The novel coronavirus pandemic has made life significantly more stressful for large populations of people. As one such demographic, university students worldwide have experienced a sudden shift toward the provision of socially distanced online education, often in the absence of a coherent institutional plan. The mechanisms of stress appraisal and response differ between individuals in part determined by personality. With a sample of 293 undergraduate students at a Japanese university operating under prohibitions relating to face-to-face education, this article examines the impact of personality on the affordance of socially distanced online education mediated through generalized life stress and online learning stress appraisal. A retrimmed structural model returned an acceptable goodness of fit accounting for 31.6&#x0025; of the criterion variance. The model indicates that conscientiousness (positive) and neuroticism (negative) hold a significant mediated impact on the affordance of socially distanced online education through generalized life stress and online learning stress appraisal. Moreover, and in the absence of face-to-face social interaction, the model shows that extroverted students experience greater online learning stress appraisals than neurotic students. Neurotic students were, however, negatively impacted by appraisals of generalized life stress but not online learning stress. Informed by personality characteristics and stress appraisals, the outcomes are discussed in relation to educational improvements and appropriate pedagogies for the delivery of socially distanced online education.

Damian J. Rivers

Stress Mediates the Relationship between Personality and the Affordance of Socially Distanced Online Education

Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) systems are quickly becoming a familiar part of different aspects of everyday life. We know very little about how children and adults perceive the abilities of different robots and whether these ascriptions are associated with a willingness to interact with a robot. In the current study, we asked British children aged 4&#x2013;13 years and British adults to complete an online experiment. Participants were asked to describe what a robot looks like, give their preference for various types of robots (a social robot, a machine-like robot, and a human-like robot), and answer whether they were willing to engage in different activities with the different robots. Results showed that younger children (4 to 8 years old) are more willing to engage with robots compared to older children (9 to 13 years) and adults. Specifically, younger children were more likely to see robots as kind compared to older children and adults. Younger children were also more likely to rate the social robot as helpful compared to older children and adults. This is also the first study to examine preferences for robots engaging in religious activities, and results show that British adults prefer humans over robots to pray for them but such biases may not be generally applicable to children. These results provide new insight into how children and adults in the United Kingdom accept the presence and function of robots.

Emily R. R. Burdett

Shogo Ikari

Yo Nakawake

British Children&#x2019;s and Adults&#x2019; Perceptions of Robots

Most chatbot interfaces in contemporary m-commerce platforms feature a single chatbot that provides recommendations for all product categories. Nonetheless, there is an emerging research interest in multi-chatbot systems designating multiple chatbots as product/domain-specific advisers. Given the dearth of studies investigating the effects of multi-chatbot versus single-chatbot in the m-commerce context, we addressed this research gap by conducting an online between-subjects experiment to explore how the m-commerce chatbot interface types can differently influence source credibility, social presence, trusting beliefs, and purchase intention. Based on 154 valid responses, the single-chatbot interface led to higher social presence and trusting beliefs toward the m-commerce platform than the multi-chatbot interface. Males attributed the chatbot with higher competence and reported higher purchase intention through the m-commerce platform when engaging with the single-chatbot interface than the multi-chatbot interface. These findings suggest that designating chatbots as product-specific advisers in a multi-chatbot interface without labels to accentuate expertise could not evoke the users to categorize them as product specialists. Moreover, the multi-chatbot interface could have imposed user confusion and unfamiliarity cues, decreasing trust in the m-commerce platform. These findings&#x2019; theoretical, design, and managerial implications are discussed through the lens of the computers-are-social-actors paradigm, source credibility theory, source specialization, multiple source effect, and m-commerce behavioral research.

Su-Mae Tan

Tze Wei Liew

Multi-Chatbot or Single-Chatbot? The Effects of M-Commerce Chatbot Interface on Source Credibility, Social Presence, Trust, and Purchase Intention

This study is the first to explain the determinant factors of phubbing&#x2014;checking cell phone during a conversation or while spending time with a significant other&#x2014;and its effect on the relationship satisfaction of both partners. It is also aimed at determining whether gender and relationship length play moderating roles in a relationship. The study adopted the media displacement theory and the interdependence theory to build a conceptual model of these variables. This cross-sectional research was conducted using an online survey with 741 voluntary married participants from Saudi Arabia. Upon analysis, the data confirmed that problematic usage of cell phone, Internet, social media, games, and SMS had a positive effect on phubbing. Interestingly, it showed that both the sample&#x2019;s and their partner&#x2019;s relationship satisfaction increased in line with phubbing behavior. Several theoretical and practical contributions have resulted from these findings.

Shuaa Aljasir

Present but Absent in the Digital Age: Testing a Conceptual Model of Phubbing and Relationship Satisfaction among Married Couples

The study explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students&#x2019; mental health in higher education while capturing their perceptions and attitudes towards time management. The aim was to examine relationships between stress, anxiety, and specific time management-related factors. Considering possible differences between genders and degree levels, we developed five structural equation models (SEMs) to delineate these relationships. Results of a large-scale study of 502 participants show that students suffered from stress and two types of COVID-19-related anxiety: disease and consequences. Students&#x2019; preference for organization was the only factor that significantly promoted their perceived control over time, which contributes to reducing stress, hence anxiety. However, female students reported higher stress and anxiety levels than male students. Graduate students reported higher anxiety levels related to the consequences of the pandemic compared to undergrads. To promote students&#x2019; preference for organization, we map the three categories of organization to corresponding persuasive strategies which could be used in the design of persuasive interventions. This creates an opportunity for developing technological interventions to improve students&#x2019; perceived control over time, thus reduce stress and anxiety.

Mona Alhasani

Ali Alkhawaji

Rita Orji

Mental Health and Time Management Behavior among Students During COVID-19 Pandemic: Towards Persuasive Technology Design

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Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies&nbsp;is an interdisciplinary journal publishing high-impact research that advances the understanding of complex interactions between diverse human behavior and emerging digital technologies.

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Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies is an interdisciplinary journal publishing high-impact research that advances the understanding of complex interactions between diverse human behavior and emerging digital technologies.

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Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies