This study examined whether tailoring a user's online profile to match the interests of the viewer would increase the likelihood of that user being followed. The researchers analyzed profiles shown to participants, with some sorted by default and others sorted to highlight similar interests to the viewer. They found that profiles sorted by interest received almost twice as many follows as those in default sort, supporting the idea that surfacing interpersonal similarities leads to feelings of closeness and positive evaluation online. Qualitative feedback confirmed that shared interests were a major factor in participants' decisions to follow other users.

1. Francisco Guzman
Jim Liu
June 12, 2013
The Effects of Surfacing Related
Interests On Online User Profile
Follows

2. Research Area: Social Computing
> People form impressions of others given
surprisingly little information.
> With the advent of social networks, impressions
now frequently form online rather than in a face-
to- face context.
> Interpersonal similarity in personal attributes has
been shown to cause positive evaluation of others
and liking toward them.

3. Does tailoring a user’s profile to
the viewer increase likeness1?
1. Operationalized as a follow

4. Prismatic

5. Default Sort Interest Sort

6. Methodology
> Within-subjects study
> Each participant sees the same 10 profiles of Prismatic users
> 5 of the 10 profiles sorted by default, others use interest sort
> Similarity scores were calculated in order to control for similarity
Quantitative Qualitative
make a decision on whether to follow
explain why you:
> followed a particular user
> did not follow a particular user

7. Results: quantitative
0
7.5
15.0
22.5
30.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 More
Frequency
Bin
0
3.75
7.50
11.25
15.00
0 1 2 3 4 5 More
Frequency
Bin
Follow Count (Default Sort)
Follow Count (Interest Sort)
N = 52
Trials = 520
t-statistic:
2.06E-06
χ2: 21.59
p < 0.001

8. Results: qualitative
Users confirmed that the alignment of
interests was a big factor for them
1. Serendipity
2. Frequency of Use
3. Community around Individual
the mix of relevant articles with an element of surprise
active user and contributor
who and what they follow, as well as who follows them

9. Conclusion
Overall our results were quite telling with almost twice
as many follows for the sorted interest case versus the
default case.
> Both of these results seem to support the notion
that surfacing more interpersonal similarities
between users leads to higher level of closeness
through follows or likes in an online setting.
Quantitative Qualitative

10. Appendix
DefaultDefault InterestInterest
Follow No Follow Follow No Follow
Sum 62 198 112 148
Mean 12.4 39.6 22.4 29.6
STDV 7.12 7.13 6.02 6.02