Kiemute Oyibo

Investigation of Social Predictors of Competitive Behavior in Persuasive Technology

Research has shown that Competition is one of the most powerful persuasive strategies to intrinsically motivate users in a social context towards performing a target behavior. However, in persuasive technology research, studies showing the predictors of the “persuasiveness of Competition” as a motivational strategy are scarce. Consequently, based on a sample size of 213 Canadians, we tested a model using three socially influential strategies (Social Learning, Social Comparison and Reward) as predictors of Competition. Our model accounts for 42% of the variation in Competition and reveals that Reward is the strongest predictor of Competition, followed by Social Comparison, but Social Learning is not a predictor. Moreover, it reveals that Social Comparison mediates the influence of Reward on Social Learning and Competition. Our findings provide designers of persuasive applications with insight into the possibility of implementing Reward, Social Comparison and Competition as effective co-strategies for stimulating user engagement in gamified applications.

The Interplay of Aesthetics, Usability and Credibility in Mobile Websites and the Moderation by Culture

The relationships between aesthetics, usability and credibility have been widely investigated in human-computer interaction (HCI). However, in the mobile domain, limited empirical evidence exists showing the interplay among these three constructs and the role culture plays. To address this, we carried out a survey on four systematically designed mobile websites among 233 subjects from Canada and Nigeria, which belong to low- and high-context cultures respectively. Using path modeling, we investigated the relationships among the perceptions of these three HCI constructs and the possible differences that exist between the two cultures. Our results show: 1) it is the perception of aesthetics that predominantly drives the judgment of mobile web credibility at the global and subgroup levels, with the effect size being greater for the Canadian group than for the Nigerian group; 2) the direct effect of aesthetics on usability is moderated by culture, with the magnitude being stronger for the Nigerian group than for the Canadian group; and 3) our models explain 29-83% of the variance of credibility.

The Influence of Culture in the Effect of Age and Gender on Social Influence in Persuasive Technology

Research has shown that social influence can be used to effect behavior change. However, research on the role culture plays in the effect of age and gender on social influence in persuasive technology is scarce. To address this, we investigate the effect of age and gender on the susceptibility of individuals to Competition, Reward, Social Comparison and Social Learning in individualist and collectivist cultures, using a sample of 360 participants from North America, Africa and Asia. Our results reveal that there are more significant differences between males and females and between younger and older people in collectivist cultures than individualist cultures. In individualist culture, we found that males and females differ with respect to Competition only, with males being more susceptible. However, in collectivist culture, we found males differ from females with respect to Reward and Competition, with males being more susceptible, while younger people differ from older people with respect to Competition, Social Comparison and Social Learning, with younger people be more susceptible. Our findings provide designers of gamified persuasive applications with empirical insights for tailoring to the different cultures based on age and gender

What Drives Perceived Usability in Mobile Web Design: Classical or Expressive Aesthetics?

Research has shown that the perceived usability of a web artifact is influenced by its perceived aesthetics: a high-order construct composed of two lower-order dimensions (classical aesthetics and expressive aesthetics). However, in the mobile domain, where usability is very important in human-computer interaction (HCI) given the relatively small screen size of the mobile device, limited research has investigated: (1) which of the two dimensions of visual aesthetics is the stronger predictor of the perceived usability of a website; (2) how the classical dimension impacts the expressive dimension; and (3) how culture moderates the relationships among the three HCI design constructs. To address these questions, we conducted a study of the perceptions of four systematically manipulated mobile websites and modeled the relationships between perceived usability and the two dimensions of perceived aesthetics. Based on a sample of 233 participants (87 Canadians and 146 Nigerians), our models account for 30% to 80% of the variance of perceived usability. They show that classical aesthetics is stronger than expressive aesthetics in predicting the perceived usability of a mobile website, irrespective of the level of aesthetic treatment of the user interface and culture, with the effect size being larger for the Nigerian group than for the Canadian group. Moreover, the models reveal that classical aesthetics strongly influences expressive aesthetics. Our results suggest that what is classical is expressively beautiful and usable. The significance of our findings is that in mobile web, there is need for designers to pay closer attention to classical aesthetics given the strong influence it has on perceived usability.

Responsiveness to Persuasive Strategies at the Workplace: A Case Study

Persuasive technology capitalizes on the use of technology and the art of persuasion to change the behaviors and attitudes of people without the use of coercion. They have been used at workplaces to achieve positive outcomes like increase in employee motivation, engagement and productivity. While a number of researchers have investigated the effectiveness of Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, little or no research has been conducted in the context of work environments. In many workplaces, it is important that employees provide detailed records of their activities for easy tracking of an organization’s day-to-day activities and future historical reference. However, research has shown that some employees find it difficult to comply. In an attempt to address this problem, we carried out a pilot study among 20 healthcare Applied Behavior Analysis(ABA) frontline employees, working with autistic patients. The study is aimed at investigating how effective Cialdini’s principles of persuasion are in motivating employees to record details about the sessions they have with patients. A Two-Way Mixed ANOVA analysis showed that ABA frontline employees are most susceptible to Commitment and Reciprocity, followed by Authority, and least susceptible to Consensus and Scarcity. These results suggest that designers of gamified persuasive systems tailored to healthcare ABA frontline staff should focus on implementing Commitment, Reciprocity and Authority as persuasive strategies aimed at motivating them in engaging in sufficient and quality data entry.

The Influence of Personality on Mobile Web Credibility

Research has shown that the perceived credibility of a website is critical to its success. However, little is known about how individual differences influence this important factor of web design. In this paper, we investigate how personality traits affect the perceived credibility of a website in the mobile domain. Using a sample of 323 participants, we developed a model showing how the Big Five personality traits influence the perceived credibility of a website through its perceived aesthetics and perceived usability. Our model reveals that Agreeableness is the strongest predictor of aesthetics and/or usability, followed by Conscientiousness. This suggests that the more agreeable and/or the more conscientious users are easily more satisfied aesthetically and usability-wise by a mobile websites than the less agreeable and/or the less conscientious users respectively. Consequently, designers of mobile sites may have to do more in user interface design in order to attract the less agreeable and/or the less conscientious users to their sites based on its hedonic (aesthetics-inspired) and utilitarian (usability-inspired) appeal.

Susceptibility to Persuasive Strategies: A Comparative Analysis of Nigerians vs. Canadians

Personalizing persuasive technologies (PTs) is one of the hallmarks of a successful PT intervention. However, there is a lack of understanding of how Africans and North Americans differ or are similar in the susceptibility to persuasive strategies. To bridge this gap, we conducted a cross-cultural study among 284 subjects to investigate the moderating effect of culture on the susceptibility of users to Cialdinis principles of persuasion. Specifically, using Nigeria and Canada as a case study, we investigated how both groups vary in their levels of susceptibility to Authority, Commitment, Consensus, Liking, Reciprocity and Scarcity. The results of our analysis show that Nigerians are more susceptible to Authority and Scarcity than Canadians, while Canadians are more susceptible to Reciprocity, Liking and Consensus than Nigerians. However, both groups do not differ with respect to Commitment (the most persuasive strategy). Finally, we discussed our findings and mapped the most persuasive Cialdinis principles in each group to implementable persuasive strategies in the PT domain.

Personalizing Persuasive Technologies: Do Gender and Age Affect Susceptibility to Persuasive Strategies?

Personalizing Persuasive Technologies (PTs) increase their effectiveness at motivating desired behavioral change. However, most existing efforts towards personalizing PTs and developing personalization models were focused on people from the western countries. In this work, we focused on African audience to investigate how individuals responsiveness to three persuasive strategies (Reward, Social Learning, and Social Comparison) varies by Gender and Age group via a large-scale study of 712 participants. The results of a RM-ANOVA show significant differences in responsiveness to the strategies across the gender and age groups. Females are more responsive to the Reward and Social Learning strategies while males are more responsive to the social comparison strategy. People who are under 25 years are more likely to be persuaded by the Reward and social Learning than participants above 35 years who are more responsive to the Social Comparison strategy. The results will inform PT designers on the appropriate strategy to employ to personalize PTs to individual users based on their Age and Gender.

The Effect of Gender and Age on the Factors That Influence Healthy Shopping Habits in E-Commerce

People typically eat what they shop for; if consumers shop for healthy foods, they will likely eat healthy foods. In order to influence healthier eating habits among consumers, it is important to identify the factors that influence them to shop for healthy foods. To contribute to ongoing research in this area, we explore the influence of commonly used e-commerce strategies: personality, persuasive strategies, social support, relative price, and perceived product quality on healthy shopping habits among e-commerce shoppers. Research has shown that personalizing these strategies makes them more effective in achieving the desired behavior change among users. Age and gender have been identified as factors that can be used for group-based personalization. We thus investigate the moderating effect of age and gender on the factors that influence healthy shopping habits in e-commerce shoppers. To achieve this, we carried out an online study of 244 e-commerce shoppers. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we developed a path model using the commonly used e-commerce factors: personality, persuasive strategies, social support, relative price, and perceived product quality. The result of our analysis suggests that social support, relative price and perceived product quality significantly influence healthy shopping habits in e-commerce shoppers. In addition, females are more influenced by social support to adopt healthy shopping habits compared to male e-shoppers. Furthermore, older shoppers are more influenced by social support to adopt healthy shopping habits, while the younger shoppers are more influenced by the relative price of products.

Personality Based Recipe Recommendation Using Recipe Network Graphs

There is usually a vast amount of information that people have to sift through when searching for recipes online. In addition to looking at the ingredient list, people tend to read the reviews of recipes to decide if it is appealing to them based on the feedback of others who have prepared the recipe, with some recipes having hundreds of reviews. Several researchers have proposed recipe-based recommendation systems using details such as the nutritional information of the recipe, however, such recommendations are not personalized to the characteristics of the user. To contribute to research in this area, we propose a personalized recommendation system that makes suggestions to users based on their personality. People of the same personality tend to have many similarities, and personality is a predictor of behavior, we thus propose that the use of personality types could make recommendations more personalized. In this paper, we present the result of a preliminary investigation into the use of the personality of reviewers of recipes and a recipe-based network graph in recommending recipes to users.