What can social psychology teach us

about (better) UX research?

Jessica Cameron, PhD@jessscameron

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3apadivision45conference.com

4prisonexp.org

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Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts,

feelings, and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined,

or implied presence of others

6(Iyengar & Lepper, 2000)

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“HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. You can show your respect for nature and help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay.”

“JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. Almost 75% of guests who are asked to participate in our new resource savings program do help by using their towels more than once. You can join your fellow guests in this program to help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay.”

(Goldstein, Cialdini & Griskivecius, 2008)

26%

Social proof

Scarcity

Reciprocity

Social proofScarcity

How can social psychology help us craft more effective

user testing sessions?

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Social psychology research requires:1. Neutral environments

2. Scripted interactions

3. Clear hypotheses

4. Random assignment to condition

huffingtonpost.com

The environmentNeutral yet comfortable

stanforddaily.com, confirmit.com

The interactionEvery word matters

18simplypsychology.org

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1. Please continue.2. The experiment requires you to continue.3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.4. You have no other choice but to continue.

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The hypothesisCool effects are not enough

The participantsRepresentative versus random

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duke.edu

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1. Does your test lab make all of your participants comfortable?

2. What purpose is your banter serving?

3. What purpose is your research serving?

4. Do your participants really represent your users?

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How can social psychology help us

understand what users have to say?

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How reliable are participants’ comments?a – not veryb – not at allc – it dependsd – all of the above

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There is a mismatch between what people say and what

they do

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“When asked directly about a possible effect of the position of the article, virtually all subjects denied it, usually with a worried glance at the interviewer suggesting that they felt either that they had misunderstood the question or were dealing with a madman.”

(Nisbett & Wilson, 1977)

How can you get more value out of what participants say?

1. Reduce participants’ biases

2. Reduce your own biases

Ask questions that minimise bias

1. Framing effect

2. Anchoring and adjustment

3. Dunning-Kruger effect

4. Fundamental attribution error

Framing effectHow you ask the question matters

1. How easy did you find that website to use?

2. How satisfied are you with the amount of information that you found?

3. How likely are you to recommend this website?

4. How amazing is this presentation?

1. How easy or difficult did you find that website to use?

2. How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the amount of information that you found?

3. How likely or unlikely are you to recommend this website?

4. How amazing is this presentation?

Can we do better?

1. Tell me about what you found easy. Now tell me about what you found more difficult.

2. Did you feel like the information you read answered your question?

3. What would you tell a friend about this website?

Anchoring effectBiases can multiply

1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8

8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1

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Dunning-Kruger effectYou don’t know what you don’t

know

(Kruger & Dunning, 1999)

Fundamental attribution error

It might be your fault

1. Is it the person or the situation?

2. Are you the situation?

Thank you!Jessica Cameron@jessscameron