Soften the pain, increase the gain: Interventions that mitigate the influences of negative feedback and improve online feedback exchange

Content creators can experience negative feedback when sharing work on online platforms. In this thesis, we define feedback written in an unnecessarily harsh tone as negative feedback. Content creators who receive negative feedback report lower levels of affective states and generate lower quality work. In my thesis, I quantify the influences of negative feedback and report results from three experiments testing novel techniques that aimed at mitigating these influences: self-directed coping activities, valence-based ordering of feedback, and empathy arousal. In the first experiment, we investigate the efficacy of three coping activities: self-affirmation, expressive writing, and distraction. Participants (N=480) revised their essays after performing a coping activity. We find expressive writing encourages essay revision, distraction improves affective states and perception of feedback provider, and self-affirmation has no statistical effects on the outcome measures. In the second experiment, we present feedback in a valence-based order. Participants (N=270) write a story and revise it after receiving feedback in different valence orders. Our main result is that presenting negative feedback last improves content creators’ affective states and perception of the feedback. In the third experiment, we explore ways to discourage users from generating negative feedback. Participants (N=205) read a narrative about the content creators before providing feedback. We also explore how an ingroup framing in task instructions mediates the effectiveness of narrative empathy. Our results show both narrative empathy and ingroup framing increases feedback providers’ invested effort and the quality of the feedback. The techniques investigated in these experiments are situated within a broader design space for feedback exchange. We hope these techniques promote the generation of more constructive and considerate feedback in online platforms, thereby helping content creators improve their work and benefit from the feedback exchange process.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Yu

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bailey, Brian P
• Karahalios, Karrie
• Kumar, Ranjitha
• Churchill, Elizabeth

• creativity support tools, design, feedback

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Yu Wu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109420

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F109420