In decision modeling with influence diagrams, the most challenging task is probability elicitation from domain experts. It is usually very difficult for experts to directly assign precise probabilities to chance nodes. In this paper, we propose an approach to elicit probability effectively by using the concept of interval probability (IP). During the elicitation process, a group of experts assi...

In two experiments, we show how a consumer’s susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) offers useful insights into the effectiveness of two types of testimonials: a typical person endorsement (Study 1) and a celebrity endorsement (Study 2). Specifically, we suggest that two variables moderate testimonial effects—SNI and product attribute information. Results show that in forming their evaluat...

This document defines application service tags that allow service location without relying on rigid domain naming conventions, and DNS procedures for discovering servers that provide IEEE 802.21-defined Mobility Services. Such Mobility Services are used to assist a Mobile Node (MN) supporting IEEE 802.21, in handover preparation (network discovery) and handover decision (network selection). The...

There are often multiple explanations for someone’s behavior, but people generally find some behavior explanations more satisfying than others. We hypothesized that people prefer behavior explanations that are simple and rational. We present a computational account of behavior explanation that captures these two principles. Our computational account is based on decision networks. Decision netwo...

This study examines empirically the factors affecting the adoption and usage of broadband Internet in a developing country in this instance Bangladesh. This study is part of a wider research looking to explore consumer adoption of broadband services in various geographical and national settings. Thus, attitudinal, normative and control factors to provide insights of broadband adopters and non-a...

Fisher is the single most important figure in 20th century statistics. This talk examines his influence on modern statistical thinking, trying to predict how Fisherian we can expect the 21st century to be. Fisher’s philosophy is characterized as a series of shrewd compromises between the Bayesian and frequentist viewpoints, augmented by some unique characteristics that are particularly useful i...

The conjunctive causal power PC theory (Novick & Cheng, 2004) proposes that when people have to make a judgement about whether or not two causal candidates acting together produce an effect, they take into account several hypotheses. These hypotheses state that the effect will occur due to the: a) influence of a candidate A; b) influence of a candidate B; c) conjunctive influence of both A and ...

This study investigates the role of demographics, specifically gender, on susceptibility to three social influence types for certain products. Data were collected in two stages from business students at a large university. Analyses were performed at the construct and product levels. At the construct level, marital status and living situation were found to be the significant demographics for bot...

We propose the Probabilistic Sentential Decision Diagram (PSDD): A complete and canonical representation of probability distributions defined over the models of a given propositional theory. Each parameter of a PSDD can be viewed as the (conditional) probability of making a decision in a corresponding Sentential Decision Diagram (SDD). The SDD itself is a recently proposed complete and canonica...

Interaction between decision makers may affect their preferences. We consider a setup in which each individual is characterized by two sets of preferences: his unchanged core preferences and his behavioral preferences. Each individual has a social influence function that determines his behavioral preferences given his core preferences and the behavioral preferences of other individuals in his g...