social psychology of interactivity in human-website interaction

researchers:

S. Shyam Sundar (faculty)

For the complete book chapter, see Chapter - 7, The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology, pp. 89-102.

Introduction

Interactivity is arguably the key feature that distinguishes web-based mass communication from traditional mass media. Interactivity affords two-way flow of information and thus encourages audience activity. The computer can now be seen as a source of interaction and thus users see computers as autonomous beings than mere conduits for delivery of pre-programmed content. Interactivity in communication literature has often focused on computer-mediated communication and the social effects of such communication with interpersonal face-to-face communication as the benchmark. This chapter in the Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology, takes interactivity out of the interpersonal context and applies it to mediated mass communication. This chapter develops the idea that within a mass communication context, a news reader is in effect interacting with the mode, source and content of mediated communication.

Interactivity as a modality feature

Interactivity is conceptualized here as a feature of the medium, specifically the variety of modalities that is offered to experience the website from text to graphics, animation, audio and video. The web offers its users a number of different modalities simultaneously as well as the seamless ability to switch back and forth between modalities. Different modalities lead to different perceptual representations and thus serve to increase the perceptual bandwidth by extending the type and number of sensory channels involved in interacting with users. This conceptualization is referred to as the functional view of interactivity, whereby the greater the capacity for interaction offered by a website, the greater its level of interactivity. Building on a series of empirical research done in the Media Effects Research lab, the paper argues that beyond a certain point, presence of multiple modalities or functions can tax the user to an extent where interactivity is treated as a peripheral cue, given the natural human tendency to economize on the expenditure of cognitive resources. In summary, while the addition of modalities or functional features to a website enhances its interaction potential and may lead to positive appraisals of the site, the actual experience of these features may result in negative cognitive as well as attitudinal outcomes.

Interactivity as a source feature

Communication sources have a powerful effect in shaping audience perceptions and thus accorded primacy in the media effects literature. Interactive media unlike most traditional media afford users the opportunity to constantly make decisions about their sources of information. As such, interactivity can be conceptualized as the ability of the user to manipulate the source of their information. Interactivity here is seen as the degree to which the user is able to serve as the gatekeeper or source of information. A previous study by Sundar created a new typology of online sources operationalized into 4 nominal categories - news editors as source (most news websites such as www.nytimes.com), computer as a source (algorithm based news platforms such as GoogleNews), other users as source of stories for reader’s consumption, and self-as-source where the user acts as the gatekeeper as in the case of customized portals such as mylycos.com. In the above conceptualization, the four categories are on a continuum with the news editors as source being the least interactive and self-as-source being the most interactive. Given the cognitive tendency to treat interactivity as a peripheral cue, different attributed sources appear to trigger different cognitive heuristics. Empirical studies based on the above conceptualizations indicate that interactivity as a source feature persuades the user to factor in the source while evaluating the interaction and communication resulting from it. While user attitudes may be positive toward the site’s ability to customize, they may not necessarily translate over to user perceptions of content that is communicated. Studies by Sundar and Nass show that content perceptions appear to be most positive under conditions of moderate interactivity (other-users as source), rather than high interactivity (self-as-source) condition.

Interactivity as a message feature

Interactivity in addition to the above conceptualizations of interactivity, it also operates at the level of messages in the form of hyperlinks and buttons that are embedded. When the user navigates through the pages of a website, the path is usually unique reflecting the user’s idiosyncratic choice of links while perusing the message. This kind of message-based interactivity is best captured by the contingency principle, i.e. any given message is contingent up on the reception of the previous message which again depends on the ones preceding it. The interactive potential of a website depends on the extent to which it is designed for contingent interaction. Sundar and his co-authors test and find support for the following generalizations.
1. The greater the contingent interactivity, the more positive the perceptions of the site as whole, even though this may not translate over directly to perceptions of the content.
2. Greater interactivity results in more involvement and focus more user attention on content leading to a more considered rating of content perception and more controlled processing of content.
3. Greater contingency in a website is likely to trigger greater navigational activity thus promoting the perception of higher levels of knowledge acquisitions from the site.

Conclusions

Whether conceptualized as a modality feature (perceptual bandwidth), source feature (customization) or message feature (contingency), the primary role of interactivity is perhaps to foster greater involvement with content. Interactivity has an important role in today’s web based media as a technological feature that boosts social-psychological effects of content. The following figure presents a model of interactivity effects. Modality, source, and message-based interactivity influence user engagement through the mediation of perceptual bandwidth use, customization level and contingency in message exchange, respectively. They also carry peripheral cues that, along with cues embedded in content, determine the nature and level of message processing, which in turn affects user cognitions, attitudes and behavior. A model of interactivity effects could be summed up as shown in the figure below. Modality, source, and message-based interactivity influence user engagement through the medium of perceptual bandwidth use, customization level and contingency in message exchange, respectively. They also carry peripheral cues that, along with cues embedded in content, determine the nature and level of message processing, which in turn affects user cognitions, attitudes and behavior.

For more details regarding the study contact,

Dr. S. Shyam Sundar by e-mail at sss12@psu.edu or by telephone at (814) 865 2173

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Media Effects Research Lab at College of Communications, Penn State University