Time: 12:30 PM, Thursday, May 14, 2026
Location: Room 1100, 11th Floor, Lu Dalong Building, Tsinghua University
1. Hong Li’s Research Group
Presentation Topic: The Framing Effect in Maximizing Consumers: When Rejection Boosts Efficiency
Presenter: He Huang
Abstract：
Online shoppers who pursue the “best” option—maximizing consumers—are often assumed to engage in exhaustive search and experience decision difficulty as stable traits. We propose instead that these outcomes reflect a framing effect. Across three studies, maximizing consumers exhibit different shopping strategies depending on decision frame. In positive frames, they consider more options, leading to longer decision times and greater difficulties—the pattern traditionally associated with maximization. However, in negative frames, they consider fewer options, resulting in a more efficient decision process and fewer difficulties.
At individual choice-unit level, Study 1 established this framing effect on choose rate. Study 2 extended to the entire decision process, identifying choose rate as the key mechanism underlying different strategies and further exploring the cognitive processes of different patterns using the drift-diffusion model. The DDM revealed that in positive frames, maximizing consumers’ higher choose rate was driven by a drift rate leaned toward choosing, whereas in negative frames, their lower choose rate was driven by an initial bias toward rejection; the consistently elevated threshold amplified these directional tendencies but did not determine choice direction. Study 3 replicated the findings under ecologically valid conditions.
These results reframe “maximization strategies” not as fixed consumer traits, but as indicators of (in)compatibility between decision goals and framing. This suggests that online retailers can enhance maximizing consumers’ experiences simply by adding a “reject” mode alongside the standard “add to cart” interface.
2. Wenting Mu’s Research Group
Presentation Topic: Guided and Self-Help Cognitive Behavioral Therapy App Interventions for Academic Anxiety: A Four-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial
Presenter: Junyao Liu
Abstract：
Although online cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) has demonstrated good intervention efficacy and accessibility, its effectiveness is often limited by low user engagement. Empirical research is still lacking regarding how to effectively improve user engagement and whether such enhancements can translate into improved clinical outcomes. This study focuses on university students with academic anxiety. Building on the validation of the iCBT App (Welp) in alleviating anxiety, the research highlights the impact of coach guidance and progress control flexibility—centered on engagement enhancement—on user participation and clinical improvement, while examining the mediating mechanism of engagement.
This study utilized a four-arm randomized controlled trial, recruiting a total of 209 Chinese university students experiencing academic anxiety. Participants were randomly assigned to the coaching group (n=51), the self-help fixed-pace group (SH-Fix, n=51), the self-help flexible-pace group (SH-Flex, n=55), or the waiting list control group (WLC, n=52). All intervention groups received the Welp App intervention for six weeks, differing only in guidance mode and progress flexibility, and completed follow-up assessments at 1, 3, and 6 months. Results showed that, compared to the self-help groups, the coaching group significantly improved user skill practice and system usage, performing better across all engagement metrics (p < 0.001) and achieving more significant improvements in generalized anxiety and depressive symptoms at post-test (d=0.68–0.77). Mediation analysis indicated that composite engagement scores for system usage and homework consistently and fully mediated the effects of the group assignment on the improvement of generalized anxiety symptoms and procrastination. Meanwhile, compared to the WLC group, both the self-help and coaching groups showed intervention benefits at post-test, with the coaching group showing prominent effects (d=0.97–1.12). In contrast, the SH-Flex group did not show a significant clinical advantage over the SH-Fix group.
In summary, this study supports that the Welp App can effectively alleviate academic anxiety and related psychological distress in university students. Coach guidance centered on engagement enhancement can significantly strengthen user participation, thereby promoting clinical improvement. This serves as a generalizable strategy to address the issue of low engagement in digital interventions and possesses high application value.
