Student Researcher: Carson B. Wagner (MA Student)
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
For a complete report of this research, see:
Sundar, S. S., & Wagner, C. B. (1998, July). The tease effect of slow downloading: arousal and excitation transfer in online communication. Paper presented to the Communication Technology & Policy division at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Baltimore, MD.
Introduction
When a website image takes a long time to load onto our computer screens, the wait may be frustrating . But it can also be physiologically arousing. That is, the effect of a slowly-downloading image can be likened to the tantalizing effects of strategic concealment found in striptease. While traditional research has examined the effects of sexual and violent content on arousal, this study examined the effects of download speed on arousal. Based on the Excitation Transfer Theory, three hypotheses were drawn.
Hypotheses
H1: A slow-loading website will be more arousing than a fast-loading website.
H2: Participants exposed to a website subsequent to a slow-loading website will show greater arousal than will participants exposed to the site subsequent to a fast-loading website.
H3: Participants exposed to the Web subsequent to a slow-loading website will show greater browsing activity than will participants exposed to the Web subsequent to a fast-loading website.
Method
Thirty participants took part in a between-participants experiment. Their "baseline" arousal level was taken upon arrival to the laboratory, via skin conductance response. They were then informed that they would first view an image and would automatically be transfered to a site where they could "surf" at will. Participants in the 'slow download' condition saw an animated GIF created to simulate a slowly downloading image (see figure below). The image took about 18 seconds to completely reveal itself. Participants in the 'fast download' condition saw the image quickly appear in full.
Participants in both conditions were then led to a CNN website.
As participants clicked the first link on the news site, a second measure was taken to assess the behavioral effect of download speed by counting the number of hyperlinks clicked by each subject.
Results
H1: Supported. Slow-download participants showed a significantly higher level of arousal compared to fast-download participants.
H2: Supported. Slow-download participants showed a significantly higher level of excitation transfer compared to fast-download participants.
H3: Supported. Slow-download participants selected a significantly higher number of hyperlinks compared to fast-download participants.
Conclusion
The physiological consequence of slow downloading was akin to that of a strip-tease. The tease effect demonstrated in this experiment is an indication of the ability of non-message features to induce physiological changes in audience members. By exhibiting the explanatory power of the Excitation Transfer model to include not only content-related arousal but also technology-induced excitation, this study opens up interesting possibilities in the domain of new media research. The findings also demonstrate that excitation transfer is not merely physiological but noticeably behavioral. Finally although we all complain about slow downloading speeds, once we endure it, we seem to be much more invested in the website than if we were brought into the same website with an instantaneously loading image.
For more details/information about this study, please contact:
Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Associate Professor and Director
Media Effects Research Laboratory
College of Communications
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Ph: (814) 865 2173
E-mail: sss12@psu.edu
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