Abstract
Many artifacts are designed with the purpose of intervening in human behaviour and influencing decisions. However, their persuasive effect can depend on the users and circumstances. Our study focuses on personal and situational factors in people’s decision-making under technology-mediated social influence, or “mediated influence.” We displayed the information of the majority decisions to provide references when participants performed tasks. The statistical results show that people were affected by the mediated influence, which accelerates the process of consensus formation among community members. However, those scoring low on susceptibility to social influence (SSI) generally regarded the references as impeding their decision-making, except during uncertain situations. Contrarily, people scoring high on SSI had a better experience when the references were present, and found the references useful unless they were highly confident about their decisions. Our study shows that the interplay between personal and situational factors is critical to how design interventions are received in a decision system. It also provides insights into generating positive experiences, avoid futile interventions, and influence decision-making effectively in a sociotechnical system.
Keywords
persuasive design, social influence, decision-making, personality traits, mediated influence
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.125
Citation
Liu, M.,and Liu, T.(2023) Design Interventions are not Received Equally: SSI and Mediated Influences in Decision-Making, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.125
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Design Interventions are not Received Equally: SSI and Mediated Influences in Decision-Making
Many artifacts are designed with the purpose of intervening in human behaviour and influencing decisions. However, their persuasive effect can depend on the users and circumstances. Our study focuses on personal and situational factors in people’s decision-making under technology-mediated social influence, or “mediated influence.” We displayed the information of the majority decisions to provide references when participants performed tasks. The statistical results show that people were affected by the mediated influence, which accelerates the process of consensus formation among community members. However, those scoring low on susceptibility to social influence (SSI) generally regarded the references as impeding their decision-making, except during uncertain situations. Contrarily, people scoring high on SSI had a better experience when the references were present, and found the references useful unless they were highly confident about their decisions. Our study shows that the interplay between personal and situational factors is critical to how design interventions are received in a decision system. It also provides insights into generating positive experiences, avoid futile interventions, and influence decision-making effectively in a sociotechnical system.