In Do women and extroverts perceive interactivity differently than men and introverts? Role of individual differences in responses to HCI vs. CMC interactivity, Yan Huang, S. Shyam Sundar, Zhiyao Ye, and Ariel Celeste Johnson conduct a research study to find out whether some people are drawn toward human-computer interaction (HCI) or computer-mediated communication (CMC) by examining whether extroverts and females are more likely to favor CMC and if introverts and males feel more psychological connection when they interact with a system (HCI) because they may not be comfortable interacting with other users. To summarize, in their work, they show a number of results: interactivity with CMC tools leads to a greater psychological perception of interactivity than it does with HCI tools, extraversion positively predicts website attitudes for both interactivity types individually, but negatively predicts website attitudes when the website uses both together, there’s a three-way interaction between interactivity, extraversion, and gender on perceived interactivity– revealing that extraversion helps males perceive more interactivity in HCI tools while it helps females perceive more in CMC tools.

In terms of extroversion and gender, these parameters were chosen based on previous research showing that females are more oriented toward interpersonal relationships in an interaction, whereas males focus more on the task itself. Studies have shown that females are more positively affected than males if the interaction in a virtual environment is a human vs. a computer agent. On the other hand, researchers found that males spend more time on features that support HCI than females. 

To test their hypotheses, these researchers conducted their experiment in a computer lab with 99 participants (primarily college students), ranging in ages from 18 to 28. Those participating received college credit. Four conditions were set in place: Interactivity with HCI tools vs. CMC tools vs. HCI + CMC tools vs. Control. Participants were randomly assigned to one of these conditions, browsing a stimulus site for at least 3 minutes, imagining they were going to choose a movie to watch from a site similar to IMDb. Afterwards, participants completed a questionnaire measuring variables of interest.

I found this research to be very interesting. Based on previous readings along with this one, perceived interactivity is vital when it comes to the technology we use. I don’t believe that everyone uses technology or reacts to it in the same ways, but I think that studies like this offer insight into those that are more likely to enjoy certain types of interactivity than others. However, I do have some gripes when it comes to how this research was conducted. I’m not sure how accurate its findings are due to its sample. As mentioned before, the sample consisted primarily of college students. Would the results have been different if the sample was larger and more representative of the entire population?