Bachelor with Honours Dissertations - open access

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The "Bachelor with Honours Dissertations - open access" collection contains digital copies of AUT University B(Hons) dissertations approved for open access. B(Hons) dissertations are required to be open access from April 2022. Past students may contact the Tuwhera team (tuwhera.opentheses@aut.ac.nz) if they wish to make their B(Hons) open access.

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    Social Media Fundraising: How Message Framing and Typeface Design Affect Donation Intentions
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2024) Zhou, Jingwei
    With the shift from offline to online donation methods and the rapid growth of social media users, social media platforms have become essential tools for Nonprofit organisations (NPOs) to attract potential donors and raise funds. However, fundraising on social media is not always successful, and NPOs have yet to fully leverage the advantages of these platforms. The effectiveness of fundraising messages on social media platforms remains a subject of ongoing research, particularly concerning the interaction between textual and visual elements. Therefore, this study investigates message framing (gain-framed and loss-framed) and its interaction with typeface design (typewritten and handwritten) in influencing donation intentions in social media fundraising campaigns, with a specific focus on the mediating role of perceived credibility. This study employed a quantitative experimental design. Specifically, a 2 (gain-framed vs. loss-framed message) × 2 (handwritten vs. typewritten typeface) between-subjects experiment was conducted through an online survey, involving 275 participants recruited via CloudResearch’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) Toolkit. The collected data was analysed using IBM SPSS statistical software. The results of the study reveal several noteworthy findings. First, loss-framed messages were found to elicit higher donation intentions compared to gain-framed messages. Second, the interaction between message framing and typeface design had a significant impact on donation intentions. Specifically, for loss-framed messages, typewritten typefaces led to higher donation intentions compared to handwritten typefaces. In contrast, under gain-framed messages, there was no significant difference between handwritten and typewritten typefaces in enhancing donation intentions. Finally, results from the moderated mediation analysis indicated that perceived credibility is the underlying psychological mechanism driving this interaction effect. The findings of this study have significant theoretical and practical implications. The study provides new evidence for the effects of message framing in the context of social media fundraising. Moreover, by exploring the interaction between typeface design and message framing on donation intentions, it extends the visual design, particularly typeface design, into the domains of persuasion research and social media fundraising. Identifying perceived credibility as a mediating factor adds a new dimension to social media fundraising research. Practically, the results provide novel insights for NPOs and social media marketers aiming to optimise their fundraising strategies. By strategically using loss-framed messages and carefully selecting typeface design, organisations can increase the credibility and effectiveness of their fundraising messages, leading to increased donation intentions and fundraising success.
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    Behavioural Biometrics: A Novel Approach to User Authentication in Information Systems Security
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2024) Mulligan, Joshua
    As information technology (IT) evolves, user authentication has shifted towards innovative approaches, with behavioural biometrics (BB) emerging as a leading contender. However, there are no studies that investigate the factors that shape user acceptance and trust in the biometric authentication systems. This dissertation employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to investigate these focusing on behavioural biometrics. Past studies indicate that there is immense potential for BB as a robust authentication method to enhance user acceptance and trust. Therefore, this examination of the existing literature aims to provide a nuanced understanding of trust in IT and its intersection with BB. The outcomes of this study will inform the refinement of biometric technologies and provide crucial insights for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, advancing secure and user-friendly digital authentication solutions in an ever-evolving technological landscape. By employing an SLR methodology, this research endeavours to bridge existing gaps. Based on a review of 88 articles, it is evident that the quality of data related to BB is often inconsistent, with inadequate quality assessment and poor reporting of detailed information. This study presents key reporting items to improve the transparency and comparability of future research on user authentication and adoption. It also emphasizes that user trust and acceptance of BB are poorly assessed and reported in both empirical and conceptual research, as well as across multiple industries. Additionally, it highlights common challenges faced by BB applications, including regulatory, technical, social, and research-related issues that need to be addressed for progress in the field.
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    Trophic Ecology of Gould’s Arrow Squid (Nototodarus gouldi) in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2024) Hu, Lucia
    Deep-sea squids (order Oegopsida) are recognised for their integral role in marine ecosystems, which can be investigated through detailed trophic studies. Gould’s arrow squid (Nototodarus gouldi) is a commercially exploited species in the southwest Pacific. Although prey composition has been reported from Australia, no research to date has been published on this species’ diet in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This integrative study combined morphological, DNA analyses and helminth parasite identification to provide the first data on the prey of N. gouldi in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Gut contents were visually screened for parasites and hard parts of prey remains—including otoliths, eye lenses, squid beaks, crustacean exoskeletons and soft tissues. The conservative DNA barcode region (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I [COI]) was sequenced for representative pieces of soft tissue (which could not be visually identified). Overall, 26 species from across six phyla were reported, including 18 novel species herein reported for the first time in the diet of N. gouldi. This baseline information on the prey species and parasites of N. gouldi may serve as a foundation for ecosystem-based fishery management and understanding trophic interactions and prey dynamics within the south Tasman region.
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    Violent and Unpredictable: Perceptions of Victims of Crime Who Are Living With a Mental Health Problem
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2024) Andersen, Joshua
    Public perceptions of mental illness are largely derived from stigmas and social norms that perpetuate punitive and discriminative rhetoric. In regard to illnesses like schizophrenia, these perceptions are overwhelmingly associated with violence and the threat of harm. Recent academic literature has questioned this notion. Our study explored how varying stigmas can influence perceptions of mock newspaper articles that depict a violent assault of which the victim has a mental illness. Members of the public (n = 106) were randomly assigned to one of six newspaper depictions of a violent assault, of which the victim was reported to have a mental illness (schizophrenia, depression, no mental illness). To test for the influence of substance use comorbidity, the presence of methamphetamine was also a variable in each mental illness condition. After reading the mock newspaper articles, participants then responded to the Social Distance Scale (Link et al., 1987) to assess participants desired social distance from the victim in the newspaper vignette. Participants also responded to several covariate measures that helped us better understand the judgements made in relation to the vignette. The results of our study suggest that mental illness alone did not substantially alter participant perceptions of mental illness. However, when factoring for methamphetamine presence, participants in the schizophrenia conditions reported significantly lower levels of desired social distance and subsequent stigma than those in control conditions. Future research could seek to better explore the interaction between mental illness and crime victimisation. As such, the implications of research in this domain work to resolve the prevalence of discriminative social stigma both within academic and public spheres.
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    Do Social Norms Predict Equestrians' Likelihood of Using Safety Equipment?
    (Auckland University of Technology, 2024) Hathaway, Alexandra
    Equestrian sports carry a high risk of injury. Despite the well known risks carried by these activities, there are still many riders who choose to not utilise safety equipment when working with horses. The current study examined whether social norms or differences in personality traits influenced riders’ decision to use various types of safety equipment. An online questionnaire (N = 115) was used to investigate whether agreeance with descriptive norms, injunctive norms, or differences in sensation seeking and conscientiousness predicted the use of helmets, protective vests, or safety stirrups. Consistent with prior research, the study found descriptive norms and injunctive norms both influenced the proportion of use of various safety equipment. More specifically, descriptive norms predicted the proportion of helmet and safety stirrup use, while personal and peer injunctive norms predicted the proportion of safety vest use. Sensation seeking was only found to be a predictor of helmet use and did not correlate to the proportion of safety vest or safety stirrup use. Conscientiousness was not found to be a predictor of any variable. The findings are significant within the equestrian community as they contribute to the understanding of what influences safety equipment use, allowing for more informed interventions to increase safe practices within equestrian sport.
Dissertations are protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). The dissertation may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use:
  • Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person.
  • Authors control the copyright of their dissertation. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the dissertation, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate.
  • You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the dissertation.