User Behavior & Psychology / Article 7. First Published in Sept. 2006, HCI Vistas Vol-II Author: Dr. Dinesh Katre

Our social behavior takes a very interesting form when we interact with the cyber-world. It is interesting to observe how people communicate through e-mail. But it is much more fascinating to see a lot of them discussing in e-groups. It reveals several facets of group dynamics, behavioral patterns, collective emotions and social psychology in totality. Hciidc, designindia and usabilitymatters are the noisy YahooGroops created for usability and design professionals, where I have been party to several discussions. I am a member of some other YahooGroups as well, but in these groups discussion seems to be a social taboo! The infrequent use of such e-mail groups is confined to recruitment announcements only. I have tried to aggregate various observations and distinct trends of e-mail group discussions in this article. I hope that it will initiate the readers into social psychology.

Group Polarization

It is commonly observed in our e-mail discussions that the views of most group members tend to polarize in the direction of a dominant group opinion. It is called as Group Polarization Phenomenon in social psychology. It can be misleading, as dominant group opinions may not always be right. Our group discussions consist of observations and light opinions as well as severe comments. The severe comments attract our attention and have greater potential to influence the opinions of participants. Such sever comments either result in a major confrontational debate or they traumatize the initiator of discussion who discontinues to participate thereafter.

Empathy and Other Emotions

During e-mail group discussions, quite often members respond to echo similar opinions and forget to contribute their independent observations on the issue. They write about how they agree or disagree with the lead writer. If one starts complaining about the quality of design education in India, everyone begins to complain. It tempts you to paint more horrific picture so as to score more points than others who contributed to the subject. It becomes like dog howling, one begins it and several dogs join the concert. It is result of empathy, which is recognized as social emotion. The empathizing members always echo towards the side that has greater swing. It is similar to your yawning after watching somebody else yawn or your temptation to clap when others in the audience start clapping. Such response is a result of empathetic emotion. Apart from empathy, pride, nursling (caring), enthusiasm, admiration are the prominent positive emotions expressed through e-mails seem to evoke good response. Disgust (e.g. bad design) and helplessness (e.g. condition of basic infrastructure in India) are the prominent negative emotions, which also receive good response from others. Also many of us prefer to measure and evaluate against ideals and write about how things should be done or take value based invincible positions (it is very safe that way).

Homogeneity

Humans also have a natural tendency to become homogenous with a group. We begin to converge with the larger number of people. We say and feel about things in the manner, which is acceptable to the group. Demonstration of uniformity and conformity is necessary to win acceptability in a group. During the discussions, members using familiar terminology, members with similar educational / professional background, members belonging to similar institutions get early acceptance in the group. Their e-mails get responded more quickly. The group is able to identify you, even if you are an unknown individual. The tendency of members to mention things like PD 1987, VC 1990 (the course and the year of passing) at the signature is to cite their homogeneity with others. I don’t know how true is this, but designindia forum seems to have greater homogeneity compared to hciidc forum. The cohesiveness and adherence to unstated norms are clearly evident through the discussions on designindia. On the contrary, hciidc forum appears quite heterogeneous and that goes well with the multi-disciplinary character of HCI domain. But definitely the participants of hciidc forum need to develop some level of homogeneity to achieve more converging discussions.

Reciprocation

During e-mail discussions very often you find members responding to those who had earlier responded to their e-mails (positively or negatively both). Though not deliberately but it is a reciprocal behavior. It is out of the nature of ‘give and take’ or gratitude (which is a social emotion) of human beings.

Invisibility & Unaccountability

e-mail is an indirect and asynchronous medium to discuss. Mostly you haven’t personally met the members with whom you discuss in the forum. This can be problematic at times. In the mid of a heated discussion, some spoilsport members send acrimonious or offensive comments and vanish. They usually have no intention of adding value to the discussion. We have experienced this during many e-mail discussions. There are many psychological and circumstantial reasons to it. The authors of such e-mails, at sub-conscious level feel that they are invisible and unaccountable in e-mail communication. Or such frustrating remarks may be a result of their bully boss or adverse job conditions. Interestingly, they wouldn’t use same language in direct discussions with personal presence. They will be quite well mannered and nice.

Avoid the strangers

You come across 5/6 e-mails discussing a topic that tempts you to respond. But the participants in the discussion do not take any cognizance of your response. They bypass your comments and continue to discuss among themselves. Quite possibly, it is chatter between a group of friends or batch mates from IDC or NID or any other friend circles; and you happened to have intruded their intimacy! All though these are open discussion forums, many of us are reluctant to interact with unknown individuals. I think that is very strange but it is an extension of our real social behavior into the cyber-world. Hciidc and designindia both forums have approx. 1000 members each. But you find same 50 to 100 members discussing frequently. The rest of them send an introducing e-mail while joining the group and vanish into oblivion.

We need to rise above the diktat “mom has told not to talk with strangers” especially on focused discussion forums.

Also there are some who prefer to look-in but not reveal themselves.

Disappearance of gender perception and hierarchies

The most amazing contribution of e-mail discussion groups is the disappearance of gender perception, professional and social hierarchies. You almost fail to notice whether the respondent is male or female, senior or junior, professional or student. You simply go by what has been stated in the e-mail and respond. Your identity is reduced to an e-mail address without making you a total anonymous entity. I hope that it stays that way.

Social Values and Norms

It is always beneficial to everyone if a subject is discussed, and viewpoints are exchanged. You learn faster and greater. It is also beneficial to debate but it should be ‘thought versus thought’ and not ‘you versus me’ or ‘they versus us’. Mutual respect, appreciation and cordial approach to interactions can surely build healthier relations. Believing in core usability and design values can help us emerge as a prosperous society of Indian designers. So far we have succeeded in building networks through e-mail IDs, but thoughtful interactions can network our minds!

Dr. Dinesh Katre presently heads the National Multimedia Resource Centre of C-DAC, Pune, India. He is the principle designer of many software products that deal with digital library, cultural informatics, e-learning, multimedia authoring and computer game design. He has special interest in the cognitive study of technology users and behavioral design of products. Journal of HCI Vistas is his community building initiative. It is meant to promote research oriented, multi-disciplinary thinking in the field of Human-Computer Interaction in India. This e-publication is open for usability practitioners and UX designers to publish short articles.

© Copyright 2007-2008