About

Dr. Christopher B. Mayhorn is the Head of the Psychology Department at North Carolina State University and a Professor in the Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology program. He has been a faculty member at NCSU since 2002. His educational background includes a B.A. from The Citadel, an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Mayhorn's research interests encompass everyday memory, decision-making, human-computer interaction, safety, and risk communication. He has received external funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Security Agency, as well as industry groups like the Drug Information Association. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and serves on the editorial boards of prominent journals including Human Factors, Applied Ergonomics, and the Journal of Safety Research. Recognized as a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and a University Faculty Scholar at NCSU, he was awarded the McInnes/Ryan Mid-Career Leadership Award by the American Association of University Administrators in 2024.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Computer Security
• Applied psychology
• Social psychology
• Medical emergency
• Medicine
• Intensive care medicine
• Business
• Nursing
• Internet privacy
• World Wide Web

Selected publications

• Prosociality in Microtransit

  Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research · 2025-01-14 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  We study (public) microtransit, a type of transportation service wherein a municipality offers point-to-point rides to residents, for a fixed, nominal fare. Microtransit exemplifies practical resource allocation problems that are often over-constrained in that not all ride requests (pickup and dropoff locations at specified times) can be satisfied or satisfied only by violating soft goals such as sustainability, and where economic signals (e.g., surge pricing) are not applicable—they would lead to unethical outcomes by effectively coercing poor people. We posit that instead of taking rider preferences as fixed, shaping them prosocially will lead to improved societal outcomes. Prosociality refers to an attitude or behavior that is intended to benefit others. This paper demonstrates a computational approach to prosociality in the context of a (public) microtransit service for disadvantaged riders. Prosociality appears as a willingness to adjust one’s pickup and dropoff times and locations to accommodate the schedules of others and to enable sharing rides (which increases the number of riders served with the same resources). This paper describes an interdisciplinary study of prosociality in microtransit between a transportation researcher, psychologists, a social scientist, and AI researchers. Our contributions are these: (1) empirical support for the viability of prosociality in microtransit (and constraints on it) through interviews with drivers and focus groups of riders; (2) a prototype mobile app demonstrating how our prosocial intervention can be combined with the transportation backend; (3) a reinforcement learning approach to model a rider and determine the best interventions to persuade that rider toward prosociality; and (4) a cognitive model of rider personas to enable evaluation of alternative interventions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impact of Fear vs. Reward-Oriented Social Media Information on Vaccine Decision-Making Behavior

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Exploring Strategies to Improve Performance Accuracy on Vigilance-Based Tasks

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2023-09-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Vigilance is the ability to maintain attention on a task over time without becoming distracted. Many high-stakes fields require employees to regularly engage in vigilance tasks (e.g., TSA baggage screening). Understanding strategies to improve accuracy on such tasks can be critical in ensuring efficiency and safety. In the current work, trial-by-trial feedback and extrinsic motivators were tested as potential aids to improve accuracy on vigilance tasks. Measures of state boredom were also collected. Results provide insight that trial-by-trial feedback may be an effective tool to increase accuracy on basic vigilance tasks. Further research is needed to understand the impact of trial-by-trial feedback and extrinsic motivators on state boredom and their impact on applied tasks.

  PublisherDOI

• Game On

  2022-04-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  Accessibility in digital games is established to remove barriers that cause exclusion of the target audience. It has the objective to provide an equivalent user-experience (UX). The general objective of this article is to analyze how accessibility features, linked to hearing in digital games, are related to the principles of the Universal Design and Jakob Nielsen’s usability heuristics in order to provide deaf players a good user-experience. As a hypothesis, this analysis makes it possible to notice the strengths that the digital games industry has developed in this area and it will be possible to identify gaps to be explored. As for the methodology, a cross will be made between the found accessibility features and principles of accessibility and usability. It was found that the games industry has invested a lot in resources related to a few principles of Universal Design, while it does not worry about developing functionalities related to another range of principles, which are equally important. It is possible to conclude that this work has potential for future studies, and it opens space for the discussion about inclusion in digital games.

  PublisherDOI

• Examination of Within-Headset Sports Media Experiences

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2022-09-01

  articleSenior author

  With the many varied options for media presentation available within virtual reality devices today, it is important to start comparing these different formats to determine how different they are from each other. This project examined the differences between 180-Degree and 2D presentations of sports media within virtual reality headsets (HMD). Additionally, it also examined how much including individual differences helped explain participant experiences of presence, suspense, and enjoyment. Participants were asked to watch a piece of sports media footage presented either in 180-Degree or 2D formats within their own headset and then complete surveys on presence, suspense, enjoyment, team disposition, and fanship post-watching the video clip. This data was analyzed using a MANOVA and hierarchical linear regression. Results showed that there were no differences between the two types of media presentation, but fanship did help to understand more of the variance within participants’ enjoyment.

  PublisherDOI

• It's not what you say but how you say it: Examining the influence of perceived voice assistant gender and pitch on trust and reliance

  Applied Ergonomics · 2022 · 43 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Applied psychology
  • Social psychology
  PublisherDOI

• In Response to Warnings: Exploring Individual Differences in Sustained Attention Performance

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2022-09-01 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Sustained attention paradigms can assess an individual’s ability to maintain continuous effort and accurate response rate over a period of time. Measuring individual differences in vigilance capabilities and factors that influence performance can be foundational in the design of user-centered technologies and protocols. In the current work, 137 participants completed the SART (Sustained Attention to Response Task) where half ( n = 69) received a warning that they would have to re-start the task if they fell below a performance threshold and the remainder ( n = 68) received no such warning. Measures of trait boredom proneness, state-based boredom, and motivation were also collected. Results indicated that the presence of a warning stimuli (extrinsic motivator) significantly affected overall performance on the SART. Discussion focused on how individual differences in the completion of “boring” tasks influences performance on work-related task outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Identifying and understanding individual differences in frustration with technology

  Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science · 2022-07-07 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  Individual differences in user responses to malfunctions with technology are of primary interest, as this influences how a product can be improved and has not been examined extensively. Previously, individual differences in responses to technology failures have been examined in self-reported studies, but not in an experimental design. The current study expanded the findings from previous research with a mixed factorial design. Seventy-two (N = 72) undergraduate students were recruited to participate in this online study. They were asked to complete a shopping task and complete a survey about their experience. To examine individual differences in responses to technology failures, several repeated measures ANOVAs, multiple regressions, and hierarchical regressions were conducted to assess the effects of expectation and malfunction on frustration and performance. Results revealed individuals with a greater tendency to be neurotic or extraverted also tended to be more frustrated by a technology malfunction. Additionally, openness was the strongest predictor of less frustration with technology failures, while extraversion was the strongest predictor of more frustration with technology failures.

  PublisherDOI

• Decision support-tools for early detection of infection in older people (aged> 65 years): a scoping review

  BMC Geriatrics · 2022 · 11 citations

  • Medicine
  • Intensive care medicine
  • Medical emergency

  BACKGROUND: Infection is more frequent, and serious in people aged > 65 as they experience non-specific signs and symptoms delaying diagnosis and prompt treatment. Monitoring signs and symptoms using decision support tools (DST) is one approach that could help improve early detection ensuring timely treatment and effective care. OBJECTIVE: To identify and analyse decision support tools available to support detection of infection in older people (> 65 years). METHODS: A scoping review of the literature 2010-2021 following Arksey and O'Malley (2005) framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A search of MEDLINE, Cochrane, EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and PsycINFO using terms to identify decision support tools for detection of infection in people > 65 years was conducted, supplemented with manual searches. RESULTS: Seventeen papers, reporting varying stages of development of different DSTs were analysed. DSTs largely focussed on specific types of infection i.e. urine, respiratory, sepsis and were frequently hospital based (n = 9) for use by physicians. Four DSTs had been developed in nursing homes and one a care home, two of which explored detection of non- specific infection. CONCLUSIONS: DSTs provide an opportunity to ensure a consistent approach to early detection of infection supporting prompt action and treatment, thus avoiding emergency hospital admissions. A lack of consideration regarding their implementation in practice means that any attempt to create an optimal validated and tested DST for infection detection will be impeded. This absence may ultimately affect the ability of the workforce to provide more effective and timely care, particularly during the current covid-19 pandemic.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Are Roundabouts Safer for Pedestrians?

  Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting · 2022-09-01 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Pedestrians continue to be killed and injured at the meeting points with motor vehicles. The current study explored how drivers managed the cognitive load of negotiating roundabouts. One hundred fifty-five undergraduates at a large university in the southeastern United States were recruited. Participants were given some training on driving rules concerning roundabouts and were then presented with a 25 question, multiple-choice test that served as a check on learning. The participants who passed the learning check were then presented with 80 visual stimuli of driving situations commonly encountered at roundabouts. The stimuli were presented in Qualtrics as seven traffic situations that were randomized. Results supported the hypothesis that pedestrians are not noticed at roundabouts a significant amount of time making the pedestrian/automobile interaction at roundabouts a safety hazard. Participants failed to notice pedestrians most often in roundabout entering vignettes but also failed to notice pedestrians in roundabout exiting vignettes. Results suggest participants did not notice pedestrians attempting to cross the street in crosswalks at roundabouts. Additional research is needed to study how to increase visibility of pedestrian crossing in roundabouts. The findings of this study will raise awareness of the increased need for pedestrian safety measures at roundabouts.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Michael S. Wogalter

  North Carolina State University

  41 shared

• Richard C. Goldsworthy

  Academic Edge

  22 shared

• Olga A. Zielinska

  Amazon (Germany)

  13 shared

• Emerson Murphy-Hill

  12 shared

• Jefferson B. Hardee

  10 shared

• Allaire K. Welk

  10 shared

• Christina C. Mendat

  9 shared

• P. Andrew Leynes

  College of New Jersey

  7 shared

Labs

• Research and EngagementPI

Education

• Ph.D., Psychology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2006

• M.A., Psychology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  2002

• B.A., Psychology

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1999

Awards & honors

• University Faculty Scholar (2014)
• McInnes/Ryan Mid-Career Leadership Award (2024)