Short Run Website Evaluation: The Effect of Human Aspects in Images
ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen
Coach:
B. Dellaert
Author:
Student number:
E-mail:
Thesis:
Department:
Wesley van der Hoop
296462
w.vanderhoop@hotmail.com
Master
Marketing Management
Date:
Telephone:
06-47903230
"Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that
you might be offering more than your competitors"
Gitte Lindgaard, Carleton University
The author declares that the text and work presented in this Master thesis is original
and that no sources other than the ones that are mentioned in the text have been used in creating
this Master thesis.
The copyright of the Master thesis rests with the author. The author is responsible for
its contents. ESE Erasmus University is only responsible for the educational coaching
and beyond that cannot be held responsible for the content.
PREFACE
I went to the Erasmus University to become a Register Accountant, I will leave as a Marketeer. Along
the way I found my passion in marketing. Especially online marketing, branding and advertising
caught my attention. In online marketing I found my research subject, and hopefully, my job as well
in the near future.
Sometimes, when developing a website, it is hard to find the best ratio between design and
conversion. Where design is mostly based on graphics, a high rank on Google for instance, is mostly
based on text. A beautiful website is worth nothing, when it does not generate results. Website
evaluation models helps us getting these results, by winning trust, and evoke positive emotional
responses of the visitors, and will be more and more important when gaining new insights on the
subject. With this study, I created a model for the short run website evaluation.
I worked for almost a year on this study, and yet the subject keeps fascinating me, and it was a
pleasure to work on the subject. I would like to thank B. Delleart for his support and help, and the
inspiration for choosing this subject.
This thesis will be the closure of an important phase in my life, and I’m looking forward to the next
one. A phase in which I can bring theory into practice, and hopefully bring back practice to new
theories.
I hope you enjoy reading this thesis, and learn something more about the subject.
Wesley van der Hoop
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The goal of this thesis was to create a model for short run website evaluations, and trying to find
what aspect is effecting these short run website evaluations. In this case the human aspects in
images are tested, known to have a positive effect on trust on the long run. After an extensive
literature review, an experiment has been conducted on 91 respondents, showing three manipulated
websites for a short amount of time. The only difference between the websites was the main image,
containing the product, human/product, or solely human aspects.
After the respondents were exposed to the website, a questionnaire was filled in. Since the website
was shown for a very short period of time (3.41s), it was more about the feelings respondents had
towards the website, evoked by the first impression, than rational evaluations. Hence, the affective
process, known to be faster than the cognitive process, was more important for the short run
evaluation.
After the experiments, a Principal Component Analyse was conducted, and the constructs were
tested on internal reliability. In the end, the human aspects in the images seem to have no significant
effect on the short run. However, a short run website evaluation model could be created, and
showed us emotional appeal is even more important than was predicted, based on the theoretical
foundations. This model also showed us, there is positive effect of aesthetics on emotional appeal,
never been shown before in any website evaluation model. Next to emotional appeal, initial trust
seemed to significantly effect the short run website evaluation as well.
CONTENTS
Preface .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ 4
Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Part I: Research problem & questions ................................................................................................... 8
1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 8
1.1 Problem definition ..................................................................................................................... 8
1.2 Contribution to existing literature............................................................................................. 9
1.3 Thesis structure ....................................................................................................................... 10
Part II: Theoretical foundations ........................................................................................................... 11
2 Literature review ............................................................................................................................ 11
2.1 Short run impression of a website .......................................................................................... 11
2.2 Short run impression and images ............................................................................................ 12
2.3 Images and the human aspect ................................................................................................ 12
2.4 Website evaluation.................................................................................................................. 14
2.5 Short run website evaluation .................................................................................................. 17
2.5.1 The dimensions related to Usefulness ............................................................................. 17
2.5.2 The dimensions related to Ease of use............................................................................. 18
2.5.3 Trust.................................................................................................................................. 18
2.5.4 Response time .................................................................................................................. 18
2.5.5 The dimensions related to Entertainment ....................................................................... 18
2.5.6 The dimensions determining the new model .................................................................. 20
2.6 Online Trust ............................................................................................................................. 20
2.7 Online Aesthetics..................................................................................................................... 21
2.8 Online Emotions ...................................................................................................................... 23
Part III: Hypotheses & Theoretical framework .................................................................................... 27
3 Research method & Hypotheses .................................................................................................... 27
3.1 Images & Initial Trust............................................................................................................... 27
3.2 Images & Aesthetics ................................................................................................................ 28
3.3 Images & Emotional appeal..................................................................................................... 31
3.4 Aesthetics & Emotional appeal ............................................................................................... 32
3.5 Initial Trust & the short run evaluation website ..................................................................... 33
3.6 Aesthetics & the short run evaluation website ....................................................................... 34
3.7 Emotional appeal & the short run evaluation website ........................................................... 35
3.8 Conceptual map....................................................................................................................... 36
Part IV: Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 38
4 Data & Methods ............................................................................................................................. 38
4.1 Research population & Data collection ................................................................................... 38
4.2 Research object: the website .................................................................................................. 38
4.3 Survey questions ..................................................................................................................... 39
4.3.1 Initial trust ........................................................................................................................ 39
4.3.2 Aesthetics ......................................................................................................................... 40
4.3.3 Emotional appeal.............................................................................................................. 41
4.3.4 Short run website evaluation ........................................................................................... 42
4.4 Measurement .......................................................................................................................... 43
4.5 Pre-test round ......................................................................................................................... 43
Part V Data analysis .............................................................................................................................. 45
5.1 Sample ..................................................................................................................................... 45
5.2 Univariate data analysis of the sample ................................................................................... 45
5.3 Principal Components Factor Analysis .................................................................................... 46
5.3.1 Determining the independent components..................................................................... 46
5.3.2 Determining the dependent component ......................................................................... 49
5.3.3 Reliability constructs ........................................................................................................ 50
5.3.4 Overview components ..................................................................................................... 50
5.4 Homogeneity of the sample .................................................................................................... 52
5.4.1 Gender .............................................................................................................................. 52
5.4.2 Age .................................................................................................................................... 52
5.5 Testing hypothesis ................................................................................................................... 52
5.5.1 Overview hypothesis and instruments ............................................................................. 53
5.5.1 H1a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on Initial trust....................................... 54
5.5.2 H2a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on Organization.................................... 55
5.5.3 H3a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on Visual appeal ................................... 56
5.5.4 H4: The net effect of the human aspect in images on Aesthetics .................................... 57
5.5.5 H5a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on Pleasure .......................................... 58
5.5.6 H6a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on Arousal ............................................ 59
5.5.7 The effect of the human aspect in images on the short run ............................................ 60
5.5.8 H7a-d: The effect of perceived aesthetics on perceived emotional appeal ....................... 60
5.5.9 H8: The effect of initial trust on the short run website evaluation .................................. 63
5.5.10 H9: The effect of organization on the short run website evaluation .............................. 64
5.5.11 H10: The effect of visual appeal on the short run website evaluation............................ 65
5.5.12 H11: The effect of pleasure on the short run website evaluation ................................... 66
5.5.13 H12: The effect of arousal on the short run website evaluation ..................................... 68
5.5.13 Building a model concerning the short run website evaluation .................................... 70
Part VI Discussion & Findings ............................................................................................................... 72
6.1 The influence of human aspects in images on the short run .................................................. 72
6.1.1 Difference between an online bookstore and an online electronic store ....................... 72
6.1.2 Why human aspects might not have influence on the short run website evaluation ..... 72
6.2 The effect of initial trust on short run website evaluation ..................................................... 73
6.4 The effect of pleasure on arousal on the short run ................................................................ 75
6.5 The effect of visual appeal on emotional appeal on the short run ......................................... 75
6.6 The effect of organization on visual appeal on the short run ................................................. 76
Part VII Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 77
7.1 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 77
7.2 Implications for practice .......................................................................................................... 78
Limitations ............................................................................................................................................ 79
Recommendations for future research ................................................................................................ 81
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 83
Appendices............................................................................................................................................ 90
PART I: RESEARCH PROBLEM & QUESTIONS
1 Introduction
Imagine you are looking for a book on a certain subject online, something to read during your
vacation. You do not have an e-reader yet, so you want to buy a paper version. You are not familiar
with any book selling website, so you decide to use Google to start your search. You click the link on
top of the search results, have a look at it, and decide to click it away without having read any of the
text on the website. What just happened?
There is a possibility their assortment is way larger than their competitors, and they may even be
specialized in the kind of books you like, their prize may even be lower, and the delivery might be
quicker than that of their competitors. You don’t know, because you did not give the website any
chance at all. Unfair? No. The website just looked too chaotic and unreliable to even give it a chance.
In a blink of an eye the judgment has been given, no second chances.
This sounds harsh, but we do this every time we visit a website. It is called the short run website
evaluation, and it determines everything.
1.1 Problem definition
The first impression of a website determines how you conceive possible imperfections of the
website. When this first impression is good, imperfections as longer than usual loading time irritates
you, but it will not make you click the website away. Conversely, when the first impression of website
is bad, this same imperfection triggers you to close down the window and look for a competitors
website. Sometimes a bad first impression is even enough to exit the website immediately. For this
reason, it is very important companies have their webdesign up-to-date with the latest findings on
website evaluation. Website design is not all about looking pretty, it influences other aspects as well,
like important aspects in today’s economy as trust and emotional appeal. Especially in this time,
where consumers get more demanding, and digitalization takes over the world, the online channel
becomes more and more important for every company. Bricks become clicks, e-commerce is still
increasing its market share (figure 1).
FIGURE 1
E-sales as percentage of total retail
Models are created for the long run website evaluation. Creating a positive effect on the long run
website evaluation should be the goal of every sustainable website. However, some aspects of these
models, are influenced greatly by the first impression of the website: the short run website
evaluation. Until now, there are models for the short run website evaluation. Therefore, one of the
goals of this thesis is to create a model which does explain the first impression of the website.
How this model can be influenced by the design of a website is examined as well. In this study,
different main images and their effect on the short run website evaluation model is tested. The main
research question will be:
How will different images effect the short run overall evaluation of a website?
This question is extended to a number or other, more specific, research questions, which will be
formed and discussed after the literature review on the subject. These questions will be based
on the theoretical foundations.
1.2 Contribution to existing literature
This thesis, will be the first study developing a complete short run website evaluation model. Long
run website evaluation models are reviewed (Liu & Arnett, 2000; Yoo & Donthu, 2001; Aladwani &
Palvia, 2002; Barnes & Vidgen, 2002; McKinney et al., 2002; van Iwaarden & van der Wiele, 2003;
Yang et al., 2004; Cao et al., 2005; Bresolles, 2006; Laiocono et al.; 2002, 2007), for rebuilding this
models into a short run website evaluation model. Some long run factors, as trust, are replaced by
short run factors, as initial trust (McKnight et al., 1998). Some long run factors are adapted to give
more precise insights, such as the concept of emotional appeal in the study of Laiocono et al. (2007).
A new effect, never been stated in any website evaluation model, namely the effect of aesthetics on
emotional appeal, is tested. This effect will give us new, more precise insights in how website
evaluation models work.
This thesis will increase our insights on the first impression of a website, and out of what aspects this
first impression consists.
1.3 Thesis structure
In the first part of this study, the research problem and question is briefly discussed. The second and
next part, will focus on the theoretical foundations of the research, and contains an extensive
literature review on the subject. In the third part, hypotheses are formed based on these theoretical
foundations. These hypotheses zoom in on the more specific parts of the main research question.
The fourth part describes how the data for this study is collected, and how this data will be analyzed.
The fifth part provides us with the insights which can be gained from the data analysis. Conclusions
from this section will be drawn and discussed in the sixth part together with its practical implications,
and finally, in the seventh part, the most important conclusions of this study will be summarized.
Limitations, recommendations for future research, a list of the literature used for this study and the
appendices, can be found at the last pages of this thesis.
PART II: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
2 Literature Review
A lot of research has been done about websites in general, and how they are evaluated by visitors of
the websites. Research is even been fine-tuned to different kind of businesses and their websites, to
the differences in evaluating the website across cultures and differences in demographics. However,
most of the researches focus on only one aspect of the website evaluation, for instance trust,
emotional response, usefulness or aesthetics. Most of these studies focus on the long run evaluation,
and, by my knowledge, not much studies are dedicated to the short run evaluation of a website. In
this part a literal review will be given, concerning the short run website evaluation.
2.1 Short run impression of a website
According to a recent study of Robins and Holmes (2008) visitors of websites are judging a website
within the first 3.42 seconds, when only looking at the lay out of the website. According to Lindgaard
et al. (2006) visitors of a website can even judge a website within the first 50ms, this was confirmed
by Tractinsky et al. (2004; 2006). The layout is, together with the downloading speed, in fact what
forms the first impression of a visitor, because that is all they have got when they are judging the
website on the short run. The short run impression of the website can be very important, because
visitors of websites are more likely to stay, and look further on the website, when this first
impression is favorable (Jennings, 2000; Xiang and Fesenmaier, 2006). On top of this, this first
impression will potentially last over time, and thereby influence the overall evaluation of the website
on the long run. This is called the ‘halo-effect’ (Lindgaard et al., 2006; Nickerson , 1998; Bryant,
1997). Visitors of a website with a favorable first impression may, until a certain point of
disappointment, disregard negative clues, and tend to be consistent with their initial judgment about
the website (Campbell & Pisterman, 1996).
As mentioned before, downloading speed and the layout of a website, are the first two things a
visitor of a website experiences, and will therefore be the two most important factors which
determine the short run impression of a website. A fast downloading time can easily be achieved
nowadays, by just upgrading the website to a faster host address, or by just adding less features on
the main page which cost long downloading time. Therefore, this study will solely focus on the layout
of the website, and its impact on the short run evaluation of a website.
2.2 Short run impression and images
The layout of a website contains out of a lot of different aspects, and not all of those aspects can be
studied in one research paper. Therefore, we will focus on one of the most important aspect of the
layout of most websites, when it comes to influencing the short run impression of the website:
images. Images on a website can determine the whole look and feel of the website, and thereby play
a big role when it comes to evaluating the website. For instance, the purchase intention of a visitor of
an online shop is highly influenced by different images, for both rational shoppers, as well as for
impulsive shoppers. For impulsive shoppers, images are even the most important factors which
influences the purchase intention (Gofman et al., 2009). So, images are in fact important when
evaluating a website. According to an eye-tracking study of Russell (2005), images and logos are first
looked at in the first seconds of the visit of a website. An eyetracking study of Riegelsberger et al.
(2002) confirms this for images of humans, although their study also stated the main image of the
website will draw significantly less attention when repeatedly visiting the website. This can be
explained by the learning effect of visitors, largely ignoring factors that are not task related. In this
study, however, we focus on the first impression of the website, so the main image will, in fact, be
important.
2.3 Images and the human aspect
Photos with human aspects in it, are attracting visual attention, the first time people visit a website,
according to an eyetracking study by Riegelsberger et al. (2002). In Russell’s study (2005), he noticed,
when the image contained human aspects, the focus of the image seemed to be on the face, more
than other aspects of the image. This is confirmed by a more recent study on the specific subject by
Cerf et al. (2008): even when observers of images with human aspects in it, did not get the task to
look for anything in particular, 80% fixated on a face in the image within the first two fixations. On
top of this, Dimberg et al. (2000) found evidence viewing facial expressions to subjects, resulted in an
unconscious emotional response within 30 ms. Exposure to negative facial expressions, such as
anger, leads to negative emotional reactions, such as fear. The same way, positive facial expressions,
such as happiness, lead to positive emotional reactions (Dimberg, 1997).
Human aspects in images seem to have an effect on the short run evaluation. For this reason, the
effects of different large images on the landingpage of a website, with and without human aspects,
on the short run evaluation of the website, will be the main focus of this research.
Some website images mainly focus on the product they sell, or the service they provide. Other
websites focus on the product or service being used by a model, or photos of personnel of the
company. The last one mentioned, is widely studied on the effect on trust. Some of these studies
found a positive effect of photos of personnel on the website on trust (Nielsen et al., 2000; Fogg et
al., 2001; Steinbruck et al., 2002), other studies find neutral or even negative results (Riegelsberger &
Sasse, 2001; Riegelsberger et al., 2003).
However, this research will be about the human aspect in images in general. To reduce noise and get
a clearer view on the subject, the focus will not be on personnel, but on the consumer as the human
aspect in the images. A recent study has already shown that having pictures on the website with
human characteristics, leads to a more appealing and warm perception of a website, and in addition
to this, social presence. These factors in turn, lead to more online trust (Cyr et al., 2009).
In summary, images are important for the short run evaluation of a website, and human aspects on
these images seem to have a positive effect on this, when depicting positive emotions. Cyr et al.
(2009) already studied human aspects on website images, and the effect of this on online trust. For
their study, three kind of images where investigated, namely: images with no human aspects, images
with so called medium human aspects, and images with so called high human aspects. Medium
human images contained mostly unnatural looking images of humans without the face visible. High
human images contained humans with their face visible for the observers. This study will maintain
the images with no human aspects, namely: images of the product/service provided by the website.
Focus on the product/service might have greater results then image with the focus on the human
aspects, because all the attention of the observer goes to the product/service sold, although this is
not expected. This study will also maintain the so called high human images, in which a model uses
the product/service provided. The third and last image investigated in this thesis, will take this
research one step further: an image which not only contains human aspects, but specifically focuses
on the human face and its expression, no product aspects involved. To summarize, three different
images will be studied in this thesis, namely:
-
Images focusing on the product sold, which we will name ‘product images’ further along this
research.
-
Images focusing on the usage of this product by a person, which we will name
‘human/product images’.
-
Images focusing on the facial expression of a person, which we will name ‘human images’.
To reduce noise it is also important all images look ‘real’ and are of the same quality. This way the
human aspect of the picture will be more isolated, and the only factor influencing the website
evaluation.
2.4 Website evaluation
The images on the landingpage can have a direct effect on the short run evaluation of the website,
but the reason for this must be explained as well. Therefore, we will use some moderators, which will
explain the cognitive paths of the visitor in a more detailed way. Different pictures might have a
positive influence on the short run overall evaluation in a different way.
To date, there is no short run website evaluation model developed. Adjusted to the goals of this
research, a short run website evaluation model will be developed based on existing (long run)
website evaluation models. Several studies have proposed different instruments to measure the
website evaluation by its users. In table 1, an overview is given of all instruments measuring website
design quality. Most e-business quality measure instruments are excluded, because these
instruments tend to focus more on the service of internet shops, rather than lay out features of the
website itself, which are very important for the short run evaluation.
TABLE 1
Website evaluation models overview
Instrument
-
SiteQual
Instrument
measures
Website success
B2C ecommerce
website quality
Dimensions
-
Source
Liu & Arnett
(2000)
-
Quality of Information
Service
Security
Playfulness perceived by
consumers
Design of the web site
-
Aesthetic design
Competitive Value
Ease of use
Clarity of ordering
Corporate & Brand equity
Security
Processing Speed
Product Uniqueness
Product assurance quality
Yoo & Donthu
(2001)
Instrument testing
methodology
122 webmasters
Questionaires by
mail
69 Marketing
students
Questionaires
Three internet
shopping sites
-
User perceived
web quality
-
Specific content
Content quality
Appearance
Technical adequacy
Aladwani &
Palvia (2002)
127 students
Questionaires
Bank website
Online bookstore
Car manufacturer’s
website
Online electronic
store
WebQual
4.0
Quality
websites
-
Web site usability
Information quality
Service interaction
Barnes &
376 respondents
Vidgen (2002)
(90% student)
Tasks +
Questionaires
Online bookstores
ServQual
-
Quality in
service
environments,
also applicable
to website
quality
Web customer
satisfaction
-
Tangibles
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Information quality:
-
van Iwaarden
& van der
Wiele (2003)
293 students
McKinney et
al. (2002)
568 internet users
Understandability
Reliability
Usefulness
Questionaires
Questionaires
System quality:
-
User perceived
service quality
web portals
-
Access
Usability
Navigation
-
Usability
Usefulness
Adequacy of information
Accessibility
Interaction
Yang et al.
(2004)
1992 respondents
Questionaires
-
B2C ecommerce
website quality
-
System quality
Information quality
Service quality
Attractiveness
Cao et al.
(2005)
71 students
Tasks +
questionnaire
Three online
bookstores
NetQual
Electronic
service quality
-
WebQual TM
Website
evaluation
Quality/quantity
information
Ease of use
Design/aesthetics
Reliability and respect of
commitment
Security and privacy
Offer
Interactivity
Usefulness:
-
Info/fit to task
Tailored information
Online completeness
Relative advantage
Bresolles
(2006)
1259 respondents
Online Questionaires
Two travel websites
Assurance website
Electricity website
Laiocono et al.
(2002, 2007)
1534 undergraduate
students
Task + Questionaires
Three online
bookstores
Ease of Use:
-
Ease of understanding
Intuitive operations
Trust
Response time
Entertainment:
-
Three online CD
stores
Three websites of a
hotel
Three websites of an
airline company
Visual appeal
Innovativeness
Emotional appeal
Consistent image
Notes:
a)
Only methodology of the research to test the instruments is included, not the methodology used
to develop the instrument (eg. exploratory research, pre-test rounds etc.).
b) Since WebQual 4.0 (Barnes & Vidgen, 2003) is a continuous improvement of WebQual 1.0 (Barnes
& Vidgen, 2000), WebQual 2.0 (Barnes & Vidgen, 2001a), and WebQual 3.0 (Barnes & Vidgen,
2001b), the three last mentioned instruments are not included.
ServQual is one of the most used website evaluation instrument in scientific research. This model,
however, also got some critique. The model, originally designed to measure the quality of face-to-
face service environments (Zeithalm et al., 1990), is not completely applicable with online services
according to Tate & Evermann (2010). Tate & Evermann (2010) stated ServQual does not offer a
reliable foundation for subsequent researchers, does not represent the interactions of online
services accurately, and has not produced a cohesive body of knowledge, to apply the model on
online services.
Critique aside, it is not really possible to draw conclusions on ServQual for the short run evaluation of
websites, because the focus is more on service, rather than on interface layout. To test the short run
impression of a website, especially when it comes to the effect of different images, a model is
needed in which the focus is more on the aspects that can be influenced by these images. After
analyzing all above mentioned instruments, and the methodologies used to test these instruments,
WebQualTM (Laiocono et al., 2002; Laiocono et al., 2007), not to be confused with the WebQual-serie
of Barnes & Vidgen, seems to be the most appropriate instrument.
The WebQualTM model (Laiocono et al., 2007) is one of the best tested instruments listed above, with
a total of 1534 respondents divided over four rounds, by giving them real life situational tasks for
four different websites. On top of this, the WebQualTM model is the most extensive model, including
a lot of factors which could be influenced by the main image and the human aspect in it. In the next
section of this paper the WebQualTM model will be adapted for the purpose of this research.
2.5 Short run website evaluation
This research focuses on the effect of different images on the website, so the focus of this paper will
solely be on the aspects of the WebQualTM model that may be influenced by those images, with or
without human aspects, in the short run. For this reason, the dimensions of the WebQualTM model
will be shortly discussed one by one, to see which dimensions can be useful for the short run
evaluation of websites. The dimensions used in the WebQualTM model are: usefulness, ease of use,
trust, response time and entertainment. The dimensions which will eventually be used in the new
model, will be extensively discussed later on in this paper.
2.5.1 The dimensions related to Usefulness
Usefulness is solely determined by the information provided by the website (Laiocono et al., 2007),
and will therefore not be influenced by the images on the landingpage. For that reason, this factor
will not be included in this research.
2.5.2 The dimensions related to Ease of use
Ease of use is determined by the interface of the website, and whether users understand how to
operate and navigate the website. In addition to this, the information given on the website must be
easy to read and understand (Laiocono et al., 2007). The ease of use can be influenced by the layout
of the website, but probably not with the change of the main image of the homepage. Therefore, this
factor can influence the short run evaluation of the website, but won’t have any effect in this study.
2.5.3 Trust
Consumers can have a lack of trust towards a website, because of the lack of face-to-face contact
with the personnel of a company. Images of personnel on the website can simulate this face-to-face
contact, and therefore create trust in a website (Aldiri et al., 2008).
On top of this, Everard & Galletta (2005) proved that trust can be influenced by qualities of the
website in a very short period of time. So, according to theory, trust can be influenced by the main
image on the landingpage in the short run, therefore, trust will be included in the model used for this
study. A further and more specific explanation of the concept trust, will be given later on.
2.5.4 Response time
The response time of the website, is the speed in which the website is loaded, and is reacting in the
appropriate way after a request from its users (Laiocono et al., 2007). When visiting a website for the
first time, this can in fact determine the short run evaluation of a website. For instance, a really slow
website can irritate the visitor, and the website will be clicked away before it is even fully loaded.
Heldal et al. (2004) suggests visitors of websites only accept 10 seconds of inactivity. So the response
time of a website can be very important when visitors evaluate the website in short run. However,
this study is about the effect of large images on the short run evaluation, so response time will not be
included as well.
2.5.5 The dimensions related to Entertainment
The entertainment-factor of the website determines the ‘experience’ of the website, and is
determined by visual appeal, innovativeness, emotional appeal, and the consistent image of the
website (Laiocono et al., 2007). The entertainment-factor of the website, will be very important in
this research, because all factors at least partly depends on the layout of the website. Therefore all
dimensions related to the entertainment-factor, will be discussed in the next part.
-
Visual appeal
Visual appeal is determined by the look and feel of the website, and is often mentioned as a
dimension of the term ‘aesthetics’ in literature about the subject. The term aesthetics will be
used from now on in this study. According to theory, aesthetics can be determined by the
short run impression (Fernandes et al., 2003; Tractinsky et al., 2004; Tractinsky et al., 2006),
and a human factor in the images might have an influence on it. Therefore this dimension will
be taken into the equation in this study.
-
Innovativeness
Innovativeness is determined by the creativity and the uniqueness of the design of the
website (Laiocono et al., 2007), so the layout of the website has a big influence on this.
However, the innovativeness of the website is not dependent on whether there are human
aspects shown in the main image or not. Therefore this dimension will not be investigated for
this study.
-
Emotional appeal
In the WebQualTM study (Laiocono et al., 2007) emotional appeal is simplified to three survey
questions, containing the following, all positive, emotions: happiness, cheerfulness and
sociability. After an intensive literature study, a more scientific approach of online emotions
is found, which will be discussed later on.
The main image of the website, and its human aspects, can influence the emotional reaction
of users (Dimberg et al., 2000), and according to theory, even on the short run (Ekman, 1992;
Epstein, 1994). Therefore, emotional appeal will be taken into the equation.
-
Constistent image
Consistent image is determined by the way the look and feel of the brand, and whether this
is the same as the look and feel of the website design (Laiocono et al., 2007). The main image
of the website can indeed be a factor in this, however, this study focuses on the effect of
human aspects in the image, not whether this is consistent with the brand image. To reduce
noise, all the images must be equally consistent with the brand of the tested website, and
this dimension will not have to be included in the new model.
2.5.6 The dimensions determining the new model
As more extensively explained in above, this study will take three dimensions into consideration for
the research model, because of their ability to be influenced on the short run by the main image
containing human aspects. The three dimensions are:
-
Trust
Aesthetics
Emotional appeal
These three dimensions will be discussed more extensively in the next part of this paper.
2.6 Online trust
The concept of online trust, is widely discussed in literature, and brings along a variety of definitions
and dimensions. Furthermore, trust brings along a variety of parties involved. Online trust, starts for
instance with the acceptance of technology (Bahmanziari et al., 2003). But when it comes to ecommerce, there also need to be trust in the company, and trust in the website and transaction. This
study will focus on trust in the website.
For the short run evaluation of a website, the initial stage of trust is specifically important. This
concept is studied before by McKnight et al. (1998), Lim et al. (2006) and Lowry et al. (2008), and is
defined as:
“The ability of the truster to believe and rely upon the trustee without any firsthand knowledge of
the trustee”
Initial trust is critical for the evaluation of first-time visitors of a website (McKnight et al., 1998; Lim
et al., 2006). When this initial trust is negative, the customer of the e-business will avoid contact with
the company. But when this initial trust is positive, it is likely the customer will start a relationship
with the company. If this relationship starts to develop over a while, initial trust will change into
sustainable trust (Kim & Tadisina, 2007), or robust trust (McKnight et al., 1998). Robust trust is
defined as “a trusting intention level that does not change dramatically over time”. This concept is
further developed into sustainable trust, which defines itself as “a higher level of trust that maintains
committed relationships”. Initial trust is the term that will be studied in this thesis from now on,
because short run evaluation of a website will not have a direct impact on robust or sustainable
trust.
According to McKnight et al. (1998) initial trust is effected by three factors, namely: individual
disposition to trust, institution-based trust, and cognitive-based trust. Individual disposition to trust
is a characteristic of one’s personality that develops mainly during childhood (Erikson, 1968; Bowlby,
1982), and according to the study of McKnight et al. (1998) is defined as:
“a person has dispositional trust if s/he has a consistent tendency to trust across a broad spectrum of
situations and persons.”
Two types of reasoning further explain dispositional trust:
-
Most people are trustworthy, so one should usually trust one another
-
One will obtain better outcomes when trusting each other, so one should trust one another
Dispositional trust is different for every individual, and depends on nurture rather than the interface
of the website, so human aspects will in the main image will not influence dispositional trust.
Institution-based trust is determined by the environment, and is defined as the perceived security of
a consumer in a situation, influenced by guarantees, safety nets and other regulatory/legal structures
(Zucker, 1986; Shapiro, 1987). It is needless to say this will not be influenced by a human aspect in
the main image as well.
Cognitive-based trust is developed by the consumer, based on rapid cognitive cues and first
impressions. Since this study is about first impressions, cognitive-based trust is important when
evaluating websites on the short run. In conclusion, initial trust in a website will on the short run
mainly be influenced by the layout of the website.
2.7 Online aesthetics
As trust, website aesthetics are studied intensively as well, which brings along many different
definitions and concepts of aesthetics. Some equal aesthetics to ‘visual appeal’ (van der Heijden,
2003; Cry et al., 2006), but most recent studies found empirical evidence aesthetics goes further than
just visual appeal. The visual appeal stays central, but is not the only factor that determines
aesthetics in these studies. Most of these studies divided aesthetics into two components, namely a
cognitive component and an affective component. Table 2, mainly adopted from Cai et al.’s study
(2008), gives an overview of the different two dimensional definitions of aesthetics:
TABLE 2
Aesthetic constructs overview
Cognitive Component
Affective Component
Source
Context
Order/coherence
Complexity/diversity
Arnheim (1966)
Landscapes
The degree and kind of lawfulness
governing the relations among the
parts of an entity.
The multiplicity of the
relationships among the parts of
an entity.
Making sense
Involvement
Kaplan (1979)
Landscapes
The need to comprehend in the
immediate environment.
The need to figure out, to learn, to
be stimulated.
Coherence
Complexity
Kaplan (1982),
Kaplan (1989)
Landscapes
The order and level of direction of
attention and how the scene
“hangs together”
The amount of the diversity of the
visual elements presented in the
scene which people are interested
in seeking how much is going on in
the scene.
Formal factor
Appeal factor
Schenkman &
Jonsson (2000)
Websites
Lavie & Tractinsky
(2004)
Websites
Tveit et al. (2006)
Landscapes
Cai et al. (2008)
Online
shopping
websites
-
Order
Legibility
Complexity
-
Overall impression
Beauty
Meaningfulness
Classical aesthetics
Expressive aesthetics
The orderliness and clarity of the
design
The originality, creativity and the
richness of the design
Coherence
Complexity
A reflection of the unity of a scene,
where coherence may be
enhanced through repeating
patterns of color and texture.
The diversity and richness of
landscape elements and features,
their interspersion as well as the
grain size of the landscape.
Organization
Visual appeal
The degree of lawfulness
governing the relations among the
elements of Web site.
The degree in which the website is
pleasing for the eye, and the
degree in which visitors get the
desire to explore the website.
The last mentioned study in the table, builds upon the previous studies and empirically verified their
dimensions: ‘organization’ and ‘visual appeal’. On top of this, Cai et al. (2008) only focused on
aesthetics in the online environment, making their proposed dimensions of aesthetics more valuable
for this study. For these reasons, we will use Cai et al.’s (2008) definition of aesthetics, further along
this research.
Visual appeal is described as the affective dimension of aesthetics, and is defined as: the degree in
which the website is pleasing for the eye, and the degree in which visitors get the desire to explore
the website. This definition of visual appeal is adapted from the term ‘Website attractiveness’ by van
der Heijden (2003). ‘Organization’ covers the cognitive component of the website, and is defined as:
“the degree of lawfulness governing the relations among the elements of Web site.”
Organization takes into account in which degree the layout of a website, makes the browsing process
more efficient and effective. For rational people, so called ‘thinkers’, this aspect will be more
important than for intuitive people, so called ‘feelers’. This in turn can depend on the
product/service provided by the website.
Now aesthetics is defined, we will have a look at the short run evaluation of aesthetics. According to
Fernandes et al. (2003), evaluations of the visual appeal of 100 webpages where remarkably accurate
even when very little time was given to judge the webpages, namely 0.5 seconds. Tractinsky et al.
(2004; 2006) confirmed these results with a short run judgments of 50 other webpages in both
studies. So it is indeed possible for visitors to judge a website on aesthetics in very short period of
time.
2.8 Online emotions
Emotions have been proved to be an important underlying factor to explain consumer behavior in
both traditional and online environments. Emotions influence general purchase intentions (Baker et
al., 1992; Dubé et al., 1995), intended shopping behavior (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982), affinity with
the store, the amount of money spent, the amount of time spent in the store, and the number of
items purchased (Sherman et al., 1997). In an online retailing environment Menon & Khan (2002)
found evidence emotions influenced online shopping behavior, and Eroglu et al. (2003) found
emotions influenced consumers’ attitude, the level of satisfaction, and shopping behavior.
In almost every study on shopping behavior influenced by emotions, two key emotional states are
mentioned: pleasure and arousal. According to Sherman et al. (1997) pleasure positively influences
the affinity with the store and the amount of money spent, arousal positively influences the amount
of money spent as well, but in addition to this also the amount of time spent in the store and the
number of items purchased.
All above mentioned studies used the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm (Mehrabian &
Russell, 1974; Mehrabian, 1980; Russell & Pratt, 1980), a theoretical model which has been very
valuable to analyze the effect of the store environment on consumer behavior. Every adequate S-O-R
model includes a set of stimuli, mediating variables, and a set of responses.
In this study, the stimulus of the environment is the layout of the website, since this is the key factor
determining the short run website evaluation. The layout of the website will be the only manipulated
factor in this study. When browsing the internet at home, a whole range of stimuli can influence the
response variables. The person may have music or other sounds in the background, the background
can be distracting the visitor’s attention of the screen, and light intensity may differ. However, to
reduce all this noise, it is necessary these environmental factors stay approximately the same for all
respondents.
The mediating variables in S-O-R model will be the different emotional states influencing the
response variables. Mehrabian & Russell (1974) stated three basic emotional states influences the
response variables, which will be discussed later on, determined by the environmental stimuli.
Namely: Pleasure – Displeasure, Arousal – Non-arousal, and Dominance – Submissiveness. These are
called the PAD-dimensions (Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance). Mehrabian & Russell (1974) empirically
proved that any environment will result in an emotional state within the PAD-dimensions. Pleasure –
Displeasure, is determined by the degree in which a person feels good, joyful, happy and satisfied.
Arousal – Non-arousal, is determined by the degree in which a person feels excited, active, alert and
stimulated. Dominance – Submissiveness, is determined by the degree in which a person feels in
control and free to act. In a later study, Russell & Pratt (1980) decided to drop the Dominance –
Submissiveness dimension. In contrary to the two other dimensions, evidence for this dimension was
weak. Russell & Pratt (1980) proved the Pleasure – Displeasure, and the Arousal-Non-arousal
dimensions represent all possible emotions adequately (see appendix A). Donovan & Rossiter (1982)
confirmed these findings. Therefore, for this study we will use the Pleasure and Arousal dimensions
solely, to represent all emotional states.
Mehrabian & Russell (1974) postulated all response variables can be captured as avoidance-approach
behaviors (Wundt, 1905). These behaviors include four aspects.
Physical approach-avoidance. The desire to physically stay in (approach) or get out (avoidance) an
environment. In this study this will be determined by the desire of staying (approach) or leaving
(avoidance) the website.
Exploratory approach-avoidance. The desire to explore (approach) or to avoid interaction
(avoidance) with the environment. In this study this will be determined by the desire to click further
on the website then rationally necessary (approach) or to only click further when absolutely
necessary (avoidance).
Communicational approach-avoidance. The desire to communicate (approach) or to avoid
communication with the environment (avoidance). In this study this will be determined by the desire
to contact the company behind the website (Approach) or to avoid communication with the
company behind the website (Avoidance).
Performance and satisfaction approach-avoidance. The enhancement (approach) or nonenhancement (avoidance) of the satisfaction determined by the task performance. In this study,
performance and satisfaction approach-avoidance behavior, is irrelevant. Since tasks can only be
performed in the long run when it comes to websites, this kind of approach-avoidance behavior will
be left out of the equation.
The Mehrabian-Russell study (1974) also specifies an interaction between the basic emotional states
(pleasure and arousal) and approach-avoidance behavior, depicted in the table below. High arousal
leads to avoidance behavior, because more arousing stimuli demand more attention and cognitive
resources (Cohen, 1978). According to Kahneman (1973) these cognitive resources consumers rather
conserve. An exception consists when there are high levels of pleasure, in which case people are
willing to pay more attention and use more cognitive resources (Isen, 1987). Low arousal leads to
approach behavior, because people are then more likely to seek more stimulation later on in the
experience.
TABLE 3
Interaction between Basic emotional states and Approach/Avoidance behavior
Level of Pleasure
Neutral
Neutral
High pleasure
Displeasure
Level of Arousal
Moderate arousal
High arousal or low arousal
High arousal
High arousal
Behavior
Approach
Avoidance
Approach
Avoidance
Menon & Khan (2002) found evidence for the same results in the online environment. They found
that consumers in a high pleasure environment, visit more categories, more online stores, and more
websites, more stimulating categories, and more promotional websites, then consumers in a neutral
pleasure environment. Therefore high pleasure should be the aim of websites.
Consumers in low arousal conditions searched more categories, visited more online stores, visited
more websites, searched for more stimulating categories and stores, visited more promotional
websites, and engaged in more promotional interaction, then consumers in moderate and high
arousal conditions (Menon & Khan, 2002). So in the online environment, low levels of arousal should
be the aim of websites. As be seen in the table above, it is important in this condition of arousal, to
have high levels of pleasure, otherwise avoidance behavior will be the result.
High arousal is caused by so called ‘high-load’ environments, environments with a high information
load (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982). High-load environments contain a lot of
novelty, surprising elements and complexity. The level of arousal depends on individual differences
as well: ‘Screeners’, people who filter the environment, and make it less complex, and sensation
seekers, will be less aroused by the environment, then ‘non-screeners’ and risk averse people.
Finally, according to Ekman (1992) and Epstein (1994) the affective process is way faster than the
cognitive process. On top of this, Dimberg et al. (2000) found evidence viewing facial expressions to
subjects, resulted in an unconscious emotional response within 30 ms, so a website and possible
human aspects in the main image will indeed have an impact on the emotions of visitors in the short
run, according to theory.
PART III: HYPOTHESES & THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
3 Research Method & Hypotheses
To wrap up, the short run evaluation of a website can be very important, since it not only has an
effect on the actions of the visitors right away, for instance the desire to explore further (Jennings,
2000; Xiang and Fesenmaier, 2006), but it also influences the actions of visitors on the long run. This
phenomenon is called the ‘halo-effect’ (Lindgaard et al., 2006; Nickerson , 1998; Bryant, 1997).
The layout of the website determines this short run evaluation for the greater part, which is in turn
influenced by the main image of the website, because this is the first thing most visitors look at
(Russell, 2005), especially when human aspects are involved (Riegelsberger, 2002; Cerf et al., 2008).
So the main image of the website is indeed an important factor according to theory, which
determines the short run evaluation of the website. Therefore, the main question of this research,
will be:
How will different images effect the short run overall evaluation of a website?
This short run evaluation will be determined by the following mediators: initial trust, aesthetics and
emotional appeal.
3.1 Images & initial trust
The effect of images with human aspects on trust on the long run is, as mentioned before, already
studied by Cyr et al. (2009). The findings of this study were positive for the images containing human
aspects. Therefore, the human/product image will be expected to be more positive on trust then the
product image on the short run as well.
The effect of the focus on solely the human aspect and the facial expression, is for the same reason,
expected to be more positive then for product images as well. The human image, is expected to have
a greater social presence, which will simulate face-to-face contact more than product/human image.
This in turn is expected to result in more trust (Aldiri et al., 2008).
As concluded before, initial trust is mainly influenced by cognitive-based trust on the short run,
based on rapid cognitive cues and first impressions. This in turn, will mainly be influenced by the
layout of the website and the main image. It is expected the human aspect in the image will have the
same effect on the short run, as in the long run. Therefore, the hypotheses examining the effect of
the different images on initial trust, will be:
H1a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived initial trust
of the website, then product images.
H1b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived initial trust of the
website, then product images.
H1c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived initial trust of
the website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 2
Hypothesis 1a-c schematic
Main image on website
H1a-c
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Initial trust
3.2 Images & aesthetics
Aesthetics can be divided into two dimensions: ‘organization’ and ‘visual appeal’ (Cai et al., 2008).
The organizational dimension of aesthetics, is specifically important for so called ‘thinkers’, purely
rational thinking people. According to Riegelsberger et al. (2002) the first time a person visits a
website, they spend more time looking at an image with human aspects in it, then they would do
when they repeat-visit the site, in which case the focus is more on the text. This could mean the
human image is in fact distracting on the short run, because the first-time visit, visitors spend less
time with task related observations, namely, reading the text. In this case the human aspect in
images on websites has a negative effect on the organizational dimension of aesthetics, which is
important for thinkers. Hence, the hypothesis concerning the effect of human aspects in images on
organization:
H2a:
Human/product images will have a more negative effect on the perceived
organization of the website, then product images.
H2b:
Human images will have a more negative effect on the perceived organization of
the website, then product images.
H2c:
Human images will have a more negative effect on the perceived organization of
the website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 3
Hypothesis 2a-c schematic
Main image on website
Aesthetics
H2a-c
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (-)
c) Human image (--)
Organization
Visual appeal
For so called ‘feelers’, purely intuitive thinking people, the visual appealing dimension of aesthetics is
more important. Therefore, we will have a somewhat closer look at visual appeal. Visual appeal is
determined by the following statements in Cai et al.’s study (2008): ‘The website is pleasing to look
at’ (Hall & Hanna, 2004), ‘I like the look and feel of the website’ (Hong & Kim, 2004), ‘The website is
visually appealing’, and ‘The visual design of the website is attractive’ (Cai et al., 2008). Exposure to
positive facial expressions, evokes positive emotions on the subject (Dimberg, 1997), so human
aspects on the main image, with positive facial expressions like happiness, could have a positive
effect on especially the ‘feeling’ of the website. Therefore, human aspects in the main image, will
probably have a positive effect on the visual appealing dimension of aesthetics, which is particularly
important for feelers. Hence, the hypothesis concerning the effect of human aspects in images on
visual appeal:
H3a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived visual
appeal of the website, then product images.
H3b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived visual appeal of
the website, then product images.
H3c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived visual appeal of
the website, then human/product image
FIGURE 4
Hypothesis 3a-c schematic
Main image on website
Aesthetics
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Organization
H3a-c
Visual appeal
The question remains which dimension of aesthetics is more important in the short run. Therefore,
we will take a look at the two underlying processes of these dimensions. The cognitive process
(organization, human images have a negative impact), and the affective process (visual appeal,
human images have a positive impact). In the short run, the affective process seems to be the more
important one, because the affective process is way faster than the cognitive process. Hence, an
emotional response can be triggered more quickly than a rational response (Ekman, 1992; Epstein,
1994). For above mentioned reasons, the hypotheses examining the effect of the different images on
aesthetics, will be:
H4:
In the short run, the absolute effect of human aspects in images on visual appeal, is
greater than the absolute effect of images on organization. This in turn will result in a
net positive effect of images containing human aspects on aesthetics, because the
negative effect of the organization dimension, will be outnumbered by the positive
effect of the visual appeal dimension.
FIGURE 5
Hypothesis 4 schematic
Main image on website
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Aesthetics
H4
Organization
Visual appeal
Furthermore, when the affective process is so important for short run evaluation of aesthetics, this
could mean aesthetics influences the emotional appeal of the website. This will have an impact on
the research model, because now aesthetics influences the short run evaluation not only in a direct
way, but also, or perhaps exclusively, in an indirect way, via emotional appeal. We will discuss this
phenomenon later on in this study.
3.3 Images & emotional appeal
Emotional appeal, determined in this study by pleasure and arousal, can be effected by the human
aspect of the image, specifically by exposure to facial expressions (Dimberg, 1997; Sproull et al.,
1996). Positive facial expressions lead unconsciously to more positive emotions, and therefore to
higher pleasure (the degree in which a person feels good, joyful, happy and satisfied), using the PADdimensions. Therefore, the hypotheses examining the effect of the different images on pleasure, will
be:
H5a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived
pleasure of the website, then product images.
H5b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived pleasure of the
website, then product images.
H5c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived pleasure of the
website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 6
Hypothesis 5a-c schematic
Main image on website
Emotional appeal
H5a-c
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Pleasure
Arousal
On the other hand we have arousal: people get more aroused when being in presence of a humanbeing, or even a computerized face (Sproull et al., 1996). So therefore it is likely people got higher
levels of arousal (the degree in which a person feels excited, active, alert and stimulated) exposed to
the human aspect in the main image. Hence, the hypotheses examining the effect of the different
images on arousal, will be:
H6a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived arousal
of the website, then product images.
H6b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived arousal of the
website, then product images.
H6c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived arousal of the
website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 7
Hypothesis 6a-c schematic
Main image on website
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Emotional appeal
Pleasure
H6a-c
Arousal
3.4 Aesthetics & emotional appeal
As stated before, in the short run the affective process of aesthetics seems to be very important.
Therefore it is likely aesthetics will have an influence on the emotional appeal of the website as well.
According to Cupchik & Winston (1992) aesthetics can indeed evoke pleasure and arousal, especially
when the goal of the subject is to experience pleasure and arousal. This would be the case when
someone is hedonic browsing.
Evoking arousal is very important in almost every scientific study on aesthetics. Subjects “tolerate
most often and for the longest time a certain medium degree of arousal, which makes them feel
neither overstimulated nor dissatisfied by a lack of sufficient occupation”, when being exposed to an
aesthetic environment (Arnheim, 1985; Fechner, 1978). So the most aesthetic objects evoke
maximum pleasure and not more arousal then a person can handle. When high levels of pleasure got
evoked, as mentioned before, people are willing to pay more attention and use more cognitive
resources (Isen, 1987), and can handle higher levels of arousal.
The organization dimension of aesthetics is especially important for rational people,
however, as stated before, the rational process is less important than the emotional process
when it comes the first impressions. In the long run, organization would probably have a
negative effect on arousal, because an organized environment is less stimulating then a
badly organized environment. However, in the case of the short run evaluation, no effect on
both dimensions of emotional appeal is expected. Hence, the hypothesis concerning the
organization dimension of aesthetics:
H7a:
Organization will have no influence on perceived pleasure in the short run.
H7b:
Organization will have no influence on perceived arousal in the short run.
Conversely, visual appeal is all about emotions. High levels of visual appeal are expected to result
in higher levels of pleasure. According to a study of Demangeot and Broderick (2006) an aesthetic
website design draws the attention of the visitor. Therefore, high visual appeal is expected to be
more stimulating, which will lead to higher levels of arousal. Hence, the hypothesis concerning
the visual appeal dimension of aesthetics:
H7c:
Visual appeal will have a positive influence on perceived pleasure in the short
run.
H7d:
Visual appeal will have a positive influence on perceived arousal in the short run.
FIGURE 8
Hypothesis 7a-d schematic
Aesthetics
Emotional appeal
H7a-d
Organization
Pleasure
Visual appeal
Arousal
3.5 Initial trust & the short run evaluation website
Trust in the online environment is important, because it results positively in online purchase
intentions (Gefen & Straub, 2003), e-loyal customer behavior (Cyr, 2008; Flavián et al., 2006), a more
positive website evaluation in general (Laiocono et al., 2007; Laiocono et al., 2002), and finally, all
these factors can lead to more visitors and greater revenues from online sales for e-commerce
websites.
As stated before, trust on the short run, initial trust, is in fact critical for the evaluation of first-time
visitors of a website (McKnight et al., 1998; Lim et al., 2006). When this initial trust is negative, the
customer of the e-business will avoid contact with the company. Conversely, it is likely the customer
will start a relationship with the company, when initial trust is positive. Hence, the eighth hypothesis
of this study:
H8:
The perceived initial trust of the website has a positive effect on the short run
evaluation of the website.
FIGURE 9
Hypothesis 8 schematic
H8 (+)
Initial trust
Short run evaluation Website
3.6 Aesthetics & the short run evaluation website
Aesthetics are determined by the way a visitor clarifies, intensifies and interpret events in his/her
visual environment (Cai et al., 2008). Aesthetics draw the attention of visitors of the website, and
engages them in activity (Jennings, 2000). According to a study of Demangeot and Broderick (2006)
an aesthetic website design not only draws the attention of the visitor, but it also conveys a clear and
unique image which helps the visitor achieving their goals of visiting the website. Emperical studies
even reveal that aesthetics affects the visitors’ perception of the website qualities (van der Heijden,
2003). On top of that, Schenkman and Jonsson (2000) proved aesthetics is one of the most important
determinants of website preference, and according to Fiore et al. (2005) aesthetics lead to more
positive attitudes towards an online store.
Furthermore, it is proven by several studies (Fernandes et al., 2003; Tractinsky et al., 2004; 2006),
consumers can judge a website on aesthetics, in a very short period of time. However, like
mentioned before, the organization dimension of aesthetics, is expected not to be of significant
importance in the short run evaluation. The visual appeal dimension in contrary, ís expected to have
a significant positive effect on the short run. In fact, I think this is the main factor that causes the
results of the studies of Fernandes et al. (2003) and Tractinsky et al. (2004; 2006), because the
affective process is way more important in such a short period of time.
Hence, the hypotheses concerning the effect of aesthetics on the short run evaluation of the
website:
H9:
The perceived organization of the website has no effect on the short run evaluation
of the website.
FIGURE 10
Hypothesis 9 schematic
Aesthetics
H9
Organization
Short run evaluation Website
Visual appeal
H10:
The perceived visual appeal of the website has a positive effect on the short run
evaluation of the website.
FIGURE 11
Hypothesis 10 schematic
Aesthetics
Organization
H10 (+)
Visual appeal
Short run evaluation Website
3.7 Emotional appeal & the short run evaluation website
Several studies (e.g. Mehrabian & Russell, 1974; Menon & Kahn, 2002) found evidence high levels of
pleasure results in approach behavior. This approach behavior will result in a more positive website
evaluation. Hence, the eleventh hypothesis of this study:
H11:
Pleasure has a positive effect on the short run evaluation of the website.
FIGURE 12
Hypothesis 11 schematic
Emotional appeal
H11 (+)
Pleasure
Arousal
Short run evaluation Website
These same studies found evidence high levels of arousal results in avoidance behavior, unless a
subject experiences high pleasure. Dependable on the level of pleasure, arousal can have a positive
of negative effect on the short run website evaluation. Hence, the twelfth hypothesis of this study:
H12:
Arousal has a positive or negative effect on the short run evaluation of the website,
depending on the level of pleasure.
FIGURE 13
Hypothesis 12 schematic
Emotional appeal
Pleasure
Arousal
Short run evaluation Website
H12
3.8 Conceptual map
All hypotheses together, lead to the following research model. First, the effect of the human aspects
in the images on initial trust, aesthetics and emotional appeal will be tested. The main image of the
website with human aspects, is expected to have a positive effect on initial trust, aesthetics, pleasure
and arousal. The organizational dimension of aesthetics is expected to have no effect at all in the
short run. The visual appeal dimension of aesthetics is expected to have a positive effect on pleasure
as well as arousal. Initial trust, aesthetics and pleasure are in their turn expected to have a positive
effect on the short run overall website evaluation. Finally, arousal is expected to have a negative or
positive impact on the short run overall evaluation of the website, depending on the level of
perceived pleasure.
FIGURE 14
Conceptual map
Initial Trust
H1a-c
H8 (+)
Aesthetics
H9
Main image on website
a) Product image
b) Human/product image
c) Human image
H2a-c
Organization
H3a-c
Visual Appeal
SR website evaluation
H10 (+)
H5a-c
H6a-c
H7a-d
Emotional appeal
Pleasure
Arousal
H11 (+)
H12
PART IV: METHODOLOGY
4 Data & Methods
4.1 Research population & data collection
The research population contains all internet users, since they’re the ones evaluating websites on a
daily basis, although sometimes unconsciously. After all, the users of websites are determining
whether a website is of high quality or not. However, since there are significant cultural differences,
when evaluating a website (Cyr, 2008), and this study does not take these cultural differences into
account. There will be a focus on the Dutch internet user.
Data collection will be done by online and offline surveys. By conducting a survey, many data can be
gathered, and possible relations can be analyzed. Online surveys will be sent by e-mail, which is
expected not to give any problems, because internet users are often accessible through e-mail, and
have enough knowledge how to fill in an online survey. Offline surveys are added to speed up the
data collection, and reach people who need personal motivation to fill in the questionnaire. On top
of this, offline respondents can directly communicate any problems while filling in the survey, and
give their opinion personally.
4.2 Research object: the website
As mentioned before, respondents get to analyze three different websites, namely:
-
A website with solely the product featured in the main image (product image)
-
A website with a person using the product (human/product image)
-
A website with solely the human aspect (human image)
For the research of this study, it is important the respondents are judging unfamiliar websites of
unfamiliar brands. Otherwise, their evaluations might be influenced by evaluations in the past. The
only aspect changing on this website is the main image, which will be the product image, humanproduct image, or the human image.
Most papers about website evaluation, have chosen online bookstores as an object to test their
instruments on (e.g. Aladwani & Palvia, 2002; Barnes & Vidgen, 2002; Cao et al., 2005; Laiocono et
al., 2007). Although there seems to be no reason to study bookstores to increase the scientific quality
of the research, other than being used by a great proportion of internet shoppers, an online
bookstore will be the subject that will be studied in this study as well.
The three different websites are non-existing bookstores, with only the main image changed. They
can be found in appendices B-D. The product image contains books, the human/product image
contains a woman reading a book, and the human image contains a smiling woman. To reduce noise,
both pictures containing human aspects contain a brunette women and grass in the background.
Since this study is about the short run evaluation of the website, it will solely be judged on layout,
and will not be clickable. The online survey will have a powerpoint-file attached to it, containing a
picture of the website. Powerpoint is a standard software program in the Microsoft Office package,
installed on most Windows computers. This powerpoint-file can show the website fullscreen with the
hit of one button on the keyboard for a period of time I want the respondents to be exposed. This
brings us to the next topic: exposure time.
Aesthetics can be judged within 50ms (Fernandes et al., 2003; Tractinsky et al. 2004; 2006), and facial
expressions results in an emotional responses within 30ms (Dimberg et al., 2000). However, the last
one mentioned, the emotional reactions, are unconscious, and can’t be described by the respondent
him/herself. On top of this, it seems highly unlikely initial trust can be won in such a short period of
time. Therefore the exposure time will be based on the study of Robins & Holmes (2008). They
stated, visitors are judging a website within the first 3.42 seconds, when only looking at the layout of
the website. Whether 3.42 seconds are indeed enough to form an opinion about a website will be
tested in the pre-test round: the offline surveys.
4.3 Survey questions
The survey will contain solely closed questions, which will make the data easier to process. In the
end, there will be a possibility to add comments. The respondents in the offline survey, will be asked
what they think about the questionnaire, to check whether the statements are understandable.
Underneath, I will discuss the statements we will use in the questionnaires.
4.3.1 Initial trust
Four statements determining initial trust and their sources can be found in table 4. The same
statements are used in a study on initial trust by Koufaris & Hampton-Sosa (2004). Uncertainty terms
as ‘seems’ instead of ‘is’, and ‘probably’ are added to focus more on initial trust, which is not certain,
but is more about the feeling a visitor gets towards a website. It is for instance impossible to
determine whether the information provided by the website is trustworthy, if one has not even got
the time to process the information.
TABLE 4
Initial trust statements
Variable
Statement
Source
TRUST1
This website seems trustworthy
Jarvenpaa et al., 2000
TRUST2
I trust this website keeps my best interests in mind
Jarvenpaa et al., 2000
TRUST3
This website will probably keep promises it makes to me
Doney & Cannon, 1997
TRUST4
I will probably believe the information that this website
Doney & Cannon, 1997
provides me
4.3.2 Aesthetics
The four statements determining organization and their sources can be found in table 5. The same
statements are used to determine organization in a study on aesthetics by Cai et al. (2008).
TABLE 5
Organization statements
Variable
Statement
Source
ORGAN1
The design of the website is harmonious
Nasar & Hong, 1999
ORGAN2
The layout of the website is intuitive
Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006
ORGAN3
The website has logically organized elements
Rosen & Purinton, 2004
ORGAN4
The website was designed in a manner I am accustomed to
Cai et al., 2008
The four statements determining visual appeal and their sources can be found in talbe 6. The same
statements are used to determine visual appeal in a study on aesthetics by Cai et al. (2008).
TABLE 6
Visual appeal statements
Variable
Statement
Source
VISUA1
This website is pleasing to look at
Hall & Hanna, 2004
VISUA2
I like the look and feel of the website
Hong & Kim, 2004
VISUA3
The website is visually appealing
Cai et al., 2008
VISUA4
The visual design of the website is attractive
Cai et al., 2008
4.3.3 Emotional appeal
The four statements determining pleasure can be found in table 7. The self-developed statements
are based on the definition of pleasure in Mehrabian & Russell (1974): the degree which a person
feels good, joyful, happy and satisfied.
TABLE 7
Pleasure statements
Variable
Statement
Source
PLEAS1
This website makes me feel good
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
study (1974)
PLEAS2
This website makes me feel joyful
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
study (1974)
PLEAS3
This website makes me feel happy
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
study (1974)
PLEAS4
I am satisfied with this website
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
study (1974)
The four statements determining arousal can be found in table 8. The self-developed statements are
based on the definition of arousal in Mehrabian & Russell (1974): the degree which a person feels
excited, active, alert and stimulated. Alertness is translated to the concentration on the website,
otherwise this can be confused with alertness in the surrounding environment. The environment
studied in this paper is the website itself.
TABLE 8
Arousal statements
Variable
Statement
Source
AROUS1
This website makes me feel excited
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
study (1974)
AROUS2
This website activates me
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
study (1974)
AROUS3
AROUS4
This website would increase my
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
concentration on the screen
study (1974)
This website stimulates me
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian & Russell’s
study (1974)
4.3.4 Short run website evaluation
In table 9, the four statements determining the short run website evaluation can be found. The selfdeveloped statements are based on the definition of the four approach-avoidance aspects: physical,
exploratory, communicational, and performance & satisfaction (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974). EVALU1
explains the physical aspect of approach-avoidance behavior. Since the website is the environment,
clicking it away equals physically leaving the environment. EVALU2 explains the exploratory aspect of
approach-avoidance behavior. The sentence ‘even though not absolutely necessary’ is needed to
strengthen the exploratory factor of this statement. Besides this, EVALU1 en EVALU2 would be
comparable when not adding this sentence: when people leave the website open for use, they will
click further, otherwise there is no reason to stay on the website. EVALU3 explains the
communicational factor of the approach-avoidance behavior. There is no reason to communicate
with a website, when you don’t want extra information, this explains the ‘When I want more
information…’-part. Performance-satisfaction behavior will be left out of the equation, because it
won’t apply on short run website evaluation as stated before in this thesis.
It is necessary for respondents to imagine they wanted something on this website, otherwise they
would have no reason to, for instance, stay on the website (e.g. when the respondent don’t ever
buys books online, there is no reason to stay on a book-webshop, no matter how well the website is
designed).
TABLE 9
Short run website evaluation statements
Variable
Statement
Source
EVALU1
I would stay on this website
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian
& Russell’s study (1974)
EVALU2
EVALU3
I would click further on this website, even
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian
though not absolutely necessary
& Russell’s study (1974)
When I want more information, I would send
Self-developed, based on Mehrabian
this company my question
& Russell’s study (1974)
All statements will be tested on the three requirements that are needed to be met to allow
conducting a PCA, namely; the Bartlett’s test of sphericity, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of
sampling and the anti-image covariance matrix.
4.4 Measurement
Each respondent will be exposed to one website, containing one of the three images. A respondent
only gets to judge one website, otherwise they will know what to look for on the next website. On
top of that, when judging all three websites, the respondents will soon find out what the
questionnaire is about, and this could possibly influence the results.
After being exposed to a website, the respondent will fill in which level they (dis)agree with the
statements in the questionnaires. In this study a 5-point Likert scale will be used instead of a 7-point
Likert scale, because this will increase the reliability and the validity of the sample, according to
Dawes (2008).
4.5 Pre-test round
Before spreading the surveys by e-mail, the survey was conducted offline and personally to fifteen
respondents. Respondents could comment verbally while filling in the survey, this way, it was
possible to detect problems right away.
Respondents seemed to think of the exposure time (3.42 seconds) as very short, but not impossible
to base a first impression on. No questions were asked about both the statements and the way the
survey was conducted; according to all fifteen respondents the survey was easy to understand.
Hence, the survey was ready to be spread more broadly, by e-mail.
PART V DATA ANALYSIS
5.1 Sample
The sample consists out of 91 respondents. Most of them are students, because of their willingness
to cooperate, since they have to do this kind of research as well at the end of their study.
5.2 Univariate data analysis of the sample
The univariate data analysis provides a summarization of all statistics concerning the individual
variables. This gives us a clear overview of the distribution of the sample, and could be useful to
explain certain outcomes of the data analysis.
TABLE 10a
Age sample
Dataset
Minimum
Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
‘Product’ sample
19
55
28.45
11.736
‘Human/product’ sample
18
57
33.45
14.116
‘Human’ sample
18
55
26.58
10.436
Total sample
18
57
29.42
12.354
TABLE 10b
Gender sample
Dataset
Male
Female
‘Product’ sample
32.3%
67.7%
‘Human/product’ sample
44.8%
55.2%
‘Human’ sample
45.2%
54.8%
Total sample
40.7%
59.3%
As can be seen in the tables above, the minimum age of the respondents is 18, and the maximum age
is 57, with a mean of 29.42 years. 40.7% of the respondents were male, and 59.3% were female.
The respondents which were exposed to the ‘product’-website are slightly younger than the overall
respondents, with a minimum age of 19, maximum age of 55 and a mean of 28.45. In this dataset,
only 32.3% of the respondents are male, which may have some impacts on the results. The
homogeneity between men and women will be discussed in chapter 5.4, after this, it will be decided
if gender should be taken into account when analyzing the datasets.
The respondents which were exposed to the ‘human/product’-website are slightly older than the
respondents exposed to the ‘product’-website, with a minimum age of 18, maximum age of 57 and a
mean of 33.48. In this dataset, 44.8% of the respondents are male, a higher proportion then the
respondents of the ‘product’-dataset.
The respondents which were exposed to the ‘human’-website are about the same age of the
respondents exposed to the ‘product’-website, and younger than the respondents exposed to the
‘human’-website. The minimum age is 18, the maximum age is 55 and the mean is 26.58. In this
dataset, almost equal to the ‘human-product’-dataset, 45.2% of the respondents are male, a higher
proportion then the respondents of the ‘product’-dataset.
5.3 Principal Components Factor Analysis
5.3.1 Determining the independent components
Before conducting a principal components factor analysis (PCA), one must check the analysis on
three things, namely the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO), the Bartlett’s
test of Sphericity, and the anti-image covariance matrix.
The KMO measures whether the correlation between the variables are high enough. The KMO value
must exceed at least 0.50 to conduct an appropriate PCA. As can be seen in table 11, the KMO value
is 0.878, which means this requirement is met.
TABLE 11
KMO and Bartlett’s Test independent components
KMO and Bartlett’s Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity
Approx. Chi-Square
Df
Sig.
.878
982.821
190
.000
The Barlett’s test identifies the inequality between the correlation matrix and the identity matrix,
and must be proven significant. As can be seen in table 11, this requirement is met as well (X2 =
982.821, P = 0.000).
At last, the anti-image correlation matrix contains the negatives of the partial correlation coefficients,
and the anti-image covariance matrix contains the negatives of the partial covariances. Most of the
off-diagonal elements must be small, in order to produce a good factor model. As can be seen in
appendix E, this requirement is met as well.
For above mentioned reasons, PCA may be conducted.
The Eigen Value explains which proportion of the variables is explained by the components. When
reducing variables, information will be lost. In this case the top five components, explain 72.330% of
all the variables. Most efficiently, the ‘elbow’ of the screeplot determines how many components
should be used: in this case only three components (appendix F). Since this PCA contains five
constructs, namely: initial trust, organization, visual appeal, pleasure and arousal, it is not possible to
reduce data to three components without losing two constructs. Therefore, there has been decided
to use five components instead.
TABLE 12
Rotated Component Matrix independent variables
Pleasure
Initial Trust
Component
Organization
Visual Appeal
Arousal
TRUST1
TRUST2
TRUST3
TRUST4
.138
.178
-.004
.042
.766
.700
.744
.805
.227
.088
.402
.193
.154
.203
.028
.193
.010
.366
.057
.164
ORGAN1
ORGAN2
ORGAN3
ORGAN4
.389
.258
.076
.052
.454
.414
.299
.188
.228
.650
.809
.750
.113
.073
-.045
.288
.134
-.112
.216
.100
VISUA1
VISUA2
VISUA3
VISUA4
.347
.464
.354
.499
.327
.239
.193
.172
.233
.449
.178
.046
.659
.269
.781
.681
.327
.370
.160
.140
PLEAS1
PLEAS2
PLEAS3
PLEAS4
.657
.872
.841
.499
.270
.073
-.038
.352
.069
.107
.058
.352
.384
.238
.245
.248
.225
.153
.101
.276
AROUS1
AROUS2
AROUS3
AROUS4
.703
.153
.373
.433
.150
-.034
.396
.275
.156
.336
-.019
.008
.114
.294
.000
.249
.374
.713
.626
.693
Notes: Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis, Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser
Normalization. Rotation converged in 8 iterations.
As can be seen in table 12, the first component is Pleasure, although the variable AROUS1 (‘this
website makes me excited’) seem to fit this first component as well. However, according to theory
this variable does not measure pleasure, and will not be part of the first component. PLEAS4 (‘I am
satisfied with this website’) in contrary, is spread too much over the different components to
become part of the first component. This makes sense, since this statement was the least outspoken
of the four statements measuring pleasure. In conclusion, the first component of the PCA, will be
‘Pleasure’ and will consist out of PLEAS1 (‘this website makes me feel good’), PLEAS2 (‘this website
makes me joyful’) and PLEAS3 (‘this website makes me feel happy’).
The second component is Initial Trust, and consists out of all trust-measuring variables: TRUST1 (‘this
website seems trustworthy’), TRUST2 (‘I trust this website keeps my best interests in mind’), TRUST3
(‘this website will probably keep promises it makes to me’), TRUST4 (‘I will probably believe the
information that this website provides me’).
The third component is Organization, and consists out of ORGAN2 (‘the layout of the website is
intuitive’), ORGAN3 (‘the website has logically organized elements’) en ORGAN4 (‘the website was
designed in a manner I am accustomed to’). ORGAN1 (‘the design of the website is harmonious’)
drops out. Although ORGAN1 is the statement used in the oldest study (Nasar & Hong, 1999) of the
four statements, there seems to be no apparent reason for the drop out, because this statement is
almost meaning the same as ORGAN3 (‘the website has logically organized elements’). Nevertheless,
this variable will not be used further along this study.
The fourth component is Visual appeal, and consists out of VISUA1 (‘this website is pleasing to look
at’), VISUA3 (‘this website is visually appealing’) and VISUA4 (‘the visual design of the website is
attractive’). VISUA2 (‘I like the look and feel of the website’) is spread too much over all components
and will not be used further along this study.
The last and fifth component is Arousal, and consists out of AROUS2 (‘this website activates me’),
AROUS3 (‘this website would increase my concentration on the screen’) and AROUS4 (‘this website
stimulates me’). As mentioned before, AROUS1 (‘this website makes me feel excited’) seem to fit the
component Pleasure way more than the component Arousal. Therefore, this variable will not be used
as part of the Arousal component.
5.3.2 Determining the dependent component
For the dependent variable Evaluation, a separate PCA is conducted (appendices G & H). Using all
variables (EVALU1, EVALU2 and EVALU3), the KMO value (0.576, table 13) did exceed 0.50. Bartlett’s
test of Spericity is proven to be significant (X2=34.316, P=0.000) as well. On top of that, the nondiagonal elements of the anti-image matrices turned out to be small. Therefore, an appropriate PCA
can be conducted using all three variables.
TABLE 13
KMO and Bartlett’s Test dependent components
KMO and Bartlett’s Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity
.576
Approx. Chi-Square
Df
Sig.
34.316
3
.000
5.3.3 Reliability constructs
After conducting the PCA, one can consider the high loaded variables as valid for a certain
component. However, the constructs must be tested on internal reliability as well. Cronbach’s alpha
determines this internal reliability. Cronbach’s alpha must at least exceed 0.60 to pass the reliability
test according to Hair et al. (2006). Litfin et al. (2000) observed that even a score of 0.50 is accepted
when doing an exploratory research like this study.
TABLE 14
Reliability test constructs
Construct
Cronbach’s α
Initial trust
Organization
Visual appeal
Pleasure
Arousal
Short run website evaluation
0.822
0.740
0.883
0.857
0.774
0.581
As can be concluded from table 14, all constructs score well on Cronbach’s alpha, in exception for the
short run website evaluation. Dropping EVALU3 (‘when I want more information, I would send this
company my question’ ) from the construct, would improve Cronbach’s alpha to 0.636. However,
since this is an exploratory research, there has been chosen to use all three variables and accept the
score of 0.581. All constructs pass the reliability test, and no variables will be dropped from the
equation.
5.3.4 Overview components
To sum up the conclusions of the PCA and the reliability test, an overview is given in the table 15.
TABLE 15
PCA Components Overview
Component
Initial trust
Variables
TRUST1
TRUST2
TRUST3
TRUST4
Statement
This website seems trustworthy
I trust this website keeps my best interests in
mind
This website will probably keep promises it
makes to me
I will probably believe the information that
this website provides me
Source
Jarvenpaa et al., 2000
Jarvenpaa et al., 2000
Doney & Cannon, 1997
Doney & Cannon, 1997
Organization
ORGAN2
ORGAN3
ORGAN4
The layout of the website is intuitive
The website has logically organized elements
The website was designed in a manner I am
accustomed to
Pavlou & Fygenson, 2006
Rosen & Purinton, 2004
Cai et al., 2008
Visual appeal
VISUA1
VISUA3
VISUA4
This website is pleasing to look at
This website is visually appealing
The visual design of the website is attractive
Hall & Hanna, 2004
Cai et al., 2008
Cai et al., 2008
Pleasure
PLEAS1
This website makes me feel good
PLEAS2
This website makes me joyful
PLEAS3
This website makes me feel happy
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
AROUS2
This website activates me
AROUS3
This website would increase my
concentration on the screen
AROUS4
This website stimulates me
EVALU1
I would stay on this website
EVALU2
I would click further on this website, even
though not absolutely necessary
EVALU3
When I want more information, I would send
this company my question
Arousal
Short run
website
evaluation
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
Self-developed, based on
Mehrabian & Russell’s study
(1974)
5.4 Homogeneity of the sample
5.4.1 Gender
With P<0.95 male tend to be significantly less trusting towards the website then female (p=0.020,
table 16). Males on average scored the reliability of the website 0.325 points lower than the average
female. With P<0.90 the average male tend to be also significantly less aroused by the website
(p=0.096, table 16), and evaluate the website lower (p=0.058, table 16) than the average female.
TABLE 16
Gender-based differences
Component
Male (1-5)
Female (1-5)
Significance
Initial trust
Arousal
Short run website
Evaluation
3.383
2.981
3.027
3.708
3.259
3.346
0.020
0.096
0.058
Note: calculations based on appendix I
This will have some consequences for the three different datasets (one for each website). Since the
first dataset, in where respondents evaluate the ‘product’-website, has a lower proportion of male
respondents, this may effect the results positively for the evaluation of this website. This factor will
be taken into account for further analysis.
5.4.2 Age
With P<0.90, older respondents seem to be significantly rating the organization of the website lower
(p= 0.099, appendix J). This can be explained by the fact that older respondents are not digital
natives, and are less familiar with the construction of websites then younger respondents. For older
people websites are often more complicated.
5.5 Testing hypothesis
Now components are determined, and computed, it is time to test the hypotheses of this research.
Dummy variables are added to combine the three datasets of the three research objects (product
website, human/product website and the human website). Since the product website is expected to
have the least effect on the components, this will be the benchmark for further analysis. Dummy
variables for the ‘human/product’ and ‘human’ data are added to the dataset.
As claimed in the previous chapter about the homogeneity of the dataset, the ‘product’ data will
probably positively be influenced by the low proportion of male respondents. Therefore, gender will
be taken into consideration, when analyzing the hypotheses considering the change of the main
image.
5.5.1 Overview hypothesis and instruments
In table 17, an overview of the hypotheses is given, followed by the instrument of analysis which will
be used to test the hypothesis.
TABLE 17
Hypothesis Overview
Dependent variable
Independent variable(s)
Hypotheses
Instrument
Initial trust
Product image
Human/product image
Human image
Gender
H1a-c
Lineair regression
Organization
Product image
Human/product image
Human image
Gender
H2a-c
Lineair regression
Visual appeal
Product image
Human/product image
Human image
Gender
H3a-c
Lineair regression
Pleasure
Product image
Human/product image
Human image
Gender
H5a-c
Lineair regression
Organization
Visual appeal
H7a
H7c
Product image
Human/product image
Human image
Gender
H6a-c
Organization
Visual appeal
H7b
H7d
Initial trust
Organization
Visual appeal
Pleasure
Arousal
H8
H9
H10
H11
H12
Arousal
SR evaluation Website
Lineair regression
Lineair regression
5.5.1 H1a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on initial trust
The hypotheses 1a to 1c, are testing the effect of the human aspect in images on initial trust on the
short run. After the review of the theory, it was expected the human aspect in the images would
have a positive effect on initial trust. The human aspects in the image, has a greater social presence,
which in return leads to more trust (Aldiri et al., 2008).
H1a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived initial
trust of the website, then product images.
H1b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived initial trust of
the website, then product images.
H1c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived initial trust of
the website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 2
Hypothesis 1 schematic
Main image on website
H1a-c
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Initial trust
Although, human aspect in images are proven to have a positive effect on trust on the long run
website evaluation (Cyr et al., 2009), no significant effect is found in this research (table 18), which
examines the short run website evaluation. The effect even seems to be negative for the
human/product image, although not significant (t= -1.681, p= 0.096, table 18).
TABLE 18
The effect of human aspects in images on Initial trust
Coefficients (Dependent variable: TRUST)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)*
Human image
Human-Product image
B
ε
β
t
p
3.795
-.318
-.014
-.277
.120
.137
.161
.165
-.243
-.010
-.201
31.569
-2.313
-.085
-1.681
.000
.023
.932
.096
Note: The effect of the Product-image is the benchmark for the dummy-variables Human image and Humanproduct image. Scale Initial trust is 1-5, 5 being maximum trustable.
In conclusion, no evidence is found that human aspects influence initial trust in the short run. This
means the hypotheses 1a, 1b and 1c are not supported by the data.
Cyr et al.’s study (2009) has two main differences with this research: the human aspect in images,
and its effect on trust, was tested on experimental websites selling electronics, where this research
used an online bookstore as a research object. The second difference is the exposure time, where Cyr
et al. studied the long run website evaluation; this study focusses on the short run website
evaluation. Which factor made the difference in the results, will be discussed further along this study.
5.5.2 H2a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on organization
The hypotheses 2a to 2c, are testing the effect of the human aspect in images on organization on the
short run. Organization is a part of the construct aesthetics. After the review of the theory, it was
expected the human aspect in the images would have a negative effect on organization. Images with
human images would distract the attention from the more rational aspects of the website (eg. the
text).
H2a:
Human/product images will have a more negative effect on the perceived
organization of the website, then product images.
H2b:
Human images will have a more negative effect on the perceived organization of
the website, then product images.
H2c:
Human images will have a more negative effect on the perceived organization of
the website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 3
Hypothesis 2 schematic
Main image on website
Aesthetics
H2a-c
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (-)
c) Human image (--)
Organization
Visual appeal
No evidence is found to support hypotheses 2a, 2b and 2c. As can be seen in table 19, the images
seem to have no significant effect on organization on the short run. The human aspects did not
extract the viewers from the rational elements of the website. This might be explained by the fact
that cognitive processes are often too slow to effect the first impression.
TABLE 19
The effect of human aspects in images on Organization
Coefficients (Dependent variable: ORGAN)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
Human image
Human-Product image
B
ε
3.942
-.119
.091
-.066
.116
.132
.154
.159
β
t
p
-.098
.073
-.051
33.872
-.904
.588
-.414
.000
.369
.558
.680
Note: The effect of the Product-image is the benchmark for the dummy-variables Human image and Humanproduct image. Scale Organization is 1-5, 5 being maximum score on organization.
5.5.3 H3a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on visual appeal
The hypotheses 3a to 3c, are testing the effect of the human aspect in images on visual appeal on the
short run. Visual appeal is a part of the construct aesthetics. After the review of the theory, it was
expected the human aspect in the images would have a positive effect on visual appeal. Exposure to
positive facial expressions would hereby evoke positive emotions on the subject (Dimberg, 1997),
this in turn would lead to a more visually appealing image.
H3a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived visual
appeal of the website, then product images.
H3b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived visual appeal of
the website, then product images.
H3c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived visual appeal of
the website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 4
Hypothesis 3 schematic
Main image on website
Aesthetics
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Organization
H3a-c
Visual appeal
As can be seen in table 20, no evidence is found for significant effects of human images on visual
appeal on the short run. The human/product image even seems to have a negative effect on
visual appeal, although not significant (t=-1.874, p=0.064).
TABLE 20
The effect of human aspects in images on Visual Appeal
Coefficients (Dependent variable: VISUA)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
Human image
Human-Product image
B
ε
β
t
p
3.829
-.002
-.161
-.375
.148
.167
.197
.200
-.001
-.100
-.228
25.930
-.012
-.818
-1.874
.000
.991
.416
.064
Note: The effect of the Product-image is the benchmark for the dummy-variables Human image and Humanproduct image. Scale Visual Appeal is 1-5, 5 being most visual appealing.
5.5.4 H4: The net effect of the human aspect in images on aesthetics
Since H2a-c and H3a-c are rejected, no evidence was found that the human aspect of images has any
effect on aesthetics on the short run. Therefore, H4, testing the net effect of the human aspect in
images on aesthetics, will be rejected as well.
5.5.5 H5a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on pleasure
The hypotheses 5a to 5c, are testing the effect of the human aspect in images on pleasure on the
short run. Pleasure is a part of the construct emotional appeal. After the review of the theory, it was
expected the human aspect in the images would have a positive effect on pleasure. Exposure to
positive facial expressions would hereby evoke positive emotions on the subject (Dimberg, 1997).
H5a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived
pleasure of the website, then product images.
H5b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived pleasure of the
website, then product images.
H5c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived pleasure of the
website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 6
Hypothesis 5 schematic
Main image on website
Emotional appeal
H5a-c
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Pleasure
Arousal
Again, the difference in images, did not show any significant effect (table 21). No evidence for human
aspects in images effecting pleasure on the short run, is found.
TABLE 21
The effect of human aspects in images on Pleasure
Coefficients (Dependent variable: PLEAS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
Human image
Human-Product image
B
ε
Β
t
p
3.264
-.185
-.170
-.119
.153
.172
.203
.209
-.116
-.102
-.070
21.297
-1.078
-.835
-.568
.000
.284
.406
.572
Note: The effect of the Product-image is the benchmark for the dummy-variables Human image and Humanproduct image. Scale Pleasure is 1-5, 5 evoking most pleasure.
5.5.6 H6a-c: The effect of the human aspect in images on arousal
The hypotheses 6a to 6c, are testing the effect of the human aspect in images on arousal on the short
run. Arousal is a part of the construct emotional appeal. After the review of the theory, it was
expected the human aspect in the images would have a positive effect on arousal. People get more
aroused when being in presence of a human-being, or even a computerized face (Sproull et al.,
1996). So therefore, it is likely people got higher levels of arousal (the degree in which a person feels
excited, active, alert and stimulated) exposed to the human aspect in the main image.
H6a:
Human/product images will have a more positive effect on the perceived arousal
of the website, then product images.
H6b:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived arousal of the
website, then product images.
H6c:
Human images will have a more positive effect on the perceived arousal of the
website, then human/product images.
FIGURE 7
Hypothesis 6 schematic
Main image on website
a) Product image
b) Human/product image (+)
c) Human image (++)
Emotional appeal
Pleasure
H6a-c
Arousal
No significant effect of the human aspect in images on arousal on the short run is found (table 22).
Therefore, no evidence is found for H6a-c.
TABLE 22
The effect of human aspects in images on Arousal
Coefficients (Dependent variable: AROUS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
Human image
Human-Product image
B
ε
β
t
p
3.257
-.271
.129
-.154
.147
.167
.195
.204
-.179
.082
-.094
22.144
-1.630
.660
-.754
.000
.107
.511
.453
Note: The effect of the Product-image is the benchmark for the dummy-variables Human image and Humanproduct image. Scale Arousal is 1-5, 5 evoking most arousal.
5.5.7 The effect of the human aspect in images on the short run
Human aspects in images does not seem to effect any of the constructs, and as can be seen in table
23, does not seem to have any significant effect at all on the short run website evaluation. After all,
images might not be as important on the short run, at least not for an online bookstore. These results
will be discussed further in part six of this study.
TABLE 23
The effect of human aspects in images on Short Run Website Evaluation
Coefficients (Dependent variable: EVALU)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
Human image
Human-Product image
B
ε
β
t
p
3.451
-.299
-.091
-.260
.150
.168
.199
.202
-.187
-.055
-.154
23.003
-1.782
-.455
-1.284
.000
.078
.651
.203
Note: The effect of the Product-image is the benchmark for the dummy-variables Human image and Humanproduct image. Scale short run website evaluation is 1-5, 5 being most positively evaluated.
5.5.8 H7a-d: The effect of perceived aesthetics on perceived emotional appeal
Hypothesis 7a to 7d test whether perceived aesthetics has an effect on perceived emotional appeal.
Since the organization dimension of aesthetics is important to rational people, no effect is expected
to be shown on emotional appeal. On top of this, the website is evaluated on the short run, and the
cognitive process then is way less important.
H7a:
Organization will have no influence on perceived pleasure in the short run.
H7b:
Organization will have no influence on perceived arousal in the short run.
Conversely, visual appeal is all about emotions. High levels of visual appeal are expected to result
in higher levels of pleasure. According to a study of Demangeot and Broderick (2006) an aesthetic
website design draws the attention of the visitor. Therefore, high visual appeal is expected to be
more stimulating, which will lead to higher levels of arousal.
H7c:
Visual appeal will have a positive influence on perceived pleasure in the short
run.
H7d:
Visual appeal will have a positive influence on perceived arousal in the short run.
FIGURE 8
Hypothesis 7 schematic
Aesthetics
Emotional appeal
H7a-d
Organization
Pleasure
Visual appeal
Arousal
As expected, organization is proven to have no direct significant effect on neither pleasure (table 24)
nor arousal (table 25). Conversely, visual appeal has a significant positive effect on both pleasure
(t=7.960, p=0.000) and arousal (t=5.376, p=0.000). In conclusion, evidence is found for hypothesis 7a,
7b, 7c and 7d.
TABLE 24
The effect of Aesthetics on Pleasure
Coefficients (Dependent variable: PLEAS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)
Organization
Visual Appeal*
B
ε
.405
-.003
.738
.446
.119
.093
Note: Scale Pleasure is 1-5, 5 evoking most pleasure.
β
t
p
-.002
.695
.908
-.026
7.960
.367
.979
.000
TABLE 25
The effect of Aesthetics on Arousal
Coefficients (Dependent variable: AROUS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)
Organization
Visual Appeal*
B
ε
β
t
p
.427
.199
.531
.460
.124
.099
.160
.535
.928
1.608
5.376
.356
.112
.000
Note: Scale Arousal is 1-5, 5 evoking most arousal.
In addition to this, evidence is found, organization indirectly influencing both pleasure and arousal in
a positive way. As can be seen in table 26 and table 27, isolated, organization has a significant
positive influence on both pleasure (t=2.986, p=0.004), and arousal (t=4.045, p=0.000).
TABLE 26
The effect of Organization on Pleasure
Coefficients (Dependent variable: PLEAS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)
Organization*
B
ε
1.454
.417
.553
.140
β
t
p
.306
2.628
2.986
.010
.004
Note: Scale Pleasure is 1-5, 5 evoking most pleasure.
TABLE 27
The effect of Organization on Arousal
Coefficients (Dependent variable: AROUS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Organization*
B
ε
β
t
p
1.126
.514
.504
.127
.412
2.233
4.045
.028
.000
Note: Scale Arousal is 1-5, 5 evoking most arousal.
Combined with the calculations in table 24, 25 and 28, the conclusion can be drawn organization is
indirectly positively effecting both pleasure and arousal, via visual appeal.
TABLE 28
The effect of Organization on Visual Appeal
Coefficients (Dependent variable: VISUA)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Organization*
B
Ε
1.340
.589
.483
.122
β
t
p
.461
2.774
4.822
.007
.000
Note: Scale Visual Appeal is 1-5, 5 being most visual appealing.
FIGURE 15
The effect of Aesthetics on Emotional appeal
Aesthetics
Organization
+
Emotional appeal
+
Visual appeal
Pleasure
Arousal
To understand why organization influences visual appeal on the short run, we will have a closer look
at the definitions of these two concepts in ‘Part VI: Discussion & Findings’ of this study.
5.5.9 H8: The effect of initial trust on the short run website evaluation
Hypothesis 8 tests whether initial trust has an effect on the short run website evaluation. Initial trust
is expected to have a positive effect on the short run website evaluation. According to McKnight et
al. (1998) and Lim et al. (2006) it is in fact critical for the evaluation of first-time visitors of a website.
H8:
The perceived initial trust of the website has a positive effect on the short run
evaluation of the website.
FIGURE 9
Hypothesis 8 schematic
H8 (+)
Initial trust
Short run evaluation Website
As can be seen in table 29, there is indeed found evidence for initial trust significantly influencing the
short run website evaluation in positive way (t=2.414, p=0.018). In conclusion, support is found for
hypothesis 8.
TABLE 29
The effect of the constructs on Short Run Website Evaluation
Coefficients (Dependent variable: EVALU)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)
Initial Trust*
Organization
Visual Appeal
Pleasure
Arousal*
B
ε
β
t
p
-.246
.270
.011
.060
.125
.585
.389
.112
.114
.109
.100
.101
.222
.008
.057
.126
.552
-.633
2.414
.095
.547
1.251
5.785
.529
.018
.924
.586
.215
.000
Note: Scale Short Run Website Evaluation is 1-5, 5 being most positively evaluated.
5.5.10 H9: The effect of organization on the short run website evaluation
Hypothesis 9 tests whether organization has an effect on the short run website evaluation. Since
organization is part of the cognitive process, it was expected organization would have no influence
on the short run website evaluation in which affective processes are more important.
H9:
The perceived organization of the website has no effect on the short run evaluation
of the website.
FIGURE 10
Hypothesis 9 schematic
Aesthetics
H9
Organization
Visual appeal
Short run evaluation Website
At first sight this hypothesis seems to be supported, organization has no direct significant effect on
the short run website evaluation. However, as stated before, organization has a significant positive
effect on visual appeal (table 28), which in turn has a significant positive effect on emotional appeal
(table 24 & 25), which in turn has a positive significant effect on the short run website evaluation
(table 29). So in a very indirect and weak way, organization might have a small positive effect on the
short run website evaluation, but certainly not directly. Therefore, hypothesis 9 is supported.
FIGURE 16
The effect of Aesthetics on SR website evaluation via Emotional appeal
Aesthetics
Organization
+
Emotional appeal
+
Pleasure
+
Visual appeal
Arousal
SR evaluation Website
5.5.11 H10: The effect of visual appeal on the short run website evaluation
Hypothesis 10 tests whether visual appeal has an effect on the short run website evaluation. Since
visual appeal is part of the affective process, it was expected organization would have a positive
influence on the short run website evaluation in which affective processes are more important.
H10:
The perceived visual appeal of the website has a positive effect on the short run
evaluation of the website.
FIGURE 11
Hypothesis 10 schematic
Aesthetics
Organization
H10 (+)
Visual appeal
Short run evaluation Website
As can be seen in table 29, no support is found for a direct positive effect of visual appeal on the
short run website evaluation. Therefore hypothesis 10 is not supported. However, visual appeal does
effect the short run website evaluation positively in an indirect way via arousal. Removing both
emotional appeal components (pleasure and arousal), visual appeal positively influences the short
run website evaluation (t=4.101, p=0.000, table 30).
TABLE 30
The effect of the constructs on Short Run Website Evaluation
Coefficients (Dependent variable: EVALU)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)
Initial Trust*
Organization
Visual Appeal*
B
Ε
.010
.452
.019
.418
.465
.135
.141
.102
β
t
p
.363
.014
.402
.020
3.345
.133
4.101
.984
.001
.895
.000
Note: Scale Short Run Website Evaluation is 1-5, 5 being most positively evaluated.
FIGURE 16
The effect of Aesthetics on SR website evaluation via Emotional appeal
Aesthetics
Organization
+
Emotional appeal
+
Pleasure
+
Visual appeal
Arousal
SR evaluation Website
5.5.12 H11: The effect of pleasure on the short run website evaluation
Hypothesis 11 tests whether pleasure has an effect on the short run website evaluation. Several
studies (e.g. Mehrabian & Russell, 1974; Menon & Kahn, 2002) found evidence high levels of pleasure
results in approach behavior. This approach behavior will result in a more positive website
evaluation.
H11:
Pleasure has a positive effect on the short run evaluation of the website.
FIGURE 12
Hypothesis 11 schematic
Emotional appeal
H11 (+)
Pleasure
Short run evaluation Website
Arousal
As can be seen in table 29, no support is found for a direct positive effect on the short run website
evaluation. Looking closer, evidence can be found for pleasure positively effecting the short run
website evaluation indirectly, via arousal (table 31 & 32).
TABLE 31
The effect of the constructs on Short Run Website Evaluation
Coefficients (Dependent variable: EVALU)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)
Initial Trust*
Organization
Visual Appeal
Pleasure*
B
ε
-.025
.448
-.002
.143
.371
.455
.127
.134
.124
.109
β
t
p
.361
-.002
.138
.376
-.055
3.521
-.016
1.153
3.414
.956
.001
.988
.252
.001
Note: Scale Short Run Website Evaluation is 1-5, 5 being most positively evaluated.
TABLE 32
The effect of Pleasure on Arousal
Coefficients (Dependent variable: AROUS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Pleasure*
B
ε
β
t
p
1.379
.579
.260
.082
.618
5.313
7.074
.000
.000
Note: Arousal is 1-5, 5 evoking most arousal.
FIGURE 17
The effect of pleasure on SR website evaluation via Arousal
Emotional appeal
Pleasure
+
+
Arousal
SR evaluation Website
In the short run pleasure seems to have a positive effect on arousal. So if the website makes one
experience positive emotions (eg. happiness), one get more stimulated by the website. This positive
effect, ofcourse, is measured when both levels of pleasure and arousal were neutral. When the level
of pleasure changes, other effects might appear. This will be discussed in ‘Part VI: Discussions &
Findings’ of this study.
5.5.13 H12: The effect of arousal on the short run website evaluation
Hypothesis 12 tests whether arousal has an effect on the short run website evaluation. Several
studies (e.g. Mehrabian & Russell, 1974; Menon & Kahn, 2002) found evidence high levels of arousal
results in avoidance behavior, unless high levels of pleasure are experienced at the same time.
Therefore, the effect of arousal depends on the level of pleasure.
H12:
Arousal has a positive or negative effect on the short run evaluation of the website,
depending on the level of pleasure.
FIGURE 13
Hypothesis 12 schematic
Emotional appeal
Pleasure
Arousal
Short run evaluation Website
H12
A significantly positive effect was found for the effect on the short run website evaluation (t=5.785,
p=0.000), this seems to be by far the strongest positive effect as well. The standardized beta has a
value of 0.552, compared to the standardized beta of initial trust, the other component directly
influencing the short run website evaluation: 0.222 (table 29).
FIGURE 18
The effect of emotional appeal and initial trust on SR website evaluation
Emotional appeal
Pleasure
+
Initial Trust
+
0.222
0.552
Arousal
SR evaluation Website
In this study arousal has a positive impact on the short run website evaluation. To explain this, table
3 is shown once again underneath. As can be seen, there are only two options for arousal having a
positive effect on the approach behavior: neutral pleasure in combination with moderate arousal, or
high pleasure in combination with high arousal.
TABLE 3
Interaction between Basic emotional states and Approach/Avoidance behavior
Level of Pleasure
Neutral
Neutral
High pleasure
Displeasure
Level of Arousal
Moderate arousal
High arousal or low arousal
High arousal
High arousal
Behavior
Approach
Avoidance
Approach
Avoidance
When we have a closer look at the dataset, we can see pleasure seems to be neutral (x̄=3.0926 on a
scale of 1 to 5, 3 being neutral), and arousal seems to be moderate (x̄=3.1429 on a scale of 1 to 5, 3
being moderate). In conclusion, approach behavior will get the overhand, translated into a positive
effect of arousal on the short run website evaluation. When arousal will increase further, and
pleasure stays at the same level, avoidance behavior will be the result and the effect of arousal on
the short run website evaluation will become negative. So the effect of arousal can indeed be
positive as well as negative, depending in the amount of pleasure experienced. In conclusion,
evidence is found for hypothesis 12.
TABLE 32
Perceived Pleasure and Arousal
Pleasure
Arousal
N
90
84
Minimum
1.33
1.33
Maximum
5.00
5.00
Mean
3.0926
3.1429
Std. Deviation
.79170
.75390
In this study, arousal even seems to be the most important factor determining the short run website
evaluation, even more than twice as important as initial trust. One reason can be the exact right
amount of arousal for the given amount of pleasure, which in this case are almost equally neutral,
resulting in a strong positive effect on the approach behavior. A second, more likely reason, can be
the fact the affective process is very important for the short run website evaluation. Emotions in
general therefore have a bigger impact than more rational variables as initial trust. This will be
discussed more extensively in part six of this study.
5.5.13 Building a model concerning the short run website evaluation
All findings combined, the model depicted in figure 19 shows us how we form the short run website
evaluation, in case of the website in this study. A general model for short run website evaluation,
valid for websites in general, is depicted in figure 20. When we compare this model with the
conceptual map of this study, one can conclude emotional appeal is even more important than
expected, and aesthetics are less important than expected. Even though the entire website
evaluation is based on the lay out in the case of this study, aesthetics seems to play an inferior role.
This confirms the prove for affective processes being much more important in the short run than
cognitive processes.
FIGURE 19
Short run website evaluation model
Aesthetics
Emotional appeal
Organization
Pleasure
+
+
+
Visual appeal
Initial Trust
(0.388)
+
Arousal
(0.265)
(0.222)
+
SR evaluation Website
(0.522)
Note: The numbers in the model are the standardized Beta’s of each effect. The standardized Beta is used to
compare effects. Pleasure (0.388) has more effect on Arousal than Visual appeal (0.265), and Arousal (0.522)
has more effect on Short run website evaluation than Initial trust (0.222).
On must keep in mind the general short run website evaluation model depicted in figure 20, was
constructed with the purpose to explain the short run effect of human aspects in images. Two
constructs of the WebQualTM model (Laiocono, 2002; 2007) could effect the short run website
evaluation as well: response time and innovativeness. Response time might effect the short run
website evaluation in a direct way, where innovativeness is more likely to effect the short run
website evaluation in a more indirect way, probably via aesthetics. Further research is needed to find
support for these two constructs, which can make the short run website evaluation model complete.
FIGURE 20
General short run website evaluation model
Aesthetics
Emotional appeal
Organization
Pleasure
+
+
+
Visual appeal
Initial Trust
+
-/+
Arousal
SR evaluation Website
PART VI DISCUSSION & FINDINGS
6.1 The influence of human aspects in images on the short run
No evidence is found that human aspects in images influence the short run website evaluation in any
way. Not in a direct way, and neither in an indirect way via the constructs trust, aesthetics and
emotional appeal. These same constructs are proven to have an effect on the long run website
evaluation, but do not seem to effect the first impression of the website. Basically, there are two
possible explanation for this:
-
An online bookstore may not be influenced as much by human aspects in images, as for
instance an online electronic store, like used in the study on trust of Cyr et al. (2009).
-
Human aspects in images do not have an influence on the short run, as it does on the long
run (Cyr et al., 2009).
Both possibilities will be discussed in the following chapters.
6.1.1 Difference between an online bookstore and an online electronic store
Cyr et al. (2009) scientifically proved human aspects in images made a difference on trust on the long
run. That study focused on an electronic selling website as research object. In this study, the human
aspects does not seem to effect initial trust at all. This may be explained by the fact trust is more
important for an online electronic store than for an online bookstore. Electronics are high-tech and
often more expensive than books, this means the risk of the consumer buying electronics online is
way higher. In fact, this is the reason why consumers that are comfortable with buying a book online,
rather buy their electronics in an offline store. There is a possibility this is the main reason why this
study results differ from the study of Cyr et al. (2009).
However, this solely explains the lack of influence on initial trust, and thereby the short run website
evaluation (since initial trust influences the short run website evaluation). This does not explain why
human images do not have any effect on aesthetics and emotional appeal. For this reason, the
second possibility discussed in the next chapter, seems to be more likely.
6.1.2 Why human aspects might not have influence on the short run website evaluation
On the short run, design and download speed, are the main aspects influencing website evaluation,
because it is about the first impression, exploration of the website have not even started yet. For this
study we focused on the design part, and the main image seemed to have a great influence on the
design (Riegelsberger et al., 2002; Russell, 2005; Gofman and Moskowitz, 2009). Although the focus
seems to be on the main image, and the human aspects in it, the message of the image may not get
across on the short run. The overall beauty of the image is evaluated, but the message of the image
is not translated into the short run evaluation. Maybe the image is even checked for consistency,
because a picture of, for instance, a digital camera might have confused visitors. However, it might
be, the message of trust, warmth and social presence of human aspect in images, only gets across
when executing a task at the same time (eg. while reading information). This might explain why
human aspects in image do not have any effect on the short run, but it does have effect on the long
run. Further research is needed to draw solid conclusions.
6.2 The effect of initial trust on short run website evaluation
According to McKnight et al. (1998) and Lim et al. (2006) initial trust is critical for the evaluation of
first-time visitors of a website. This study found evidence for this phenomena as well: initial trust
does effect the short run website evaluation. The variation of initial trust on the short run among
different website designs can be explained by individual disposition to trust, institution-based trust
and cognitive based trust (McKnight et al., 1998). Individual disposition to trust depends on nurture,
and cannot be influenced by the interface of the website. Institution-based trust depends on the
environment, and is defined as the perceived security of a consumer in a situation, influenced by
guarantees, safety nets and other regulatory/legal structures (Zucker, 1986; Shapiro, 1987). This can
partly be influenced by the website on the short run, by showing logos of institutions which provide
guarantees and safety nets. An example of this is the logo of ‘Thuiswinkel Waarborg’1 in the
Netherlands, which gives a warranty for products bought online by the shops subscribed to the
‘Thuiswinkel Waarborg’. A website depicting this logo sends a clear message of trust towards its
customers familiar with the Thuiswinkel Waarborg. Cognitive-based trust is based on rapid cognitive
cues and first impressions, and is the most important form of trust for short run website evaluation.
On top of this, cognitive-based trust is mainly dependent on the layout of the website on the short
run, and therefore it can be influenced. How exactly cognitive-based trust can be influenced remains
the question, since human aspects in images does not seem to have any effect on the short run.
Further research is recommended.
1
http://www.thuiswinkel.org
Whether this initial trust will evolve into sustainable trust (Kim & Tadisina, 2007), or robust trust
(McKnight et al., 1998) depends on several other aspects, like the quality of the service of the
company behind the website.
6.3 The effect of arousal on short run website evaluation
Several studies (e.g. Mehrabian & Russell, 1974; Menon & Kahn, 2002) found evidence high levels of
arousal results in avoidance behavior. This in turn, will result in less positive evaluations of the
website. However, this depends on the level of pleasure. When experiencing high pleasure, high
arousal will still lead to approach behavior. This effect is summarized in table 3.
TABLE 3
Interaction between Basic emotional states and Approach/Avoidance behavior
Pleasure
Neutral
Neutral
High pleasure
Displeasure
Arousal
Moderate arousal
High arousal or low arousal
High arousal
High arousal
Behavior
Approach
Avoidance
Approach
Avoidance
In this study, arousal is the most important factor determining the short run website evaluation, even
more than twice as important as initial trust. One reason can be the exact right amount of arousal for
the given amount of pleasure, which in this case are almost equally neutral, resulting in a strong
positive effect on the approach behavior. However, high pleasure accompanied by moderate arousal
would still score better, so the effect could be even stronger.
A second, more likely reason, can be the fact the affective process is very important for the short run
website evaluation. Emotions in general therefore have a bigger impact than more rational variables
as initial trust, for the simple reason that affective processes are faster than cognitive processes.
Since emotional appeal is so important for the short run website evaluation, even more important
than for the long run where there is more time for cognitive processes, it is very important for a
website to score high on pleasure, to effect arousal in the appropriate way so it results in approach
behavior.
Since human aspects in the main image does not seem to have any effect on arousal nor pleasure,
the questions remains how emotions can be influenced by the layout of the website. A factor, well
known for highly influencing emotions, is color (eg. Cerbus & Nichols, 1963, Adams & Osgood, 1973,
Jacobs & Suess, 1975, Valdez, 1993, Valdez & Mehrabian 1994).
Color probably influences emotions way faster than the human aspect in an image, because it takes
less cognitive resources to process them. Therefore, this can be an aspect highly influencing
emotional appeal, and thereby arousal and the short run website evaluation. However, further
research is needed to confirm this.
6.4 The effect of pleasure on arousal on the short run
In the short run pleasure seems to have a positive effect on arousal, when both constructs are
neutral. So if the website makes one experience positive emotions (eg. happiness), one get more
stimulated by the website. Conversely, if the website makes one experience negative emotions (eg.
anger), one get less stimulated by the website. Just as the effect of pleasure on the effect of arousal
and the short term website evaluation, this effect may change when experiencing other levels of
pleasure and arousal. This study’s effect of pleasure on arousal was positive, because both pleasure
and arousal where neutral to begin with.
When experiencing very low levels of pleasure, arousal might not be negatively influenced by this,
but probably even positively: lowering pleasure might heighten arousal. For instance, a shocking
picture might increase your concentration on the screen (pleasure down, arousal up). When
experiencing very high levels of pleasure, arousal is probably positively influenced by this, just like
when pleasure is neutral. However, further research is needed to confirm this.
In conclusion, pleasure and arousal cannot be seen apart from each other, because they influence
each other constantly in a different way, depending on the levels of both pleasure and arousal.
However, high scores for pleasure always seem to have an indirect, but important, positive effect on
the short run website evaluation. Therefore, the aim of every website should be evoking high levels
of pleasure. This cannot be reached by using human aspects in images according to the results of this
study, so other constructs (eg. color) should be used to influence pleasure.
6.5 The effect of visual appeal on emotional appeal on the short run
Visual appeal is the affective part of aesthetics, and therefore all about emotions. High levels of
visual appeal are indeed resulting in higher levels of pleasure. According to a study of Demangeot
and Broderick (2006) an aesthetic website design draws the attention of the visitor. Therefore, high
visual appeal was expected to be more stimulating, which leads to higher levels of arousal. This effect
was also shown in this study. Visual appeal has an indirect effect on the short run website evaluation
via pleasure and arousal. According to Loiacono et al. (2007) visual appeal has a more direct effect on
reuse intentions on the long run. There must be stated, their study failed to get a complete view of
the effect of emotional appeal, so no conclusions can be drawn yet. There might be a possibility
visual appeal plays a more important and direct role when evaluating a website on the long run, but
this is not proven yet. Further research is needed.
The indirect effect of visual appeal on the short run website evaluation is positive, so a more visual
appealing website scores higher. Visual appeal is influenced by affective processes and does not
seem to be effected by human aspects in images, therefore other ways must be found to make the
website more attractive (eg. a new innovative look). Further research is recommended.
6.6 The effect of organization on visual appeal on the short run
To understand why organization influences visual appeal on the short run, we will have a closer look
at the definitions of ‘organization’ and ‘visual appeal’. Visual appeal is defined as ‘the degree in which
the website is pleasing for the eye, and the degree in which the visitors get the desire to explore the
website’, where organization takes into account ‘in which degree the layout of a website, makes the
browsing process more efficient and effective’ (Cai et al., 2008). On the short run, visitors of the
website do not get to the browsing process, because the first impression is determined entirely by
the layout of the website and the download speed. To judge on the organization dimension, it is
therefore needed to look at firsthand clues, like the overall overview of the website. If the website
looks cluttered for example, the website scores low at organization, although the visitor did not even
browse on the website. This makes the website visually less attractive as well, hence, visual appeal
decreases. Conversely, when organization increases, visual appeal will increase as well.
Although it is the least important aspect of the developed short run model, organization has some
positive influence on the short run evaluation of the website in a very indirect way. Since
organization is mostly based on cognitive processes, organization is expected to have a much more
direct and important effect on the long run website evaluation. Organization, based on cognitive
processes, is therefore one of the most interesting factors when switching from a short run
evaluation to a long run evaluation: the factor becomes probably way more important when using
the website on the long run. Further research on the subject is recommended.
PART VII CONCLUSION
7.1 Conclusion
In the end, this study gave us four main conclusions, which gives us new insights in short run website
evaluation. The short run website evaluation is in fact important, because it influences the long run
website evaluation strongly via the ‘halo-effect’. We will discuss these four conclusions briefly
underneath.
-
Human aspects in images do not seem to have any effect on the short run website
evaluation.
Surprisingly, human aspects in images do not have any effect on the short run website
evaluation in any way. Further research is needed, whether this effect is universal for all
short run website evaluations, or for websites selling low-risk products (eg. books) only.
-
Initial trust based on a first impression plays an important role in case of the short run
website evaluation. However, initial trust will not be influenced by human aspects in
images on the short run.
Initial trust, based on first impressions, positively influences the short run website evaluation.
Whether this initial trust will develop into sustainable trust, depends on the performance of
the website on the long run. Initial trust is an important first step towards sustainable trust,
and therefore for the long run website evaluation. This makes initial trust an important factor
which should be taken into account when designing websites.
-
Emotional appeal effects the short run website evaluation the most. Both pleasure and
arousal are important factors influencing the short run website evaluation. However,
emotional appeal will not be influenced by human aspects in images on the short run.
Both pleasure and arousal, are the most important factors influencing the short run website
evaluation. This can be explained by the fact affective processes are way faster than cognitive
processes. Pleasure must be high to achieve a positive effect of arousal on the short run
website evaluation. Arousal is best kept low, but can become higher as the levels of pleasure
rise. The design of a website must evoke positive emotions to result into the highest short
run website evaluations.
-
Aesthetics effect emotional appeal in a positive way, which in turn has a positive effect on
the short run website evaluation.
The aesthetics, consisting out of a cognitive aspect ‘organization’ and an affective aspect
‘visual appeal’, influences the emotional appeal in a positive way. Aesthetics have no direct
effect on the short run website evaluation, but an indirect effect via emotional appeal. The
effect of aesthetics on emotional appeal never have been stated before in any website
evaluation model.
These conclusions leaves with some answers, a model for short run website evaluation is created,
but with a few questions as well. When human aspects in images do not effect initial trust, aesthetics
nor emotional appeal, what part of the layout does effect these aspects? Further research is
recommended.
7.2 Implications for practice
In this thesis, the short run website evaluation is discussed. It was expected the human element in
images would influence this short run website evaluation. Nevertheless, this is not supported by the
gathered data. This research learned us a few things about the short run website evaluation model,
but did not learn us how to influence the model. Therefore, more research is needed to determine
the aspects that do influence the short run website evaluation. However, no matter what those
aspects are, they must have some effect on the two most important constructs in the model: initial
trust and emotional appeal. The aspect(s) of the website able to influence initial trust or emotional
appeal, will be the key(s) to a positive short run website evaluation.
LIMITATIONS
Before generalizing the conclusions of this study, a few limitations should be considered. First of all,
the sample size as well as the heterogeneity of the sample are limited. The sample size is quiet small
(91 respondents) and although some significant results were shown, the sample might be too small
to draw solid conclusions. This study does, however, gives us a first look at how the short run website
evaluation model works. Therefore it is recommended to test the model in different situations.
Furthermore, the respondents mainly consist out of the authors social circle, and might not
represent the population entirely. The sample consist out of 41% male and 59% female respondents,
most of them with Dutch nationality, aged between 18 and 57 years old with an average of
approximately 29 years. In the internet population, of course the cultural differences are more
diverse, and the proportion of male internet users is about equally high as the proportion female
internet users. Also the average age of the sample is lower than the average age of the population.
The differences in demographics between the sample and population, might influence the results of
this study.
Secondly, the research object was an online bookstore, results might change when conducting the
same experiment on for instance an online electronic store. Online bookstores sell low-tech, low-risk
products, and trust might get more important when conducting the experiment on a website selling
high-risk products. Furthermore, since the website was shown full screen on powerpoint, the real
browsing process was left to the imagination of the respondents, since they were not browsing at
that moment. Evaluations conducted from real-life situations might be more reliable.
Thirdly, the short run model was built to test the human aspects in images on the short run. The
constructs as ‘Innovativeness’ and ‘response time’ were left out, and should be taken into
consideration when creating a more general model. These constructs were left out, because human
aspects would have no effect on the constructs. Testing the model more extensively for general
purposes, these constructs should be taken into consideration as well.
Lastly, the three different images used, on which the conclusions concerning the human aspect in
images is based, might differ in overall beauty, through the eyes of the respondents. For instance, in
this study the ‘product’-image seemed to be the most visual appealing image according to the
respondents (table 20). Although not significant different from the ‘product’-image at all, the
‘human’-image comes in second place, and, at last, the ‘human/product’-image is almost significantly
less visual appealing (t=-1.874, p=0.064). It is suspected the overall beauty of the last mentioned
image, is negatively influencing the visual appeal construct.
TABLE 20
The effect of human aspects in images on Visual Appeal
Coefficients (Dependent variable: VISUA)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
Human image
Human-Product image
B
ε
β
t
p
3.829
-.002
-.161
-.375
.148
.167
.197
.200
-.001
-.100
-.228
25.930
-.012
-.818
-1.874
.000
.991
.416
.064
Note: The effect of the Product-image is the benchmark for the dummy-variables Human image and Humanproduct image. Scale Visual Appeal is 1-5, 5 being most visual appealing.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Although, according to theory, the focus of the first impression of a website seems to be on the main
image, and the human aspects in it, the message the image sent is not getting across on the short run
in this study. A possible explanation might be that the overall beauty and the consistency of the
image might be evaluated, but the message of the image of warmth and social presence of human
aspects in images, might only get across when executing a task at the same time. This might explain
why human aspects in image do not have any effect on the short run, but it does have effect on the
long run. Therefore, it might be interesting to study the effect the images in this website on the long
run as well.
Another explanation of the lack of effect of the human aspects, is to change the research object from
a low-tech and low-risk product selling website, to a high-tech and high-risk product selling website
(eg. an online electronic store). Initial trust becomes more important, and it might be the human
aspects will be taken into consideration (although probably unconsciously) for the overall short run
website evaluation.
Human aspects in images, do not seem to effect the short run website evaluation in any way. So
what part of the layout does effect initial trust, aesthetics and emotional appeal? A factor, well
known for highly influencing emotions, is color. Color might influence emotions way faster than the
human aspect in an image, because it takes less cognitive resources to process them. Therefore, this
can be an aspect highly influencing emotional appeal, and thereby arousal and the short run website
evaluation. Other aspects of the layout should be tested on short run website evaluation. This way,
the different aspects of the website layout, can be shown to influence the short run website
evaluation in a different way.
The next step, beyond short run website evaluation, should be comparing the model of short run
website evaluation to a model of long run website evaluation. How does the short run website
evaluation effect the long run website evaluation, and how important is this effect? Comparing the
short run website evaluation to the long run website evaluation, cognitive aspects will probably get
more important when evaluating a website in the long run, where affective aspects are more
important for evaluating a website on the short run. Where emotional appeal is the most important
factor influencing the short run website evaluation, cognitive factors as organization and trust
become more important in the long run. In addition to this, other cognitive constructs, not
influencing the short run website evaluation, will be important as well for the long run website
evaluation (eg. ease of use).
Concluding, the short run website evaluation model is just a start, further research is needed to
understand the meaning for design-aspects, and the impact of this model on the long run website
evaluation model.
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APPENDICES
Appendix A: Pleasure-Arousal Dimensions
Appendix B: ‘Product’-website
Appendix C: ‘Human/Product’-website
Appendix D: ‘Human’-website
Appendix E: Anti-image Covariance Matrix & Correlation Matrix independent variables
Appendix F: Eigen values & Scree plot
Appendix G: Anti-image Covariance Matrix & Correlation Matrix dependent variables
Anti-image Matrices
EVALU1
Anti-image Covariance
Anti-image Correlation
EVALU2
EVALU3
EVALU1
.706
-.337
-.208
EVALU2
-.337
.756
-.042
EVALU3
-.208
-.042
.894
EVALU1
.552a
-.461
-.262
EVALU2
-.461
.568a
-.051
EVALU3
-.262
-.051
.669a
a. Measures of Sampling Adequacy(MSA)
Appendix H: Component Matrix dependent variable
Component Matrixa
Component
1
EVALU1
.841
EVALU2
.777
EVALU3
.617
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
a. 1 components extracted.
Appendix I: The influence of gender on the constructs
Coefficients (Dependent variable: TRUST)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)*
B
ε
β
t
p
3.708
-.325
.086
.137
-.249
43.239
-2.371
.000
.020
Coefficients (Dependent variable: ORGAN)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
B
ε
β
t
p
3.951
-.113
.082
.130
-.092
48.413
-.865
.000
.390
Coefficients (Dependent variable: VISUA)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
B
ε
β
t
p
3.667
-.029
.105
.168
-.018
34.899
-.171
.000
.865
Coefficients (Dependent variable: PLEAS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
B
ε
β
t
p
3.176
-.203
.108
.169
-.127
29.278
-1.201
.000
.233
Coefficients (Dependent variable: AROUS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
B
ε
3.259
-.278
.107
.165
β
t
p
-.183
30.587
-1.682
.000
.096
Coefficients (Dependent variable: EVALU)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Gender (M=1, F=0)
B
ε
β
t
p
3.346
-.319
.106
.166
-.199
31.606
-1.919
.000
.058
Appendix J: The influence of gender on the constructs
Coefficients (Dependent variable: TRUST)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Age
B
ε
β
t
p
3.765
-.006
.179
.006
-.120
21.053
-1.118
.000
.267
Coefficients (Dependent variable: ORGAN)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Age
B
ε
β
t
p
4.159
-.009
.164
.005
-.176
25.346
-1.669
.000
.099
β
t
p
.077
16.512
.717
.000
.475
Coefficients (Dependent variable: VISUA)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Age
B
ε
3.514
.005
.213
.007
Coefficients (Dependent variable: PLEAS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Age
B
ε
β
t
p
2.940
.005
.219
.007
.080
13.396
.753
.000
.453
Coefficients (Dependent variable: AROUS)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Age
B
ε
β
t
p
3.383
-.008
.213
.007
-.133
15.847
-1.219
.000
.226
Coefficients (Dependent variable: EVALU)
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients
Model
(Constant)*
Age
B
ε
β
t
p
3.417
-.007
.215
.007
-.107
15.917
-1.015
.000
.313