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Effects of Interactivity on Attitude Formation on Political Websites:
A Test of Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity
Given the development of networked communication technology in recent decades,
interactivity has emerged as a key concept in the discussion of new
media (Bucy, 2004a, 2004b;
Chung & Zhao, 2004; McMillan, 2002b). Indeed, in defining what is new
about new media,
researchers have used the terms "interactive media" and "new media"
interchangeably (Vorderer,
2000), implicitly distinguishing two-way communication channels from
one-way platforms that
lack opportunities for immediate feedback, user control, or audience
participation (e.g., Morris &
Ogan, 1996; Rafaeli, 1988; Sims, 1997).
After a period of typologizing and classification, interactivity
research has begun to focus
on the effects of interactivity on various outcome measures,
including emotional and evaluative
responses to online news sites (Bucy, 2004b), advertising
effectiveness (Chung & Zhao, 2004;
Liu & Shrum, 2002), and political attitudes (Sundar, Hesser,
Kalyanaraman, & Brown, 1998;
Sundar, Kalyanaraman, & Brown, 2003). However, there have not been
consistent results. Some
studies have found positive effects of interactivity, for instance,
when measuring attitudes toward
advertisements (Cho & Leckenby, 1999; Chung & Zhao, 2004; McMillan &
Hwang, 2002;
McMillan, Hwang, & Lee, 2003), while other studies have found mixed
or even negative effects
of interactivity (Bucy, 2004b; Massey & Levy, 1999; McMillan, 2000;
Sundar, 2000; Sundar et
al., 1998; Sundar et al., 2003).
These conflicting results are almost certainly due to inadequate, or
competing,
conceptualizations of interactivity. Different researchers have
conceptualized, operationalized,
and measured interactivity in myriad ways—all but guaranteeing
inconclusive results about the
effects of interactivity (see Bucy, 2004a; Liu, 2003). Therefore, it
is not surprising that there
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 2
have not been consistent results about the effects of interactivity.
Given this history of
conceptual inconsistency, this study seeks, firstly, to redefine the
concept of interactivity by
conceptually relocating the locus of interactivity further into
user's perception and, secondly, to
test a hypothesized model of website interactivity by examining the
effect of user's perception on
the relationship between interactive technology and various attitudes
on political websites.
Conceptualizing Interactivity: Objective vs. Perceived Interactivity
As reviews of the literature attest, there has been little agreement
among researchers
about the conceptualization of interactivity (Bucy, 2004a). In terms
of the locus of interactivity,
some researchers assert that interactivity resides in the media
system or in the process of
message exchange, while others argue that it primarily resides in
user perception. These three
approaches are named the functional, contingency, and perceptual
views, respectively in this
study.
In the functional view, interactivity is often used to describe
technological features of the
new media (Vorderer, 2000) and defined as "a measure of a medium's
potential ability to let the
user exert an influence on the content and/or form of the mediated
communication" (Jensen,
1998, p. 201; see also Steuer, 1992). This view assumes that "the
audience is not a passive
receiver of information, but rather an active co-creator" (McMillan,
2002a). Thus, many
researchers have defined interactivity based on how many and what
types of features are
available for users to fulfill interactive communication. In the
context of the Internet, these
features might include bulletin boards, search engines, registration
and online ordering forms
(McMillan, 1998); curiosity-arousal devices, games, user choice
options, and surveys (Ha &
James, 1998); or, e-mail links, feedback forms, and chatrooms (Massey
& Levy, 1999). In this
view, interactivity is thought to be objectively constant across
people (Lee, 2000), while "the
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 3
degree to which these functions are used and the extent to which they
actually serve the dialogue
or discourse function do not appear to be part of the concept's
definition" (Sundar et al., 2003, p.
33).
Definitions in the contingency view (see Sundar et al., 2003) are
based on the ideal model
of interpersonal communication. In this tradition, interactivity is
conceptualized "as a process
involving users, media, and messages, with an emphasis on how
messages relate to one another"
(Sundar et al., 2003, pp. 34-35); in other words, their degree of
responsiveness. In this view
interactivity often refers to a process of reciprocal influence
between two users or between a user
and a medium in a mediated communication. For example, Rafaeli (1988)
defined interactivity
as "an expression of the extent that in a given series of
communication exchanges, any third (or
later) transmission (or message) is related to the degree to which
previous exchanges referred to
even earlier transmission" (p. 111). Ha and James (1998) also
proposed that "[i]nteractivity
should be defined in terms of the extent to which the communicator
and the audience respond to,
or are willing to facilitate, each other's communication needs" (p.
461). More recently, Sundar et
al. (2003) suggested that "for interactivity to be perceived, not
only should the interface possess
the functionality needed for mutual discourse, it should also ensure
that the resulting messages
are interconnected. For interactivity to be realized, messages should
be exchanged between
senders and receivers in a manner that leads to a thread of
interdependent messages" (p. 34).
A third body of literature has addressed the concept of interactivity
from a perceptual
approach. In this tradition, researchers have defined interactivity
as a subjective state within the
user that may be evoked by technological features (e.g., Bucy &
Newhagen, 1999; Lee, 2000;
McMillan, 2002b; Vorderer, 2000; Wu, 1999). Along these lines, Hwang
and McMillan (2002)
suggest that "interactivity should not be measured by counting
features, but rather by
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 4
investigating how users perceive and/or experience those features."
From this perspective, a
medium's technological features, while remaining objectively
constant, are assumed to
subjectively vary according to individual differences among users
(Heeter, 2000). Indeed, users
may perceive their communications to be interactive, and anticipate a
response from the
recipient, even though the communication process promises no actual
feedback (Newhagen,
Cordes, & Levy, 1995).
Although various definitions of interactivity in these three
traditions provide a good
framework to identify different aspects of interactivity, "in many
ways distinctions among these
traditions are arbitrary" (McMillan, 2002a, p. 166), especially the
distinction between systembased
interactivity in the functional view and message-based interactivity
in the contingency
view (Lee, 2000). Jensen (1998) argued that "in most specific cases,
it would be difficult to
determine whether the 'interactivity' is directed toward a document
or toward a platform" (p.
196). A more serious problem of conceptualizing interactivity in
either functional or contingency
view is that it is almost impossible to operationalize and measure
interactivity in a consistent
way due to the fact that a myriad number of interactive technologies
continues to develop and
message exchange behaviors are different among people.
Accordingly, it seems better to focus on the psychological process
occurred within user's
mind than to categorize and quantify interactive technologies and
messages. In addition, the fact
that users may perceive a communication or a medium as interactive
even when it lacks requisite
qualities of interactivity, which have been identified in the
functional and contingency views,
suggests an important role for perceived interactivity (Bucy, 2004a).
However, this should not be
interpreted as objective aspects of interactivity including media
system and message exchange
have nothing to do with user perceptions. Instead, both technological
features of a medium and
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 5
the way in which messages are exchanged influence user perceptions of
that medium's
interactivity in disparate ways, depending on the various individual
factors such as, for example,
gender, expertise, or experience of individual users. To summarize,
the objective aspect of
interactivity affects the subjective (or perceptual) aspect of
interactivity but the relationship
between these two differential aspects is not necessarily linear—an
important proposition
overlooked in most studies.
Based on this consideration, this study suggests that interactivity
be conceptually
understood and defined as residing in the relationship between
available features and user
perceptions during the process of message exchange in the context of
mediated communication.
Therefore, this study makes a distinction between objective and
perceived interactivity in order
to conceptually define interactivity. Objective interactivity is
conceptualized as the technological
potential of a medium to allow users to directly engage with the
system or content. By contrast,
perceived interactivity is defined as the degree to which users
actually experience a sense of
interactivity (regardless of the amount of technological features)
during the communication
process.
As aforementioned, if a communication medium does not have enough potential of
interactivity, in other words if the medium does not provide
sufficient objective interactivity
through technological features that may facilitate reciprocal and
synchronous message exchange,
the user will not experience perceived interactivity that much.
However, it should be also kept in
mind that increasing objective interactivity does not necessarily
guarantee higher levels of
perceived interactivity (Bucy, 2004a). For example, it might be
possible that one perceives
communication through asynchronous e-mail as more interactive than synchronous
communication through Instant Messenger (IM) even though objectively
(technologically) the
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 6
opposite appears true. In this sense, it can be said that objective
interactivity is a necessary
condition but not a sufficient condition for perceived interactivity.
A Mediation Model of Interactivity
A shortcoming of previous interactivity research has been a
reluctance to empirically
investigate the relationship between the concept's objective and
perceived aspects. It has been
naïvely assumed that there would be a positive relationship between
objective and perceived
interactivity: the more a medium provides interactive features with
various technological
applications, the more users would perceptually experience
interactivity. In this view, the sheer
presence of certain interactive technologies is sufficient evidence
of perceived interactivity
(Sundar et al., 2003).
Unfortunately, this groundless assumption about the relation between
objective and
perceived interactivity has been adopted by most researchers, even
when they define interactivity
as a perceptual variable. Sundar and his colleagues (2003), for
example, proposed such a
hypothesis that "[p]articipants' ratings of a Web site's
interactivity [i.e., a form of perceived
interactivity] will be a direct positive function of the degree of
message contingency present in
the site [i.e., a form of contingent interactivity]" (p. 36), and
then manipulated message
contingency on political Websites by providing different numbers of
Webpage layers (i.e., a
form of functional interactivity). In Bucy's (2004b) study,
interactivity on news Websites was
manipulated as to be either interactive or non-interactive by having
subjects to vote in a poll,
view a slide show, and e-mail the news organization (i.e., a form of
functional interactivity) or by
asking subjects only to read three stories on the Websites.
In both studies (Bucy, 2004b; Sundar et al., 2003), these
manipulations of interactivity
were checked by a single-item measure of perceived interactivity that
asked, for example, "how
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 7
interactive would you rate this Website" (Sundar et al., 2003, p.
41). However, use of the singleitem
measure of perceived interactivity leaves much room for doubt in
order to support the
correspondence between objective and perceived interactivity. In
addition, in analyzing the
effects of interactivity on dependent variables based upon the
assumption that website features
would directly influence outcomes independent of user perceptions,
they did not utilize the
perceptual measures in their statistical analyses, downplaying the
distinctive role of perceived
interactivity.
The real problem in previous interactivity research, which can be
directly attributed to the
misunderstanding of the relationship between objective and perceived
interactivity, is that the
very mechanism of mediated communication through which the medium's
objective aspects such
as interactive technology result in certain outcomes has not been
explained in a logical and
theoretical way. This theoretical inability to explain how
interactive technologies affect certain
outcome variables becomes more conspicuous especially when
researchers try to explain the socalled
threshold effects (Bucy, 2004a) or interactivity paradox (Bucy,
2004b) found in recent
interactivity studies.
For example, in the previous studies that examined the effects of
interactivity on various
outcomes including memory (Massey & Levy, 1999), emotions (Bucy,
2004b), and political
attitudes (Sundar et al., 1998; Sundar et al., 2003), it was found
that, contrary to the optimistic
expectation that positive outcomes would be the direct function of
interactivity, increasing
interactivity did not always result in positive outcomes. Sundar and
his colleagues (2003) found
that moderate interactivity on a political website enhanced the
political candidate's appeal,
character, and the level of voter agreement with the candidate's
position on various policy issues,
but high interactivity seemed to detract from those positive attitude
formation effects. They
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 8
simply inferred that "interactivity at higher levels may impose
greater navigational demands on
users, which serve to counteract its positive effects on users'
impression of the site" (p. 49)
without suggesting any theoretical mechanism in order to explain how
cognitive demands cancel
out positive effects of interactivity.
The lack of theoretical explanation about such an unexpected result
(i.e., threshold effects
of interactivity) may be due to the fact that interactivity
researchers have examined only the
effects of objective interactivity, while not paying enough attention
to the role of perceived
interactivity that may significantly affect the direct relationship
between objective interactivity
and outcome variables. That is, the measures of perceived
interactivity have been seldom utilized
for the statistical analyses in previous interactivity research.
However, as Norman (1998) has usefully observed, the gap between the
set of possible
actions, or affordances, that a medium makes possible and what users
actually perceive to be
available (and know how to use) can be sizeable. According to Norman,
an affordance "is not a
property, it is a relationship" (p. 123) between the medium and the
user—and the same medium
may have different affordances for different users. Here, it is
useful to distinguish between real
and perceived affordances. Perceived affordances inform the user what
actions can be performed
and, to some extent, how to perform them. If a technology's actual
properties or real affordances
are not detected and understood, then, like a hidden program icon in
an applications folder, they
will have little value. Not recognizing real affordances because they
are hidden or obscured, or
wrongly perceiving a false affordance as real, may lead to mistakes.
Perceived affordances, then,
distinguish usable interfaces from those that are mysterious and
unfathomable (Norman, 1998).
Overall, interface designers contend, "what makes a system successful
is how well the design
model is communicated to the user" (Mohnkern, 1997 n.p.).
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 9
The point is that, since perceived interactivity is not the direct
function of objective
interactivity, it must be separated from objective interactivity both
conceptually and
operationally. Therefore, perceived interactivity must be measured as
another variable
independent from objective interactivity and then included in the
analysis with objective
interactivity in order to better explain the effects of
interactivity. If such is done, for instance, a
possible explanation about the case of the people who perceive e-mail
as more interactive than
IM in the aforementioned example is that objective interactivity may
overload the amount they
can accept, expect, or need so that the residual objective
interactivity afforded by the IM
application may be processed negatively and can not be internalized
into perceived interactivity.
Similarly, if perceived interactivity had been measured in a more
stringent way by using a welldeveloped
scale instead of a single-item question and put into the statistical
analyses, some of the
subjects in previous studies might have been found to experience more
perceived interactivity in
the low objective interactivity condition than in more objectively
interactive conditions, which
may hint why increasing objectivity does not necessarily guarantee
more positive outcomes.
This, in turn, suggests that perceived interactivity might mediate
the relationship between
objective interactivity and outcomes.
Considering the effects of interactivity on political attitudes, it
can be hypothesized that
the formation of positive attitudes in mediated communication may be
the indirect function of
objective interactivity through perceived interactivity rather than
the direct function of objective
website features. In other words, perception of interactivity
experienced on a political website
will mediate the direct effects of interactive features embedded in
the website on political
attitudes formed on the website.
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 10
Summarizing the arguments presented thus far, objective interactivity
does not directly
result in corresponding outcomes. Instead, objective interactivity is
first translated into perceived
interactivity. However, perceived interactivity is not the simple
direct function of objective
interactivity because there are many third variables that may
moderate the process of translation
from objective interactivity into perceived interactivity—the very
mechanism overlooked by
most of interactivity researchers, especially, who fails to explain
the so-called threshold effects
of interactivity. To better understand the effects of interactivity
in the (computer) mediated
communication, the role of perceived interactivity as a potential
mediator between objective
interactivity and outcome variables should be more fully appreciated.
Method
Experimental Design and Participants
To test the mediation model of interactivity, the present study
employed a two-betweengroup
(low vs. high objective interactivity) experiment. The participants
(N = 78) were
undergraduate students enrolled in three communications classes at a
large mid-western
university who participated in this study for extra credit. They were
randomly assigned and
exposed to either low (n = 39) or high (n = 39) objective
interactivity condition.
Stimulus Material and Experimental Conditions
In discussing the results of their manipulation check, Sundar et al.
(2003) admitted that
interactivity cannot be easily operationalized by the number of
hyperlinks present on a website
and proposed that "[t]he actions initiated by the website (by guiding
the user through a series of
hierarchical hyperlinks) are as important as the organization of
message content in determining
the degree of interactivity of a website, especially as perceived by
a user" (p. 48). Considering
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 11
this suggestion and adopting Bucy's (2004b) activity-oriented
manipulation of interactivity, two
different versions of a stimulus site were adapted (with permission)
from the actual campaign
site of incumbent Governor John E. Baldacci of Maine. The site of an
out-of-state office holder
was selected to minimize familiarity effects and avoid activating
partisan sentiments associated
with a more familiar candidate.
The two stimulus sites were designed to have identical content but
were structured
differently via hyperlinks to individual pages. In addition, the
stimulus sites were designed to
maximize the variance between the low and high interactivity
conditions by offering various
interactive features and applications only to the high interactivity
condition. However, to control
for ideological orientation, the issue content was carefully chosen
to represent a moderate
viewpoint, so as not to be seen as either too liberal or too conservative.
As a result, in the low interactivity condition, the site featured
just one layer of content,
without any hyperlinks or applications (i.e., a one-layer,
reading-only condition). A brief
biography of the candidate was presented at the top of the page and,
along with a few
photographs, was followed by his positions on various policy issues,
including the economy,
health care, education, the environment, and defense/veterans issues
(in that order).
On the other hand, in the high interactivity condition, the site
featured hyperlinks that
connected three layers of web pages and provided users with an e-mail
link to the candidate and
an interactive budget calculator, plus the online poll application
(i.e., a three-layer browsing,
polling, e-mailing, and budget calculating condition). The main page
on the first layer showed
the same content and format as did the low condition but also
included an e-mail link to the
candidate and a link to a budget calculator. Five pages on the second
layer were hyperlinked for
a total of 16 sub-pages that provided the most specific agendas
related to the main policy issues:
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 12
four for the economy; three for health care; three for education;
three for environment; and three
for defense/veterans.
Variables
Objective Interactivity. For the purpose of statistical analysis,
dummy coding was used so
that the low objective interactivity condition was coded as "0" and
the high objective
interactivity condition as "1."
Perceived Interactivity. Participants' perceived interactivity was
measured by utilizing a
scale developed by Liu (2003), which includes 15 items that tap three
subdimensions of
perceived interactivity: Two-Way Communication, Active Control, and
Synchronicity. However,
for the purpose of statistical analysis for the mediation test, all
the responses on the15 items were
averaged and treated as a single-dimension variable. Each item was
measured using a sevenpoint
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = "strongly disagree" to 7 =
"strongly agree." The overall
reliability of the scale was high (_ = .97).
Attitudes toward the Website. To measure participants' attitude
toward the political
website after exposure, a scale developed by Chen, Clifford, and
Wells (2002) was utilized.
Through a series of scale-development studies (Chen et al., 2002;
Chen & Wells, 1999), the scale
for measuring attitudes toward websites has been found reliable and
robust across various kinds
of websites and respondent groups. The scale is composed of a single
dimension that includes six
items, such as "I would like to visit the website again in the
future" and "I feel surfing the
website is a good way for me to spend my time." These items were also
measured on the sevenpoint
Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 = "strongly disagree" to 7 =
"strongly agree." Scale
reliability was acceptable (_ = .88).
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 13
Attitudes toward the Politician. To measure users' attitudes toward
the candidate for
whom the website was designed, a set of questions borrowed from
Sundar et al's (1998) study
was utilized. The scale is composed of a total of 16 items depicting
various aspects of the
politician such as qualities as a politician, the politician's
attention to constituent concerns, and
charisma. Each item was measured on the seven-point Likert-type scale
ranging from 1 =
"strongly disagree" to 7 = "strongly agree." The reliability of this
scale was also high (_ = .92).
Attitudes toward Policies. To measure participants' attitudes toward
the candidate's issue
positions, including opinions about the economy, health care,
education, the environment, and
defense/veterans, a set of items asked users the extent to which they
agreed on each of the
proposed policies. Each item was measured on the seven-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1
= "strongly disagree" to 7 = "strongly agree" and then all five items
were averaged into a single
score to represent the general attitude toward the policies proposed
by the politician on the
website. Scale reliability was acceptable, too (_ = .85).
Procedure
The experiment was administered to small groups of participants in a
communication
research laboratory equipped with five lap-top computers connected to
the Internet. Upon arrival,
participants were asked to complete the informed consent process,
after which they were given a
laptop computer and completed an online pre-experiment questionnaire
designed to obtain basic
demographic information. Then, participants were randomly assigned to
one of two experimental
conditions: a low- or high-interactivity website. They were asked to
browse the site and engage
in a series of designated activities for 15 minutes. To prevent
contamination, participants who sat
on the same side of the table were assigned to different experimental
conditions and were asked
not to talk to each other during the experiment. After exposure to
the stimulus site, participants'
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 14
perceived interactivity and attitudes were measured via an online
post-experiment questionnaire.
Participants were then debriefed, thanked for their participation,
and dismissed.
Statistical Analysis
Mediation implies a causal relationship in which an independent
variable causes a
mediator which then causes a dependent variable. Figure 1 illustrates
the mediation model of
interactivity where perceived interactivity (M) mediates the
relationship between objective
interactivity (X) and attitudes (Y).
To test the mediation model of interactivity proposed in Figure 1,
this study conducted a
series of regression analyses, following the steps suggested by many
researchers (Baron &
Kenny, 1986; Judd & Kenny, 1981; MacKinnon & Dwyer, 1993). In each
step, the following
regression analyses were conducted and significance of the
coefficients was examined:
Step 1: Simple regression with X predicting Y to test for path c
alone, Y = C1 + Bc1X + e1
Step 2: Simple regression with X predicting M to test for path a
alone, M = C2 + Ba2X + e2
Step 3: Simple regression with M predicting Y to test for path b
alone, Y = C3 + Bb3M + e3
Step 4: Multiple regression with X and M predicting Y to test for
indirect path b through a,
Y = C4 + Bc4 + Bb4 + e
The purpose of the simple regression analyses in Step 1 through 3 is
to examine whether
there is a zero-order relationship between two variables. In other
words, mediation can be said to
occur when (1) the independent variable X significantly affects the
dependent variable Y in Step
1 regression, (2) the independent variable X significantly affects
the mediator M in Step 2
regression, and (3) the mediator M has a significant effect on the
dependent variable Y in Step 3
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 15
regression. After all these conditions are met, some form of
mediation is supported (4) if the
direct effect of mediator M (i.e., Bb4) remains significant after
controlling for the independent
variable X in Step 4 regression. Note that, among these four steps
suggested, Step 1 and 3 are not
required because the significances of paths b and c are implied if
Step 2 and 4 are met. So, the
essential steps in analyzing mediation effect are Step 2 and Step 4.
In Step 4, if the direct effect of independent variable X on the
dependent variable Y (i.e.,
Bc4) is no longer significant when the mediator M is controlled, the
finding supports full
mediation. If both direct effect of independent variable X (i.e.,
Bc4) and direct effect of mediator
M (i.e., Bb4) are significant, the finding indicates partial mediation.
To calculate the indirect effect of independent variable X through
the mediator M, Judd
and Kenny's (1981) differences of coefficients approach was adopted.
This approach involves
subtracting the partial regression coefficient obtained in Step 4
(Bc4) from the simple regression
coefficient in Step 1 (Bc1):
Bindirect = Bc1 – Bc4
And, the significance of the indirect effect was tested by conducting
the Goodman (I) version of
the Sobel test which is recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986). This
test enables us to have a
z-value based on the following equation:
Here, s = standard error of the coefficient
The reported p values are drawn from the unit normal distribution
under the assumption of a twotailed
z-test of the hypothesis that the mediated effect equals to zero in
the population. Therefore,
z = ±1.96 is the critical value of the test at p = .05.
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 16
Results
Attitude toward Website
Step 1. Simple regression was conducted to investigate how well
objective interactivity
(X) predict attitude toward the political website (Y). The results
were statistically significant F(1,
76) = 20.53, p < .001. The identified equation to understand this
relationship was attitude toward
website (Y) = 3.27 + 1.21*(X: objective interactivity). The adjusted
R2 value was .20. This
indicates that 20% of the variance in attitude toward website was
explained by objective
interactivity.
Step 2. Simple regression was conducted to examine the relationship
between objective
interactivity (X) and perceived interactivity (M). The results were
statistically significant F(1,
76) = 136.94, p < .001. The identified equation to understand this
relationship was perceived
interactivity (M) = 3.06 + 2.58*(X: objective interactivity). The
adjusted R2 value was .64,
indicating that 64% of the variance in perceived interactivity was
explained by objective
interactivity.
Step 3. The results of simple regression with perceived interactivity
(M) predicting
attitude toward website (Y) were statistically significant F(1, 76) =
69.46, p < .001. The
identified equation to understand this relationship was attitude
toward website (Y) = 1.43 +
.56*(M: perceived interactivity). The adjusted R2 value was .47,
which indicates that 47% of the
variance in attitude toward website was explained by perceived interactivity.
Step 4. Multiple regression was conducted to examine the linear combination of
independent variable (X: objective interactivity) and moderator (M:
perceived interactivity) for
predicting the dependent variable (Y: attitude toward website). The
combination of objective
interactivity (X) and perceived interactivity (M) significantly
predicted attitude toward website
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 17
(Y), F(2, 75) = 37.77, p < .001. The identified equation was attitude
toward website (Y) = 1.03 -
.68*(X: objective interactivity) + .73*(M: perceived interactivity).
However, the beta weights,
presented in Table 1, indicate that only perceived interactivity (M)
significantly contributes to
predicting attitudes toward website (Y), while objective
interactivity (X) does not. The adjusted
R2 value was .49, indicating that 49% of the variance in attitude
toward website was explained by
the combination of objective interactivity and perceived interactivity.
To summarize the results from Step 1 to Step 4 (see Table 1), (1)
objective interactivity
(X) significantly affected attitude toward website (Y) in the absence
of perceived interactivity
(M), (2) objective interactivity (X) significantly affected perceived
interactivity (M), and (3)
perceived interactivity (M) significantly affected attitude toward
website (Y). Therefore, all the
basic conditions for mediation model were met. And, (4) the direct
effect of perceived
interactivity (M) remained significant after controlling for
objective interactivity (X), while the
direct effect of objective interactivity (X) on attitude toward
website (Y) was no longer
significant when perceived interactivity (M) was controlled. The
coefficient of the indirect effect
of objective interactivity through perceived interactivity on
attitude toward website was
statistically significant, Bindirect = 1.886, z = 5.726, p < .001.
Therefore, in the case of attitude
toward website as the dependent variable, full mediation was supported.
Attitude toward Politician
Step 1. Simple regression was conducted to examine the relationship
between objective
interactivity (X) and attitude toward politician (Y). The results
were statistically significant F(1,
76) = 4.97, p < .05. The identified equation to understand this
relationship was attitude toward
politician (Y) = 4.58 + .43*(X: objective interactivity). The
adjusted R2 value was .05, indicating
that 5% of the variance in attitude toward politician was explained
by objective interactivity.
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 18
Step 2. The results of simple regression with objective interactivity
(X) predicting
perceived interactivity (M) were the same with those of Step 2 for
attitude toward website
described above.
Step 3. Simple regression was conducted to investigate how well
perceived interactivity
(M) predict attitude toward politician (Y). The results were
statistically significant F(1, 76) =
24.14, p < .001. The identified equation to understand this
relationship was attitude toward
politician (Y) = 3.65 + .26*(M: perceived interactivity). The
adjusted R2 value was .23. This
indicates that 23% of the variance in attitude toward politician was
explained by perceived
interactivity.
Step 4. Multiple regression was conducted to examine the linear combination of
independent variable (X: objective interactivity) and moderator (M:
perceived interactivity) for
predicting the dependent variable (Y: attitude toward politician).
The combination of objective
interactivity (X) and perceived interactivity (M) significantly
predicted attitude toward website
(Y), F(2, 75) = 16.13, p < .001. The identified equation was attitude
toward politician (Y) = 3.24
- .70*(X: objective interactivity) + .44*(M: perceived
interactivity). The beta weights, presented
in Table 2, indicate that both objective (X) and perceived
interactivity (M) significantly
contribute to predicting attitudes toward politician (Y). The
adjusted R2 value was .28, indicating
that 28% of the variance in attitude toward politician was explained
by the combination of
objective and perceived interactivity.
To summarize the results (see Table 2), (1) objective interactivity
(X) significantly
affected attitude toward politician (Y) in the absence of perceived
interactivity (M), (2) objective
interactivity (X) significantly affected perceived interactivity (M),
and (3) perceived interactivity
(M) significantly affected attitude toward politician (Y). Therefore,
all the basic conditions for
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 19
mediation model were met. And, (4) the direct effect of perceived
interactivity (M) remained
significant after controlling for objective interactivity (X). The
coefficient of the indirect effect
of objective interactivity through perceived interactivity on
attitude toward politician was
statistically significant, Bindirect = 1.251, z = 4.64, p < .001.
However, the direct effect of objective
interactivity (X) on attitude toward website (Y) was also significant
even though perceived
interactivity (M) was controlled. Therefore, in the case of attitude
toward politician as the
dependent variable, partial mediation was supported.
Attitude toward Policies
Step 1. Simple regression was conducted to investigate how well
objective interactivity
(X) predict attitude toward policies (Y). The results were not
statistically significant F(1, 76) =
1.95, ns.
Step 2. The results of simple regression with objective interactivity
(X) predicting
perceived interactivity (M) were the same with those of Step 2 for
attitude toward website
described above.
Step 3. The results of simple regression with perceived interactivity
(M) predicting
attitude toward policies (Y) were not statistically significant F(1,
76) = .15, ns.
Step 4. Multiple regression was conducted to examine the linear combination of
independent variable (X: objective interactivity) and moderator (M:
perceived interactivity) for
predicting the dependent variable (Y: attitude toward policies). The
combination of objective
interactivity (X) and perceived interactivity (M) was not
statistically significant in predicting
attitude toward policies (Y), F(2, 75) = 1.73, ns.
To summarize the results, although the most important condition among
three basic
conditions for mediation was met in Step 2, the direct effect of
perceived interactivity (M) was
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 20
not significant after controlling for objective interactivity (X). In
addition, the direct effect of
objective interactivity (X) on attitude toward website (Y) was not
significant, either, when
perceived interactivity (M) was controlled. Therefore, in the case of
attitude toward policies as
the dependent variable, mediation was not supported.
Discussion
This study proposed a new approach to interactivity research based on
the idea that
perceived interactivity might mediate the nuanced relationship
between website structure
(objective interactivity) and various outcomes such as political
attitudes. The reason for dividing
the concept of interactivity into objective and perceived
interactivity is that objective aspects of
interactivity or technological aspects of interactivity do not always
correspond to the perceptual
or subject aspects of interactivity. And, more importantly, if this
is true, the direct relationship
between objective interactivity and an outcome is a spurious one that
previous interactivity
research has in vain tried to explain. In this situation, it is hoped
that this study may provides a
new start point for researchers to study the effects of interactivity
by examining the mediating
role of perceived interactivity.
The results supported the mediation model for predicting political
attitudes formed on a
political website. The influence of the subjective variable
(perceived interactivity) mediated the
effect of objective interactivity on attitudes toward the political
website as well as attitude toward
the politician for whom the website was designed. However, in the
case of attitude toward
policies proposed on the political website, the mediation effect of
perceived interactivity was not
found. Rather, attitude toward policies was found to be affected
neither by objective interactivity
nor by perceived interactivity. This suggests that formation of
attitude toward policies may not
be formed through emotional or perceptual experiences. Indeed,
considering that the stimulus
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 21
website and the politician were new to the subjects but all the
policy issues discussed in the
website were very general topics which might be familiar to the
subjects, attitudes toward the
website and the politician were likely to be newly formed mainly
through emotional and
perceptual experiences, whereas attitude toward policies were likely
to be simply expressed
based on the subjects' existing opinions while less affected by
interactivity. We will discuss
more about this later in relation to another third variable, interest
in politics.
Interestingly, when the mediation model was supported, objective
interactivity was found
to have positive impact on attitudes. However, when it was examined
with perceived
interactivity together, objective interactivity was found to
negatively affect attitudes. These
results support that interactive presentations do not uniformly
elicit positive evaluations and that
too many interactive functions embedded in a website, rather than
having an salutary affect on
outcomes, may instead provoke negative attitudes—especially when they
are offered to users
who do not internalize their online experience with a strong sense of
perceived interactivity.
Considering that the participants in this study were college
students, who are generally more
practiced online than the general public to which political websites
are targeted, the significance
of design considerations for political websites becomes evident.
However, still unknown is what makes some users perceive their
mediated experience to
be more interactive than other users, even when the same interface
features are presented. That
is, what factors determine each individual's threshold point up to
which objective interactivity is
well translated into perceived interactivity but after that point
increasing objective interactivity
negatively affects certain outcomes. A potential variable, for
example, is Internet self-efficacy.
According to Bandura's (1997) social cognitive theory, an individual
possesses a self-system that
enables him to exercise a measure of control over his thoughts,
feelings, motivations, and
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 22
actions. The self-system provides reference mechanisms and a set of
sub-functions for
perceiving, regulating, and evaluation behavior, which results from
the interplay between the
system and environmental sources of influence. In this self-referent
process, self-efficacy plays a
key role in mediating subsequent behaviors (Bandura, 1994a, 1994b,
1997, 2001).
The importance of self-efficacy in explaining computer use has been
well documented.
Hill, Smith, and Mann (1987) found that computer self-efficacy
affected whether individuals
chose to use computers or not. Similarly, individuals with high
self-efficacy used computers
more than those with low self-efficacy (Compeau & Higgins, 1995).
Hill and Hannafin (1997)
studies the influence of perceived self-efficacy on strategies
employed in an Internet search.
Participants' self-efficacy beliefs in using computer technologies
and information searching
systems affected both the number and types of strategies they
employed. Those with high selfefficacy
explored the systems more vigorously while those with low
self-efficacy retreated or
concentrated on simply locating information. In previous research on
uses and gratifications of
the Internet, it was also that Internet self-efficacy was positively
related to expected gratification
(Ebersole, 1999; LaRose, Mastro, & Eastin, 2001). These results
suggest that Internet selfefficacy
may be a key factor that moderates the relationship between objective
interactivity and
perception about it, which results in the threshold effects. That is,
it can be hypothesized that
people with high Internet self-efficacy will more likely to perceive
interactivity than those with
low self-efficacy.
Another potential variable that may also moderate the relationship
between objective and
perceived interactivity, causing individual differences in the
location of threshold points, is
interest in the subject matter. In the context of political
communication, for instance, it was
found that for politically apathetic people greater (objective)
interactivity tended to result in
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 23
higher levels of affinity to the candidate but not for the
politically savvy people (Sundar et al.,
1998). Interestingly, politically savvy participants in the high
(objective) interactivity condition
tended to have most negative perceptions of the candidate, while the
medium condition enhanced
their affinity to the candidate.
To interpret these results based upon the mediation model suggested
in this study,
politically savvy people might not internalize high objective
interactivity into perceived one
because they were likely to spend most of their cognitive capacity in
careful scrutiny of the
issue-based contents. Therefore, their low levels of perceived
interactivity in high objective
interactivity condition might lead to negative attitudes toward the
politician. On the contrary,
politically apathetic people might experience higher levels of
perceived interactivity as the level
of objective interactivity increased, because they were more likely
to be susceptible to the
inherent appeal of interactive features of the website while not
paying enough attention to the
issue-based contents. Therefore, their high levels of perceived
interactivity increased by the
direct function of objective interactivity might positively affect
the impression about the
politician.
Under similar reasoning, the finding in this study that neither
objective interactivity nor
perceived interactivity affected formation of attitude toward
policies can be explained. Since the
policy issues presented in the stimulus website included very broad
and general topics such as
economy, health care, education, environment, and defense, when the
subjects express their
positions about the policies suggested on the stimulus website they
might be based on their own
existing opinions regardless of the level of interactivity rather
than based on their perceptual
experiences of interactivity.
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 24
Although this study proposed here only two potential variables
(Internet self-efficacy and
interest in subject matter) that may affect the effects of
interactivity, future research should
consider more possible factors to better understand the paradoxical
relationship between
objective and subjective aspects of interactivity as an important
source of persuasive influence.
As well, it is necessary to validate the mediation model by utilizing
more stringent and advanced
statistical methods such as path analysis and structural equation
modeling. However, most
importantly, the role of perceived interactivity as a mediator
between objective interactivity and
outcome variables should be fully grasped first before including
other third variables.
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 25
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Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 29
Tables and Figures
Figure 1. Mediation Model of Interactivity
M
b a
Y X
c
X = Objective Interactivity
M = Perceived Interactivity
Y = Attitudes
Table 1: Regression Analyses Summary for the Mediation Model
Predicting Attitude toward
Website
Step Outcome Variable Predictor Variable
X Y 1
Note. R2 = .21; F(1, 76) = 20.53, p < .001.
X M 2
Note. R2 = .64; F(1, 76) = 136.94, p < .001.
M Y 3
Note. R2 = .48; F(1, 76) = 69.46, p < .001.
X
Y 4
B
1.21
2.58
.56
-.68
.73 M
Note. R2 = .50; F(2, 75) = 37.77, p < .001.
SEB
.27
.22
.07
.36
.11
X = Objective Interactivity; M = Perceived Interactivity; Y =
Attitude toward Website.
*p < .001.
_
.46*
.80*
.69*
-.26
.90*
Mediation Effect of Perceived Interactivity 30
Table 2: Regression Analyses Summary for the Mediation Model
Predicting Attitude toward
Politician
Step Outcome Variable Predictor Variable
X Y 1
Note. R2 = .06; F(1, 76) = 4.97, p < .05.
X M 2
Note. R2 = .64; F(1, 76) = 136.94, p < .001.
M Y 3
Note. R2 = .24; F(1, 76) = 24.14, p < .001.
X
Y 4
B
.43
2.58
.26
-.70
.44 M
Note. R2 = .30; F(2, 75) = 16.13, p < .001.
SEB
.19
.22
.05
.28
.09
X = Objective Interactivity; M = Perceived Interactivity; Y =
Attitude toward Website.
*p < .05; **p < .001.
_
.25*
.80**
.49**
-.41*
.82**
|
