Exploration in Emotion and Visual Information Uncertainty of Websites in Culture Relations

Tzu-wei Tsai, Tien-Chun Chang, Ming-Chuen Chuang, Ding-Ming Wang

This study explores the emotional responses in relation to visual information uncertainty of websites within the theoretical arguments for the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance. The information rate model and PAD emotional state model are used to relate the information uncertainty of webpages and one’s emotional responses, respectively. A sample of 239 participants was taken from a pool of students from an institute in central Taiwan. Participants were asked to evaluate webpages that comprise of three variant levels of information uncertainty and respond to instruments designed to measure information uncertainty of webpages and participant emotion. The results of ANOVA indicate significant differences in emotional responses caused by different degrees of information uncertainty: the high degrees of informative uncertainty induce more arousal emotion, the low ones induce less arousal emotion, and the moderate ones induce more pleasure emotion. Consistent results from factor analyses confirmed the feasibility of using an information rate scale to evaluate the visual information uncertainty of webpages. Result of multiple regression analyses suggested that regression correlations exist between the visual information uncertainty of websites and emotions induced in viewers.