FCH - Dissertações de Mestrado / Master Dissertations
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Browsing FCH - Dissertações de Mestrado / Master Dissertations by advisor "Almeida, Ana Filipa Martinho de"
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- AI and decision-making under risk : a behavioural study exploring how large language models may affect our risk preferencesPublication . Seabra, Lucas Bagnari de; Almeida, Ana Filipa Martinho deThis dissertation investigates the role of AI, particularly Large Language Models, in influencing risk-taking behaviours in a decision-making context, hypothesizing a diffusion of responsibility in human-AI interactions. A Randomized-Control Trial was employed, with participants completing a risk elicitation task – the Bomb Risk Elicitation Task – across two sequential rounds. Participants were either assisted by an AI-powered chatbot during the task or placed in a control group without AI assistance. Measures such as Trust and Attitudes towards AI, and general risk aversion were collected, to serve as control variables. Participant’s locus of control was also measured to test the diffusion of responsibility hypothesis. A total of 138 participants completed an online experiment. Results indicate that AI assistance had a significant effect on participants’ risk preferences, particularly in the second round of the task. Notably, the outcome of the first round showed to be an important factor in this dynamic. Among those who did not have a successful outcome in the first round, participants in the control group exhibited greater risk aversion in the subsequent round, a pattern that was not observed in the AI-assisted group. Further analyses indicated that trust in AI and an external locus of control marginally moderated this effect, pointing to a diffusion of responsibility with the AI. Additional findings suggest the rational effect AI assistance had on participants. Particularly, the proportion of risk-neutral participants increased from 6% in the control group to 28% in the treatment group, indicating an approximation of rational decisionmaking with AI assistance. The findings suggest that AI assistance can alter risk preferences, potentially through mechanisms of increased confidence or diffusion of responsibility. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of human-AI interaction and highlights the need for further studies to disentangle these effects and explore their implications for decision-making in high-stakes environments.
- Energy savings behavior in the context of the energy crisis in Germany : exploring the influence of self-efficacy and subjective knowledgePublication . Dinkel, Lara Cremène; Almeida, Ana Filipa Martinho deThe European energy crisis of 2021/2022 caused by gas shortages and demand surges had a massive impact on Germany’s economy and forced the country to rethink its energy policy, improve its energy security situation, and address the underlying weaknesses exposed by these times. Reduced households’ energy consumption significantly contributes to mitigating this crisis which highlights the need to promote their energy savings behavior by stimulating its influencing factors. This thesis aims to close a research gap and examine the influence of crisis self-efficacy (CSE) and subjective crisis knowledge (SCK) on energy savings behavior (ESB) in a post-crisis context at home, using two validated instruments by Park (2016) and Flynn and Goldsmith (1999). Data was collected in December 2023 from the population of German households through an online survey which resulted in a valid sample of 394 participants. Subsequent data analysis using SPSS (v. 29.0) and SPSS AMOS (v. 26.0) for structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses revealed that both CSE and SCK have a direct and significant positive effect on ESB. Additionally, the relationship between SCK and ESB is partially mediated by CSE, thus also indicating an indirect effect between the two variables, meaning that higher levels of SCK and CSE not only independently but also in combination increase ESB. The results suggest that individual assessments of knowledge and capabilities are decisive when it comes to exhibiting relevant measures for crisis mitigation and prevention. Therefore, the findings lead to several recommendations for effective policymaking and overall crisis management making use of the gained insights on factors influencing energy savings during and after a crisis.
- Factors influencing consumer adoption of peer-to-peer blockchain-based energy tradingPublication . Kungel, Jakob Andreas; Almeida, Ana Filipa Martinho de; Scott, Ian JamesStudies on the distribution of energy are increasingly focusing on blockchain-based Peer-toPeer (P2P) energy trading, a promising method to distribute sustainable energy on a local level. This thesis aimed to contribute to the existing literature by investigating the following research question: What are the factors influencing consumer intention to use P2P blockchain-based energy trading? Based on the second version of the “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology”, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, perceived privacy risk, trust, risk and technology savviness were investigated to measure acceptance and to understand potential differences between the new but upcoming blockchain technology and a common comparable technology, in the form of a cloud solution. The results of the study (N=352) show that the intention to use P2P energy trading can be predicted by five out of nine constructs and that there are significant differences between the two technologies in certain areas, namely performance expectancy and hedonic motivation, what was identified through a multi-group analysis (MGA). Therefore, organisations using or introducing blockchain-based P2P energy trading should take special care in communicating these areas, as they are perceived significantly differently. However, social influence, facilitating conditions trust and risk perception, were equally predicted behavioural intention to use blockchain technology and a cloud solution for both technologies. These contexts can be an important opportunity for organisations providing P2P energy trading technology to inform and educate energy consumers and prosumers, thereby essentially increasing the acceptance of the technology. This, in turn, could significantly advance the energy transition.
- Informal learning in the face of content occupational insecurity : the influence of occupational self-efficacy and future focusPublication . Nolan, Ciara; Almeida, Ana Filipa Martinho deArtificial intelligence applications are emerging in industries across the board, from healthcare and finance to marketing and education. Trends signify that these applications will cause economic disruption for years to come and rapidly overhaul how organisations operate. Worries about changes to the tasks and important features of one’s occupation are emerging, coined content occupation insecurity. The idea of informal learning to keep up with the occupational changes often associated with occupation insecurity is gaining prominence. This study consequently investigated if content occupation insecurity is associated with lower levels of informal learning, and whether this relationship is mediated by a decline in occupational self-efficacy and future focus. To assess the direct effect of content occupation insecurity on informal learning and the parallel mediation effects of occupational self-efficacy and future focus, a mediation analysis was conducted. The findings showed that the relationship between content occupation insecurity and informal learning is dictated by competing mediating pathways that result in contradictory directional effects. Both negative and positive effects were uncovered resulting in an insignificant total effect and suggesting that the impact of content occupation insecurity on informal learning is highly context dependent. Academic and managerial implications, as well as future recommendations, are offered based on these findings.