"When the medium massages perceptions: Personal (vs. public) displays of information reduce crowding perceptions and outsider mistreatment of frontline staff": Correction.

Abstract

Reports an error in "When the medium massages perceptions: Personal (vs. public) displays of information reduce crowding perceptions and outsider mistreatment of frontline staff" by Jean-Nicolas Reyt, Dorit Efrat-Treister, Daniel Altman, Chen Shapira, Arie Eisenman and Anat Rafaeli (Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2022[Feb], Vol 27[1], 164-178). In the original article, changes were needed to the labels under the images in the Appendix. Personal media were mistakenly labeled as public and vice versa. The four legends, from left to right, top to bottom, should be "Low crowding, public medium," "Low crowding, personal medium," "High crowding, public medium," and "High crowding, personal medium." The results and conclusions are unchanged. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2022-30403-003). Crowded waiting areas are volatile environments, where seemingly ordinary people often get frustrated and mistreat frontline staff. Given that crowding is an exogenous factor in many industries (e.g., retail, healthcare), we suggest an intervention that can "massage" outsiders' perceptions of crowding and reduce the mistreatment of frontline staff. We theorize that providing information for outsiders to read while they wait on a personal medium (e.g., a leaflet, a smartphone) reduces their crowding perceptions and mistreatment of frontline staff, compared to providing the same information on a public medium (e.g., poster, wall sign). We report two studies that confirm our theory: A field experiment in Emergency Departments (n = 939) and an online experiment simulating a coffee shop (n = 246). Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).