Can Data Videos Influence Viewers’ Willingness To Reconsider Their Health-Related Behavior? An Exploration With Existing Data Videos

Samar Sallam, Yumiko Sakamoto, Jason Leboe-McGowan, Celine Latulipe, Pourang Irani

Keywords: Data Videos, Big Five Personality, potential attitude change, persuasion, health behavior modification, health data representation, design guidelines

TL;DR: To generate some guidelines to create effective health-related Data Videos, this study explores the means to improve persuasive potential of such videos.

Abstract: Data Videos have the potential to promote healthy behaviors. Using publicly available data videos addressing physical activity, sleep, and diet, we explored the persuasive capability of Data Videos through their narrative format and the affective connection they arouse in their viewers' minds. We asked four central questions; (1) do Data Videos increase negative affects in their viewers?; (2) are negative affective responses linked with individuals’ personality traits?; (3) can negative affects predict any change in viewers' willingness to improve their health-related behavior?; and finally (4) can personality traits and/or video attributes predict viewers' such willingness? An M-Turk study was conducted, whereby participants (N = 102) watched Data Videos, answered questions about their perceptions, and completed a personality trait questionnaire. Overall, influencing participants' willingness to reconsider their health-related behaviors was more difficult (i.e., harder to persuade) when they scored higher on neuroticism. This was because these individuals liked the provided Data Videos less, compared to those who scored low in neuroticism, at least partially. Perceived usefulness of the information along with neuroticism predicted our participants' willingness to reevaluate their health-related behaviors. Together, these findings show the importance of both using personality traits (i.e., personalization) and working on the general contents of Data Videos without considering personalization.

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