The Influence of Personality on Code Reuse

Abstract

The ubiquity and necessity of computer software requires programmers to reuse extant code to keep up with increasing software demands. Researchers have started to investigate the underlying psychological processes and the programmer characteristics affecting code reuse. The present study investigated the role of programmer personality (propensity to trust, suspicion propensity) on willingness to reuse code. Programmers were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Programmers completed propensity to trust and suspicion personality inventories and were subsequently presented with 18 pieces of computer code containing transparency and reputation manipulations. The results demonstrated that propensity to trust did not influence willingness to reuse code. However, facets of suspicion propensity did affect reuse willingness. Programmers lower in trait mal-intent perceptions and higher in cognitive activity were more likely to report they would reuse code. Implications and applications are discussed.

Exploring the Unique and Shared Variance of Propensity to Trust and Suspicion Propensity

“…They found that propensity to trust was a significant predictor of betting behaviors when participants bet a small wager amount, but not medium or large wagers. Other research showed that trait trust was predictive of behaviors in the Investment Game (Evans & Revelle, 2008) and that trait suspicion was predictive of software reuse (Ryan et al, 2019). As people high in suspicion propensity suspend their judgment, they may also continue to process information in the betting context leading to betting behaviors only when they have reached a threshold of certainty.…”

“…Other research considered the influence of suspicion propensity on behaviors. Ryan and colleagues (2019) demonstrated suspicion propensity predicted software reuse. Computer programmers were asked whether they would reuse code that had been manipulated in terms of readability, organization, and reputation.…”

Trust Perceptions of Metadata in Open-Source Software: The Role of Performance and Reputation

“…Indeed, in the interpersonal trust literature, the antecedents to trust a referent vary depending on the amount of time and experience a trustor has with a referent [5,25]. In addition, research on trust in code has found that user personality has an impact on perceptions of and trust in computer code [20,26]. Future research would benefit from investigating the interplay of user characteristics and code manipulations on trust in code before and after testing the claims of metadata.…”