Implications of different feedback types on error perception and psychological reactance

Abstract

In Human Computer Interaction, appropriate feedback is especially important when an error occurs. This work compares implications for user's psychological reactance and acceptance of two different types of error and their representations through feedback. Reactance and acceptance levels were measured after presenting feedback that allows a conclusion on the cause of an occurred error and feedback that fails to do so. It was found that reactance levels were significantly higher and acceptance levels significantly lower in the latter case. Suggestions for appropriate system design are discussed.

Causes of Psychological Reactance in Human-Computer Interaction

“…Not surprisingly, Ehrenbrink et al found that reactance was higher if the system made errors, compared to when the system did not make errors [5]. What they also found was that errors that were accompanied by adequate feedback, hinting at the error source, produced less reactance in the participants than errors that were accompanied by feedback, not hinting at the error source [5].…”

“…A similar, but probably not that extreme reaction can also occur in other parts of humancomputer interaction. The phenomenon of reactance has been described in human-computer interaction literature several times [4][5][6][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], but so far there is no general overview on how and when reactance usually takes place in HCI. This is even though reactance can have severe consequences on user acceptance, up to the complete inversion of the desired effect, Figure 1: Screenshot of a video that went viral in 2006 [9] which has already been demonstrated for persuasive health campaigns [3].…”

“…This is even though reactance can have severe consequences on user acceptance, up to the complete inversion of the desired effect, Figure 1: Screenshot of a video that went viral in 2006 [9] which has already been demonstrated for persuasive health campaigns [3]. For HCI, at least a diminished acceptability has been shown to correlate with reactance [5]. In this work, a summary of the appearances of reactance in human-computer interaction research and an overview of the identified causes of reactance is provided.…”

Development of a reactance scale for human–computer interaction

“…According to the number of citations, the refined version of HPRS is the most widely used or discussed scale for assessing trait reactance. 1 In recent years, the development of measurement tools has focused on state reactance. Several measurement techniques have been introduced in the literature.…”

“…Reactance is an affective and motivational state of the user. It might result in an unwanted decline of acceptability of a product [1] or less compliance [2]. This work describes the development and introduces a questionnaire that can measure levels of a user's psychological reactance.…”