Do Recommender Systems Manipulate Consumer Preferences? A Study of Anchoring Effects

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Adomavicius, Gediminas; Bockstedt, Jesse C.; Curley, Shawn P.; Zhang, Jingjing
• 署名单位: University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of Arizona; Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; IU Kelley School of Business
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2013.0497
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 956-975
• 关键词: uncertainty; interfaces; judgments; trust

摘要

Recommender systems are becoming a salient part of many e-commerce websites. Much research has focused on advancing recommendation technologies to improve accuracy of predictions, although behavioral aspects of using recommender systems are often overlooked. In our studies, we explore how consumer preferences at the time of consumption are impacted by predictions generated by recommender systems. We conducted three controlled laboratory experiments to explore the effects of system recommendations on preferences. Studies 1 and 2 investigated user preferences for television programs across a variety of conditions, which were surveyed immediately following program viewing. Study 3 investigated the granularity of the observed effects within individual participants. Results provide strong evidence that the rating presented by a recommender system serves as an anchor for the consumer's constructed preference. Viewers' preference ratings are malleable and can be significantly influenced by the recommendation received. The effect is sensitive to the perceived reliability of a recommender system and, thus, not a purely numerical or priming-based effect. Finally, the effect of anchoring is continuous and linear, operating over a range of perturbations of the system. These general findings have a number of important implications (e.g., on recommender systems performance metrics and design, preference bias, potential strategic behavior, and trust), which are discussed.