Science Research Management ›› 2024, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (4): 175-184.DOI: 10.19571/j.cnki.1000-2995.2024.04.019

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Influence of personalized recommendation of short-videos on users′ information adoption intention

Zhang Shengtai, Yang Yang, Yuan Yiwei, Yang Hongjun, Zhang Mengtao   

  1. School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
  • Received:2023-03-06 Revised:2023-09-04 Online:2024-04-20 Published:2024-04-07

Abstract:     "Five minutes on TikTok, one hour on earth"! In recent years, the academia has focused a lot of attention on short-video social networks, which have become one of the most important sources of information and daily entertainment for users. Few academics, however, have examined in-depth how TikTok and other short-video viewers perceive and understand the platform technology and how this influences the users′ psychological requirements and behavioral patterns. When using the TikTok platform, users′ information behavior is primarily that of information adoption. However, there is currently relatively little research on how likely users are to adopt the information on platforms for short-videos, like TikTok. It is unclear whether the distinctive features of short-video sites like TikTok will have a different effect. Second, one of the key features of short-video platforms like TikTok is in the form of personalized recommendation. According to some academics, users will be less ready to adopt information if perceived customization is too strong. On the platforms for short-videos like TikTok, nevertheless, this conclusion has not been tested. It has not been investigated whether perceived personalization will affect users′ psychological resistance or negative psychology. Finally, there are still some conflicts and contradictions in the current research on the impact of information narrowing, and it is necessary to further verify the impact of information narrowing. The impact of perceived personalization and information narrowing for short-videos, such as TikTok, has also not been established. To seek reasonable solutions to these issues, this study empirically examined the information adoption intention of users of short-video platforms by using TikTok as an illustration, and using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model.In this study, the primary data collection method used is questionnaire surveys. The measurement of relevant variables mainly adopted the currently available relevant scales, and the Likert five-level scale was used as the measurement tool. A total of 480 questionnaires were collected, and 435 valid questionnaires were obtained after eliminating some invalid ones. Our hypotheses were essentially confirmed by analyzing the data obtained from the questionnaires. First, the findings demonstrated that perceived personalization benefits information narrowing. Contrary to other studies, this one discovered that perceived personalization lowers the psychological resistance among users and raises their intention to adopt new information. Users′ perceived personalization and information adoption intention do not interact nonlinearly. In contrast to earlier studies, it was also found that information narrowing also lowers users′ psychological resistance and raises their intention to adopt new information. The impacts of perceived personalization and information narrowing on information adoption intention are partially mediated by psychological resistance.By introducing a new research setting, new research variables, and new research model, this study broadened the study of information adoption intention. The findings of the study showed that it is not viable to completely depend on earlier research when examining users′ perceptions of personalization on short-video platforms like TikTok and that further research is necessary. This study enriched the research field of perceptual personalization and provided some reference for other scholars to explore the perceptual personalization of users on short-video platforms such as TikTok. Besides, this study adopted the quantitative way to further verify the existence of information narrowing. As for the variable of information narrowing, this study′s findings differ from those of earlier studies, which offers a fresh theoretical foundation and new support for related research in this field. The findings of the study demonstrate that "Information Cocoons" is directly tied to user psychology as well as the algorithms used for short-video recommendations and other applications. The phenomena of "Bad money drives out good" in the communication sphere must therefore be avoided through the combined efforts of platform managers, news media and readers. In order to further strengthen recommendation algorithms and customer satisfaction, platform management should pay close attention to the findings of this study.

Key words: short-video, information adoption intention, information narrowing, perceived personalization, psychological reactance