Effects of Web Atmospheric Cues on Users’ Emotional Responses in E-Commerce

AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 4 Issue 1 Article 1 Spring 3-27-2012 Effects of Web Atmospheric Cues on Users’ Emotional Responses in E-Commerce Hong Sheng Missouri University of Science and Technology, Tanvi Joginapelly Missouri University of Science and Technology, Follow this and additional works at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/thci Recommended Citation Sheng, H., & Joginapelly, T. (2012). Effects of Web Atmospheric Cues on Users’ Emotional Responses in ECommerce. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 4(1), 1-24. Retrieved from https://aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol4/iss1/1 DOI: This material is brought to you by the AIS Journals at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been accepted for inclusion in AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact . Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction THCI Original Research Effects of Web Atmospheric Cues on Users’ Emotional Responses in E-Commerce Hong Sheng Missouri University of Science and Technology Tanvi Joginapelly Missouri University of Science and Technology Abstract The internet has become part of everyday life and revolutionized the shopping experience. Consumers’ emotional responses play an important role in predicting and measuring behavioral intentions and satisfaction; therefore, it is imperative to study ecommerce from an affective perspective. This research adopted the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model to examine the effects of web atmospheric cues, mainly vividness and interactivity, on users’ emotional responses in e-commerce, and the influence of users’ emotional responses on their purchasing intentions. This research involved three stages: a pretest, an experimental study, and an online survey. First, recruited experts in humancomputer interaction (HCI) evaluated 25 different e-commerce websites on interactivity and vividness. These ratings informed the selection of three websites to represent various levels of atmospheric cues: high interactivity and vividness, medium interactivity and vividness, and low interactivity and vividness. In the second stage, an experiment was conducted to collect the physiological responses of 20 participants, including galvanic skin response, heart rate variability, and pupil dilation, as they viewed each of the three e-commerce websites; participants’ self-reported emotional responses were also recorded. Finally, an online survey collected data on the emotional responses and purchase intentions of 53 participants after viewing the three e-commerce websites. The results of the experimental study indicate that web atmospheric cues such as vividness and interactivity had significant positive effects on users’ valence and arousal rates. Furthermore, users experiencing higher arousal and more positive valence rates reported higher intentions to purchase from the e-commerce website. Analysis of the physiological data showed that users’ heart rate variability exhibited a trend similar to that of their self-reported valance rate, but no such trend was observed for self-reported arousal rates, galvanic skin response, or pupil dilation values. This paper not only extends the S-O-R paradigm in the e-commerce context and provides empirical evidence for the model, but also applies Russel’s (1980) emotional model to understand the users’ emotional responses to e-commerce websites. The physiological measures employed in this study are examples of new usability evaluation tools for determining complex affective measures in HCI. Keywords: E-commerce, emotions, physiological measures, atmospheric cues, valence-arousal Susan Wiedenbeck was the accepting Senior Editor. This article was submitted on 7/1/2010 and accepted on 1/3/2012. It was with the authors 420 days for 3 revisions. Sheng, H. and T. Joginapelly (2012) “Effects of Web Atmospheric Cues on Users’ Emotional Responses in E-Commerce,” AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (4) 1, pp.1-24. Volume 4 ■ Issue 1 ■ March 2012 Effects of Web Atmospheric Cues on Users’ Emotional Responses Sheng and Joginapelly INTRODUCTION Today, more and more consumers are using e-commerce and virtual stores to purchase products and virtual services (Jones et al., 2008). Although consumers’ purchase intentions and shopping decisions are highly cognitive, they are also emotional and influenced by factors such as e-commerce web interface and its design features (Jones et al., 2008; Kim et al., 2009). In fact, Donald A. Norman, in his book titled “Emotional Design: Why We Love (or hate) Everyday Things,” argues that the success of a product depends more on the emotional impact of the design than on its practical elements. A well designed interface tends to induce positive feelings, expand the user’s creative process, and make decisions easier. On the other hand, a badly designed and unappealing interface induces negative emotions, which in turn inhibit the user’s thought process (Norman, 2004). Because consumers’ emotional responses play an important role in predicting and measuring behavioral intentions and satisfaction, it is imperative to study ecommerce from the affective perspective and examine the website design features that influence consumers’ emotional responses (Kim et al., 2009). Store atmosphere has long been recognized as an important factor influencing consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, and emotions while shopping (Kotler, 1973). According to Kotler (1973), atmosphere refers to the conscious design of the shopping environment to induce certain emotions among consumers and increase the chance that they will buy. A store atmosphere is determined by various factors such as its image, theatrics, and atmospherics (i.e., physical attributes such as lighting, music and brightness) (Vrechopoulos and Siomkos, 2007). Similar to the effect of atmospherics on consumer shopping behavior in a physical environment, web atmospheric cues (sometimes called a website’s ‘look and feel’) also affect consumers’ emotional and cognitive states, thereby influencing their purchase intentions (Kim et al., 2009). Among these cues, interactivity and vividness have been identified as key features of e-commerce websites, influencing consumers’ cognitive and emotional responses (Coyle and Thorson, 2001; Steuer, 1992). Over the years, researchers have studied extensively the cognitive aspects of consumer behaviors in e-commerce, but little has been done to address the emotional aspects of e-commerce from a consumer perspective (Jones et al., 2008). Most of the literature has focused on providing cognitively convenient web page features, such as sequential menus and layout (Hochheiser and Shneiderman, 2000). As web users grow accustomed to these basic cognitive functions (Picard and Andrew, 1998), it becomes increasingly important for e-commerce stores to provide (...truncated)