Psychster

Psychster Presents Our Latest White Paper Examining Online Video Production Values

By Nick on March 31, 2010 1:53 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Hot on the heels of our recent study of social media ad types, Psychster is pleased to present our latest publication: Are Highly-Produced Online Videos Watched Longer Than Simple Videos in Business Contexts?

The paper, a collaboration with AllRecipes, examines the impact of production value upon individuals' willingness to view them. Do higher production values result in increased viewership? The answer to this question is key to minimizing the expense of producing online videos, while maximizing their effectiveness.

Some of our findings from the study:

 Highly-produced videos were watched 30%-50% longer than simple videos, a significant increase.

 A point of limited returns was reached where additional production elements did not result in longer viewing times.

 Highly-produced videos were more likely to be recommended to others than simple videos, except when a professional script was paired with a simple production.

 Subjective ratings of the likability of the videos were generally high and not strongly related to how long the videos were watched.

Before you produce your company's video content, read our newest white paper and see why clients come to Psychster who don't want to waste their resources on experimentation - and who know research can help predict success and avoid costly blind alleys.

Buzz: Media Reports on Our New White Paper

By Nick on March 30, 2010 11:04 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Psychster is back in the news - this time, for our recently-published white paper on social media advertising types.

The study, co-authored with AllRecipes, looks at seven different types of social media advertising and gauges their efficacy. Some of the findings from our study currently highlighted on Mashable, MediaPost, MarketingPilgrim, iMedia Connection, Econsultancy, Bluhalo, Inc. and numerous other online publications:

Sponsored content provides the most user interaction and is the least likely to be perceived as advertising; however, it also triggered the lowest level of purchase intent and the fewest viral recommendations.
Corporate profiles are effective, but become more effective when users can become a fan of the profile and add a logo to their own page.
Regardless of format, the most effective advertisements are those most relevant to the content on the publisher's website (i.e. a soup advertisement on a cooking website).
Of the seven advertising types, banner ads and newsletter links are the most successful at encouraging purchase intent.

Find out for yourself what the news is about - read our latest white paper and see why Psychster is a pioneer in exploring the psychology of social media!

Making Sense of Danger: Why Best Practices in Digital Strategy are Hazier than Ever

By Nick on March 11, 2010 2:05 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Professionals in every field are acknowledging that a strong online presence is more necessary than ever. However, when can this presence actually hurt your cause?

Clinical therapist Lisa Brooks Kift has wrestled with this concept repeatedly on the World of Psychology blog. "Some of us [therapists] have websites (with pictures...), some of us list ourselves in directories (again, with pictures), some of us use social networking platforms and some of us are writing and blogging." Professionals in this field - one that only a generation ago would have considered it unforgivably gauche to advertise, let alone advertise with photos - are starting to see that online visibility and presence can further their professional aims. "However," asserts Kift, "the change in landscape has not occurred without controversy around issues of personal disclosure, therapist-client boundaries and the 'digital footprint' left online, which cannot easily be removed."

Even in fields more straightforward than clinical psychology, professionals struggle to have a lucid digital strategy that aligns with the way people actually use the modern social media-oriented Internet. News organization Reuters, in the new edition of their reporter handbook, delineates strong restrictions upon their reporters' usage of social media, going as far as to prohibit any sort of indications of personal bias. On the other hand, news organizations like the BBC are mandating that their reporters must have a social media presence, and encourage "collaborative work" on their stories. Part of the BBC writers' "assignment" now includes "aggregating and curating content with attribution" - effectively making personal social media presence an extension of the news bureau itself. Both approaches have come under fire - but which strategy is advantageous?

The considerations for online presence management are less straightforward than ever before - and many companies with solid content are failing to get the expected returns on their digital strategy budget, or in the case of the aforementioned therapists accidentally going against their own best interests. This is precisely why our research, such as our our latest white paper Comparing User Engagement across Seven Interactive and Social-Media Ad Types, is critical for companies and professionals looking to align their online engagement with human nature. Psychster's innovative and groundbreaking research offerings are changing the way many companies approach social media strategy - and companies that want to stay on top of the game are taking notice.

Texting: Teenage Phase or Communications Craze?

By Nick on February 24, 2010 3:34 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Will today's teens always be texting fiends? New research indicates that teen texting habits may be a symptom of the times and not the generation itself.

As a recent Pew Research Group study describes, "[Today's teens] are history's first 'always-connected' generation. Steeped in digital technology and social media, they treat their multi-tasking hand-held gadgets almost like a body part." These authors further note that "it's not just their gadgets -- it's the way they've fused their social lives into them." It has long been apparent that teens seem to have a special affinity for making use of the now ubiquitous and widely-accepted form of communication known as "text messaging" (SMS). However, will the frenetic pace with which teens and young adults fire off these acronym-laced messages persist into adulthood?

Researchers in Norway recently published a study addressing this very question. Specifically, they examined whether text messaging is a "life phase" phenomenon (something that is adopted and used by a group only during a specific portion of their lives), or a "cohort" phenomenon (something adopted by a group who then carries it with them as they mature).

After surveying teenagers and adults alike, the researchers found that, indeed, the greatest use of texting was among those in their late teens/early 20s, especially around age 19 to 21. However, the study also revealed that frequency of texting decreases as teens mature and move into adulthood.

These findings support the notion that, while texting may serve as a central medium of social communication among adolescents, it becomes less of a "driving force" with increased age. Why might this be case? One explanation offered by the researchers is that "texting gives teens direct access to peers in a period of life when they are developing their social self and establishing their personal identity." More specifically, the researchers suggest that "there is urgency to text and to respond to texts among teens as they work out their social status among peers...they are engaged in the establishment of a social sphere outside the homes of their parents and in their nascent romantic adventures." In contrast, those in their mid-20s and beyond use text messaging for more practical endeavors (such as conveying important information), and may even find sending and responding to text messages burdensome. Thus, as individuals move into later phases of their lives, they may change not only the frequency but also their style of texting. That is, there may be a shift in usage from "texting-as-socializing" to a means of accomplishing practical tasks (e.g., reminding one's forgetful spouse to pick up the kids from school).

While mobile service providers hoping to see sustained increases in text messaging across time and age might grumble at these findings, perhaps concerned parents can take solace in the notion that their "antisocial" teenage children will eventually return to more traditional forms of interpersonal interaction.

-- Eden Epstein, PhD. and Nick Mattos

Social Media: "More Entertaining than Entertainment Itself" for Mobile Phone Users

By Nick on February 17, 2010 12:43 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

People are people, whether online or off. However, with the advent of smart phones, the line defining the two states has never been more blurry.

As per January analytics of released by Flurry, social networking apps were used most frequently by iPhone and Android users - about 20 times per month at average. News applications came in at a distant second, at almost half the usage of social media. Games were even farther behind, at about a quarter of the social media usage. Overall, the frequency of which we use entertainment, games, and lifestyle apps - in sum! - doesn't rival the usage of social media applications on smart phones.

Mashable phrases it perfectly: "These findings... confirm that social media has become integrated into our lives, so much so that we're using our smartphones to stay connected while we're away from our computers. In fact, social media has become more entertaining than entertainment itself."

While we're not quite at the point of Singularity, the stunning fact that can be extrapolated from this data is that there no longer exists a clear distinction between being "connected" and "disconnected." Social media must be aligned with human nature - if it wasn't, it wouldn't be the smashing success that the data indicates.

Introducing the Newest Psychster: Eden Epstein, PhD.

By Nick on February 9, 2010 1:02 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

We are very pleased to introduce you to the newest Psychster - Eden Epstein, PhD!

An alumna of the University of California, Irvine, Eden previously utilized her PhD. in health and social sciences before making the move to social psychology. However, don't call her Dr. Epstein - "That's my dad!" she says. "I mean, I'm proud, but I don't need everyone to know. I'm just Eden!"

A Portland resident, Eden enjoys hiking, concerts, and that most Pacific Northwestern of gastronomic delights - coffee. "I'm learning to make my own lattes, and I haven't quite figured out how to get it. There's a really big distinction between froth and foam! My goal of learning how to make lattes is conflicting with my goal of cutting out caffeine!" Even with the discomfort of caffeine withdrawal, this PhD psychologist stays tough. "Pain is inevitable," Eden explains. "Suffering is not."

Eden will be working extensively on usability testing, our numerous academic studies, and behind-the-scenes work for YouJustGetMe. The Psychster offices in Portland and Seattle are very happy to have her on board!

Urgent Crowdsourcing: Ushahidi and Social Media In Times of Crisis

By Nick on January 21, 2010 3:45 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Crowdsourcing, or taking tasks like reporting and journalism usually performed by one designated person and outsourcing the task to the public, has become a major facet of the political media landscape. A great example of this effect was Iran's Twitter Revolution, in which Iranian citizens reported updates about violence following an election and kept the world informed about the view from the street. However, crowdsourcing has limits - language and web accessibility being two major factors that can prevent information from being disseminated efficiently or comprehensively. However, a new open-source project is looking to circumvent these limitations, and is changing the way that the world looks at the potential of social media.

Ushahidi is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. The central goal of the platform is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. "[The Ushahidi Engine is] extraordinarily impactful because 1) it visually translates data into a cognitively efficient communication form and 2) it's interactive in both directions-you can get information and you can post new," explains Dr. Pamela Rutledge at the Media Psychology Blog.

Ushahidi, which means "testimony" in Swahili, was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi's roots are in the collaboration of citizen journalists during a time of crisis. The website was used to map incidents of violence & peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web & mobile phone. After an initial boom of 45,000 users signing on in Kenya, the developers of Ushahidi realized that there was a dire need for a platform based on it which could be used in other disaster scenarios around the world.

"Our goal is to create a platform that any person or organization can use to set up their own way to collect & visualize information," explains the Ushahidi website. "The core platform will allow for plug-in & extensions so that it can be customized for different locales & needs. The beta version platform is now available as an open source application that others can download for free, implement & use to bring awareness to crisis situations or other events in their own locales... Organizations can also use the tool for internal monitoring or visualization purposes."

Usahidi is open-source and non-profit - if you're moved or inspired by their work, please consider supporting them with a monetary gift or by volunteering to help develop the engine.

This blog post originally ran on the YouJustGetMe Blog.

The Interpersonal Nature of Blogs: A Dispatch from Psychster Labs

By Nick on January 20, 2010 4:21 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

In many offices, Fridays are casual day. However, for Psychster's offices in Seattle and Portland - and for people nationwide interested in the ways that people behave online and off - Fridays mark a much more exciting occasion than just getting to wear jeans. The occasion is the weekly Psychster Labs call - a think tank of researchers, social media gurus, and others who understand that people are people whether online or off.

In our last call, we pored over the 2007 special issue of Journal of Computer Mediated Communication together. Although some things have changed in the three years since the special issue was released, it's actually an added intrigue to mark time by reading these articles as well as examining their still-relevant lessons. A great example of this effect came from our study and discussion of Writing for Friends and Family: The Interpersonal Nature of Blogs by Michael Stefanone (University of Buffalo) and Chyng-Yang Jang (University of Texas, Arlington).

In the past, the only people who got to widely broadcast information about their lives were celebrities - after all, going on the Johnny Carson show is a pretty fantastic means of disclosing things about yourself to a wide network of people. However, with the broad-based communication tools of social media available to virtually everyone, is Perez Hilton correct in asserting to YouJustGetMe's own Nick Mattos that in the modern setting everyone will be "famous" to fifteen people?

In their study, Stefanone and Jang took a hard look at personal bloggers - folks who maintain an online presence analogous to an offline diary on a site like LiveJournal or Blogger. This study was conducted in 2007 - right about the time that the social networking savvy were switching from personal blogs to things like Friendster, Myspace, and Facebook. Jang and Stefanone set out to discover what personality traits personal bloggers possessed, and what sort of effect the blog had on the offline social networks of the bloggers themselves.

Before talking about the research findings, it's worth it to define a central concept of the study. Social scientists often talk about people's "ego-centric networks" - an academic term for the cloud of friends and acquaintances that you know which, if diagrammed, would have you at the center and lines connecting you to other people in your life. Some of these ties are more tenuous, or "weak" - for example, a friend you only talk to occasionally, or don't reveal much about yourself to. Other ties are "strong" - you both know a lot about one another, and feel a sense of intimacy with each other. Strong ties, or close relationships, are quite "costly" - they involve a great deal of time, involvement, and risk to develop. You have to expend yourself significantly more to cultivate these relationships!

Returning to Jang and Stefanone - the researchers identified, fairly unsuprisingly, that folks who maintained personal blogs had personalities with high levels of extraversion and high levels of self-disclosure. However, somewhat less logically, the bloggers were significantly "closer" to larger groups of friends. The bloggers were actually using a very "cost-effective" means of disclosing information about themselves to strong-tie ego-centric networks - in other words, they were actually deepening their existing friendships!

This has a fascinating implication: in this era, people who are both extraverted and who possess a high level of self-disclosure in their personalities now have access to "cost-saving" tools that enable them to develop and maintain more close friendships than the average person would have in the past. In other words, the average person's circle of friends can be bigger than the average person's circle even twenty years ago!

Hopefully, this gives you an idea of the exciting topics and stimulating discussion that occur every Friday as part of Psychster Labs. Interested in joining us on the frontier of technology and the social sciences? Apply to participate in our weekly Psychster Labs calls!

Psychster Labs

By David on July 26, 2009 5:21 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Psychster Inc. is inviting folks to join a weekly call to a) discuss published articles on the psychology of social media and b) distribute data from our social application and support members' analysis for publication and conference presentations.

Psychster Inc. is a consulting firm that draws on psychological theory to perform research for clients engaged in social computing and social media. To stay current on published articles relevant to the design and success of our clients' ventures, we will discuss a published article each week that is distributed the week prior. Anything from journals in the social or computer sciences is fair game, and we welcome suggestions.

Psychster's own social application, YouJustGetMe.com, is an online laboratory based on the Big Five model of personality where users learn how accurately their online profiles convey their personalities to others. We have recently pulled a comprehensive data set including over 16K self-tests and 26K impressions of others. There is more data than we have time to analyze on such topics as online first-impressions, machine learning/classification, personality, stereotyping, and online identity. We wish to share the data and collaborate with people who have the statistical/analytic skills and the desire to prepare manuscripts for conferences and publication.

If this interests you please send us your name, email, and phone number or Skype account. If you are new to the Psychster network please also send a resume and information about your data-analysis skills. We plan to use Skype conferencing for the calls which is limited to 24 people. We will also invite members to join a Wiki for collaboration and filesharing. The calls will be divided in half for the two purposes above, and members may join or drop off as necessary.

Psychology of Online First-Impressions

By David on May 13, 2009 10:20 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

We are pleased to report a certain year-over-year continuity in our research on how accurately people form first-impressions of others from their online profiles on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and a million Ning networks.

Last year at the Int'l Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM 2008), we presented a paper looking at what you have to say on your profile for visitors to "get" you, that is, see your personality as you see it. Read the full paper here.

This year we return to ICWSM 2009 with a paper looking at what kind of photo you need to post for people to get you. Here's the new paper.

We're starting to understand this issue quite well. Allow me to summarize.

First, some methodology. How do we measure the accuracy of an impression from an online profile? Well, first we built YouJustGetMe.com, which is a fully functional social networking site and Facebook application, but one that asks all members to fill out a personality questionnaire. Then they invite others (friends, dates, and other users who are randomly assigned to them) to try to guess how they answered the same personality questions. Using statistics published by psychologists David Funder and David Kenny, we score the correspondence between the self-rating and the guess. Users immediately get to see that score and discuss it.

With that, the papers we published simply test what elements of the profile best predict higher impression agreement. The first paper tested textual elements. The second paper tested elements of the profile photos.

Before we tell you what we learned, some theory. What are we forming impressions of? Following Goldberg, we believe there are 5 basic personality "domains." They spell OCEAN (Open-Mindedness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, & Neuroticism). Are all the domains easy to read in strangers? No. You see Conscientiousness and Extraversion almost instantly, but it takes longer to read the other domains. Do you need to be face to face? No. You "get" people you see in video, hear on the phone, and (as we've shown) whose profiles you read on Facebook. In fact, a consistent finding is emerging that you see Agreeableness and Neuroticism even better from an online profile than a short ftf interaction. That's right, better.

Here's a great image our co-author and colleage Sam Gosling pulled together to show you what sources of information tell you about what personality traits:

So what do you need to say and show on your profile so others get you?

These textual pieces of information help people get you:

What makes me glad to be alive?

Most embarrassing thing I ever did

Proudest thing I ever did

My spirituality

A great person

I believe this

A link to funny video

These pieces of information actually hinder people from getting you:

An awful website

An awful person

These pieces of information don't do a thing to reveal your personality:

A great song

An awful song

A great movie

An awful movie

An awful book

Delicious food

Terrible food

A great website

A great company

An awful company

Letters after my name

My relationship saga

My political views

My career path

What have I been up to lately?

And the new paper suggests that these types of pictures help people get you:

show yourself not a dog, tractor, or anime figure (duh)

show yourself outside if that feels right (it probably communicates your level of Extraversion)

show your hair (especially if you're a guy)

smile (female visitors learn a lot from that)

show yourself with other people if that feels right (tons of information about you comes from that)

So far, we have found these elements of the photo don't matter:

bust vs. full body

eye covering

eye contact

sexual allure (cleavage, come-hither looks)

Of course, what we're testing is whether people's impressions of you agree with your self-impressions. That is, the above elements only affect whether people see you as you see yourself, whether you are accurately conveying your personality through your online profile. We are not testing whether these elements affect how much people like you. For that, we're sure that political leanings, sexual allure, your favorite movie, and your dog might well be important. But so far, it doesn't look like that stuff tells folks who you are.

Why does this matter? Remember these findings when you want to make a dating profile that doesn't give misconceptions about yourself. Think about touching up your profiles that employers see like on LinkedIn or other places. If you design websites, rethink whether you need to make profiles that encourage the cliched "I like books, movies, and long walks on the beach" profile. Those might not be really saying anything.

YouJustGetMe.com just broke 25,000 impressions of others personality. Check it out. And if you have a study idea, contact us. If you crunch numbers, we share data.