and contextual factors regarding the applicability of our social norm nudge are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal data increasingly serve as inputs to public goods. Like other types of contributions to public goods, personal data are likely to be underprovided. We investigate whether classical remedies to underprovision are also applicable to personal data and whether the privacy-sensitive nature of personal data must be additionally accounted for. In a randomized field experiment on a public online education platform, we prompt users to complete their profiles with personal information. Compared to a control message, we find that making public benefits salient increases the number of personal data contributions significantly. This effect is even stronger when additionally emphasizing privacy protection, especially for sensitive information. Our results further suggest that emphasis on both public benefits and privacy protection attracts personal data from a more diverse set of contributors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service robots that coexist with humans in everyday life have become more common, and they have provided customer service in physical shops around the world in recent years. However, their potential in effective sales strategies has not been fully realized due to their low social presence. This study aims to clarify what kind of robot behavior enhances the social presence of service robots and how it affects human–robot interaction and purchasing behavior. We conducted two experiments with a sales robot, Pepper, at a retail shop in Kyoto. In Experiment 1, we showed that the robot's social presence increased and that customers looked at the robot longer when the robot understood human gaze information and was capable of shared attention. In Experiment 2, we showed that the probability of customers picking up products increased when the robot suggested products based on the humans' degree of attention from gaze and posture information. These results indicate that the robot's ability to understand and make utterances about a customer's orientation and attention effectively enhances human–robot communication and purchasing motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norm-nudges are effective in encouraging sustainable consumer behaviour in various settings, by raising the salience of the target behaviour via social norms. Tourism presents a highly hedonic context, in which behaviour is primarily framed by self-oriented goals as opposed to normative ones related to the good of the environment and society. While the existing literature provides insights on the appropriate content of norm-nudges to raise the salience of normative goals, less is known about an appropriate frequency of nudges. It is important to address this gap in tourism because tourists need to be aware of desired sustainable behaviours, while overly obtrusive nudges may backfire. A field experiment was conducted to test the extent to which an increased frequency of norm-nudges has a backfiring effect on sustainable tourist behaviour, using donations for mountain-biking trails as the target behaviour. Results show that increasing the frequency of norm-nudges does not diminish their positive uptake, which suggests that they can be used more to encourage sustainable behaviour and enhance tourists' experiences. Using actual and self-reported behavioural data, this study provides new empirical evidence on the effectiveness of increased frequency of norm-nudges in a real tourism setting, contributing to knowledge on norm-nudges and backfiring effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing reliance on social media as a source of news, particularly among adolescents, raises important questions for democracy regarding the potential of these platforms to promote engagement with politics. This study sought to examine adolescents' affective (emotions, feelings), behavioural (actions and issue-specific interest), and cognitive (issue-specific knowledge) responses to political news on Instagram Stories. We conducted a field experiment among adolescents in the Netherlands (N = 149). We exposed respondents for seven days to political news items from fictive news organizations. Respondents received either (i) Stories with a link to a news item or (ii) Stories with a link to a news item and interactive feedback features (i.e., polls, quiz stickers, and emoji sliders). The results showed no significant differences in affective, behavioural, and cognitive responses between adolescents who have been exposed to Instagram Stories with high interactivity compared to those who received a link to a news item, indicating that interactivity had no effect on these responses. The results indicate that political interest increased for all respondents throughout the experiment—irrespective of the interactivity of the Instagram Stories. This possibly indicates that exposure to political news through Instagram Stories fosters engagement with politics and current events among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Most families with eligible children aged 0–3 did not apply for public ECE in New Orleans. • ECE enrollment is a multistep process, with potential enrollees lost at each step. • Text-message notices raised application rates by 33 % but did not affect enrollment. • The marginal cost of these texts was less than $0.50 per additional submitted application. Enrolling in publicly funded early childhood programs in the U.S. often requires families to navigate a complex, multistep process. Families must pick a program, apply, verify their eligibility, and enroll. Prior research shows that families that complete this process tend to be advantaged relative to eligible non-applicants. In this study, we illuminate the enrollment pathway in New Orleans, showing that many would-be enrollees are lost at each step along the way. Next, we examine the effects of an information intervention that aimed to help families with the "apply" step. We find that a simple text-message intervention increased application rates by 33 %. However, due to leaks at subsequent steps, the intervention had no effect on enrollment rates. We discuss the implications for understanding and improving the enrollment process for publicly funded early childhood programs. Note. Sample collected from applicants to ECE in New Orleans, LA. Enrollment rates are calculated on October 1, 2022, after the open enrollment period, during which any eligible child can complete verification and take any remaining open seat. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, Physostegia chlorotic moitié virus (PhCMoV) was discovered in Austria in Physostegia virginiana. Subsequent collaborative efforts established a link between the virus and severe fruit symptoms on important crops such as tomato, eggplant, and cucumber across nine European countries. Thereafter, specific knowledge gaps, which are crucial to assess lhe risks PhCMoV can pose for production and how to manage it, needed to be addressed. In this study, the transmission, prevalence, and disease severity of PhCMoV were examined. This investigation led to lhe identification of PhCMoV presence in a new country, Switzerland. Furthermore, our research indicates that the virus was already present in Europe 30 years ago. Bioassays demonstrated PhCMoV can result in up to 100% tomato yield losses depending on the phenological stage of the plant at the lime of infection. PhCMoV was found to naturally infect 12 new host plant species across eight families, extending its host range to 21 plant species across 15 plant families. The study also identified a polyphagous leafhopper (genus Anaceratagallia) as a natural vector of PhCMoV. Overall, PhCMoV was widespread in small-scale diversified vegetable farms in Belgium where tomato is grown in soil under tunnels, occurring in approximately one-ihird of such farms. However, outbreaks were sporadic and were associated al least once with the cultivation in tomato tunnels of perennial plants that can serve as a reservoir host for the virus and its vector. To further explore this phenomenon and manage the virus, studying the ecology of the vector would be beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until early 2000s, modern roundabouts (RABs) were poorly understood in Japan and were not fully recognized as a form of at-grade intersections. The RAB research projects of the International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS), which began in 2009, started with examining the applicability of RABs in Japan and have steadily progressed to various stages of field experiments, social implementation, and dissemination promotion activities. These RAB research projects, which lasted for approximately seven years, are considered to have played a significant role in the practical application of RAB in Japan. This paper provides a chronological overview of the history, content, and development status of these projects and records and discusses the role that IATSS research projects played in the early days of RABs in Japan. • Triggers for breakthroughs at modern roundabouts in Japan • Chronological overview of the history and content of the IATSS roundabout projects • Archive from applicability examinations and field experiments to practical deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the challenges faced by cotton dibbler in Xinjiang under high-speed operation, a novel crawler-type delayed hole-forming device has been designed to address the seed throwing and floating issues in high-speed cotton dibbling in Xinjiang, enhancing the duck bill's performance. This mechanism increases the sowing speed to 6 km/h by extending the duck bill horizontally. Utilizing agronomic principles, the mechanism's layout and key components were optimized for efficient hole-forming. DEM and multi-body dynamics simulations were employed to analyze the motion, focusing on the fixed the tilt angle of the duck bill (A), the depth of the duck bill hole-forming into the soil (B), and the angle of rotation of the moving duck bill (C) as factors affecting hole dimensions (longitudinal length of hole Y1 and hole-forming depth of cotton seed hole Y2). Quadratic regression test using RecurDyn-EDEM coupling identified optimal parameter settings for maximum hole-forming performance. When A was 2.4°, B was 42.4 mm, and C was 30.5°, the performance of the hole-forming was the best. Under the optimal parameter combination, the bench verification test was carried out. The error between the bench verification results and the simulation results is small, indicating that the model has high accuracy. The average opening time of the duck bill at a speed of 6 km/h is 0.45 s, which is much longer than the time required for cotton seeds to fall from the duck bill (0.11 s). It meets the requirements of high-speed cotton planting in China and facilitating advancements high-speed planter technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the practical needs of cross-border trade between Yunnan Province, China, and Southeast Asian countries, this paper studies the impact of blockchain technology usage on operational performance. Owing to immutability and traceability, the implementation of a blockchain-based platform solves several existing problems of cross-border trade. We conducted a field experiment to verify the effect of blockchain technology on the operational efficiency of cross-border trade companies. The results show that operational, agency, and time costs significantly decrease. Blockchain usage reduces the intermediary agencies of cross-border trade and settlement payment for traders, also improves the timeliness of business processing and the efficiency of cross-departmental business collaboration. This study provides new insights on the interface of blockchain technology and supply-chain operation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can reputational threat among coworkers reduce bribery in organizations? I exploit within- and across-organizational variation in bribery to design and implement a field experiment in the maternity wards of five Moroccan public hospitals. I test whether threatening to reveal information about ward workers' involvement in bribery to their coworkers dissuades them from taking bribes from patients. Healthcare workers cut back on taking bribes in higher-incidence maternity wards but not in lower-incidence wards. Qualitative data show that bribery's baseline incidence sets the costs of revealing. Workers tolerate only so much bribery in their wards before they face the negative social consequences of belonging to a work group that takes bribes. They thus correct their behavior when it crosses a threshold. Moreover, ineffective applications of the field interventions betrayed welfare-diminishing effects. I furnish evidence for a novel kind of policy lever against workplace bribery and shed new light on the dynamics of bribery inside organizations. Funding: Funding from different programs at Stanford University—Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship, Abbasi Program for Islamic Studies Summer Research Grant, Graduate Research Opportunity Grant, Sociology Research Opportunity Grant, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society Grant, Freeman Spogli Institute's Mentored Global Research Fellowship, and Stanford Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies Fellowship—are gratefully acknowledged. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15264. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The delivery of coherent public services often depends on collaboration across organizations and organizational units, which is challenging and necessitates effective leadership. This article advances our knowledge about the value of leadership training for interorganizational collaboration. In a field experiment, 122 public healthcare managers from 68 organizational units were randomly assigned to a treatment or a control group. The treatment included a 10-month interorganizational team-based leadership training program, which focuses on establishing and sustaining shared direction, alignment, and commitment across organizational boundaries. The results from our analytic approach—including survey responses from the participating managers and more than 3,000 of their subordinates (frontline managers and employees) and 32 interviews before and after training—show that training has positive effects on relational coordination, structural coordination mechanisms, and overall collaborative quality as assessed by the participating managers and their frontline managers. We do not find significant effects among the frontline employees. We discuss our findings in relation to the literature on leadership training, nuances to existing theory, and implications for practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production is a primary contributor to climate change, and one way to mitigate its effect is through consumption choices. Finding the most effective way to achieve emissions reduction via consumers behavioral change has recently raised policy-makers' interest but experimental evidence about this is still scarce. In this study, we examine the impact of individualized information about greenhouse gas emissions on grocery purchases. Using a randomized field experiment, we compare the effects of individualized information on the carbon footprint of grocery purchases to individualized information on grocery spending provided through a smartphone app. Compared to the spending information, the carbon footprint information decreases emissions from groceries by 27% in the first month of treatment, with 45% reductions in emissions from beef, the highest emissions food group. Treatment effects fade in the longer run along with app engagement but persist among those engaged with the app. Our results suggest that the provision of emissions information, in particular when paired with sufficient engagement, is a promising avenue for policies to turn food consumption greener. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the practical production challenges posed by the unreliable operation of the V-shaped squeezing soil-covering and -pressing device (VCP) for planters under clay soil conditions in Northeast China, incomplete seed furrow closure, and severe soil adhesion on pressing wheels, this study proposes a device with star-toothed concave discs for soil-covering and -pressing (STCP) with the aim of enhancing the soil-covering quality of planters. The main working principles of STCP were expounded, and its main structural and installation parameters were determined and designed. Based on bionics, with the dung beetle's protruding head structure as the research object and UHMWPE as the material, an optimized protuberance-type bionic pressing wheel was designed. A Box–Behnken experiment was conducted by taking the width of the compression wheel, the spring deformation, and the installation angle as experimental factors, as well as the weight of the soil adhered to the surface of the pressing wheel (SW) and the soil compactness (SC) as the evaluation indicators. The optimal structural parameters of the pressing device were determined as follows: the width of the pressing wheel was 60.57 mm, the spring deformation was 55.19 mm, and the installation angle was 10.70°. The field comparison tests of soil covering performance showed that the star-tooth concave disc soil-covering device can effectively solve the problem of seed "hanging" and "drying". The average covered soil weight of the star-tooth concave disc soil-covering device was 241.46 g, and the average covered soil weight of VCP was 223.56 g. Compared with VCP, the average covered soil weight of STCP increased by 8.01%. The variation coefficient of covered soil weight after the operation of the star-tooth concave disc soil-covering device was 3.71%, which was more uniform than VCP. The field comparison tests of soil-covering thickness showed that the uniformity of soil-covering thickness can be significantly improved by adding a star-tooth concave disc soil-covering device to VCP. The comparative tests of soil anti-adhesive showed that the convex hull type pressing wheels optimized by bionics had better soil anti-adhesive performance, and the soil adhesion weight was reduced by 43.68% compared with VCP. The field comparative tests of seedling emergence showed that the seedling emergence rate after STCP operation was 3.9% higher than that of VCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper shows that consumers prefer organic listings in the top-ranked positions to sponsored listings of the same product/position in an online marketplace. Sponsored product listings on online marketplaces are third-party sellers' ads blended in organic product listings. This paper investigates a seller's managerial questions: whether a sponsored listing outperforms an organic listing and how the performance varies by positions. Our large-scale field study on a mobile app with experimental and natural variation finds that consumers prefer organic listings in the top-ranked positions to sponsored listings of the same product/position. Consumers become indifferent between sponsored and organic listings in the lower-ranked positions. A mechanism check suggests that top-ranked organic listings are perceived as more credible than seller-subsidized sponsored listings. Despite consumers' preference for organic listings, a simulation analysis shows that an advertising seller may benefit financially if a lower-ranked organic listing can be replaced with a top-ranked sponsored listing. History: Olivier Toubia served as the senior editor. Funding: J. Shi acknowledges financial support from INFORMS Society for Marketing Science Doctoral Dissertation Early Stage Research Grants. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2021.0293. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Durable elastomeric deicing coatings were developed for the anti-icing and deicing of wind turbine blades in this study. Our developed deicing coatings demonstrated extremely low ice adhesion strength (~15 kPa). Silica was added to enhance the icephobic surfaces' durability. The life of the deicing coating with silica was extended by 1.2 times. After 168 h of xenon lamp irradiation, there were no significant changes in the chemical composition of the coatings. Due to the increasing roughness and the decreasing tensile modulus, the contact angle of the aged coatings decreased by 14°. Further outdoor research was carried out on a wind farm for two months to investigate the influence of natural insolation and wind erosion on the elastic deicing coatings. The aged coating still maintained a high hydrophobicity and low ice adhesion strength. The contact angle stabilized at 107°, and the ice adhesion strength was 75% lower than that of the uncoated wind turbine blade. The elastomeric deicing coatings had three advantages: a lagging freezing time, low ice accumulation, and a short icing/deicing cycle. The results of field experiments on the naturally aged coatings showed that the freezing time of the coated blade was delayed by 20 min, and the ice on the coated blade was 29% thinner than that on the uncoated blade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the dissemination of (mis)information on a social media platform in Pakistan. It combines an intervention to disseminate official information about the COVID-19 pandemic across the platform with a randomized experiment that measures the impact of fully controlling access to pandemic-related misinformation. The two treatments rely on a higherintensity, ex-ante approach to moderating misinformation on the platform relative to the control, which relies on a more standard ex-post approach to moderation. In one treatment, no misinformation was allowed on the platform, while in the other, it was allowed with an official rebuttal. Controlling misinformation, as in the treatments, reduces platform usage by 41%, indicating a distaste for moderation. Furthermore, the treatments reduce exposure to official information by 29% more than they reduce exposure to misinformation. A conceptual framework posits that these findings can be explained by the fact that, in this setting, official information is more trusted, and thus is more widely disseminated, relative to misinformation. We find evidence for two potential mechanisms for the observed distaste for moderation.

The paper analyzes the elemental composition of soils and plants of agrocenosis on the gray forest soil of Vladimir opolye under long-term application of mineral and organic fertilizers. The content of total and mobile forms of Ni, Cu, Zn, Co, Mn, Fe and the content of these elements in aboveground plant organs, as well as changes in the main agrochemical characteristics that can affect the availability of elements to plants were evaluated. It is shown that the application of mineral fertilizers contributes to soil acidification, increase in the content of organic carbon, mobile forms of phosphorus. At the same time, the variants with joint application of mineral and organic fertilizers are subject to less change of these characteristics, which may be due to the increased buffering capacity of the soil with respect to the components coming with mineral salts, due to the applied organic matter. Introduction of Ni, Cu, Zn, Co, Mn, Fe into agrocenosis with fertilizers (organic and mineral) did not affect the gross content of metals in soil. There was a change in the content of mobile forms of metals in the soil due to changes in agrochemical parameters of soils. Changes in the content of trace elements in plant products were recorded. The reduction of Zn, Cu content in plants on the variants with more intensive use of fertilizers (and with higher yield) is explained by "dilution effect". The low content of Co in the soil and its insufficient supply to the plants must be controlled. The joint use of data on changes in the elemental composition of soils and plants allows better differentiation of experimental variants in the space of principal components when analyzed by this method and is promising for monitoring the consequences of agrogenic load of different degrees. The results obtained can be taken into account in the formation of criteria for assessing the mineral nutrition of plants and fertilizer application rates.

Until early 2000s, modern roundabouts (RABs) were poorly understood in Japan and were not fully recognized as a form of at-grade intersections. The RAB research projects of the International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS), which began in 2009, started with examining the applicability of RABs in Japan and have steadily progressed to various stages of field experiments, social implementation, and dissemination promotion activities. These RAB research projects, which lasted for approximately seven years, are considered to have played a significant role in the practical application of RAB in Japan. This paper provides a chronological overview of the history, content, and development status of these projects and records and discusses the role that IATSS research projects played in the early days of RABs in Japan.

Social gamification, which allows technology users to interact with each other in gamified tasks, has drawn increasing interest due to its effectiveness in facilitating users' game engagement and task efforts. In social gamification, users can compete or cooperate with other users or teams to complete game tasks and achieve game goals. However, it remains unclear how various social interaction mechanisms (SIMs), such as cooperation, interpersonal competition, and intergroup competition, influence gamification outcomes when they are separately or jointly implemented. In addition, the effects of SIMs on experiential and instrumental gamification outcomes have not been well differentiated. In this study, we systematically investigate the influences of these fundamental SIMs, as well as the possible interaction effects among them, on fitness app users' game engagement and fitness behavior. Using a fitness app custom-developed for the Chinese market, Fitness Castle, we conducted a longitudinal field experiment to test our proposed model and hypotheses. The results indicate that when separately implemented, cooperation and interpersonal competition can lead to differential instrumental gamification outcomes in the fitness context. We also systematically compare the differential gamification outcomes when cooperation, interpersonal competition, and intergroup competition are combined in various coopetition settings. Our study offers a theory-based framework and design principles for social gamification. Our findings help practitioners better design SIMs in their gamified technologies with the purpose of achieving optimal experiential and instrumental gamification outcomes simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave-assisted mechanical excavation has great application prospects in mines and tunnels, but there are few field experiments on microwave-assisted rock breaking. This paper takes the Sishanling iron mine as the research object and adopts the self-developed high-power microwave-induced fracturing test system for hard rock to conduct field experiments of microwave-induced fracturing of iron ore. The heating and reflection evolution characteristics of ore under different microwave parameters (antenna type, power, and working distance) were studied, and the optimal microwave parameters were obtained. Subsequently, the ore was irradiated with the optimal microwave parameters, and the cracking effect of the ore under the action of the high-power open microwave was analyzed. The results show that the reflection coefficient (standing wave ratio) can be rapidly (

AbstractThis paper presents the first study to investigate ethnic differential treatment in public housing through a correspondence test field experiment. The experiment involved sending inquiries from fictitious couples with Swedish or Arabic names to all public housing companies in Sweden. Four outcomes were examined: whether the public housing companies responded to the inquiries, whether they initiated their response with a greeting, whether they had a priority system in place, and whether they provided information about problematic neighborhoods. The findings revealed disparities in the treatment of the couples. The Swedish couple received greetings and information about problematic neighborhoods at a greater rate than the Arab couple. This study contributes to existing literature on ethnic differences in the housing market by providing evidence of differential treatment within the public housing sector. Additionally, it explores the content and quality of public housing companies’ responses, offering valuable insights for policymakers and housing professionals in designing interventions to promote equality and counteract differential treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]