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In the information systems (IS) and human-computer interaction (HCI) fields, however, affect
has historically received little attention. Most existing theories and models focus on cognitive
aspects of human beings, presuming that users must discard their affective selves to work efficiently
and rationally with computers (Brave and Nass, 2002). Affective factors seem at best marginally rel-
evant to human-computer interaction and at worst oxymoronic (Brave and Nass, 2002). Studies on
psychology, marketing and consumer research, and organizational behavior research, however, sug-
gest that affect can help in explaining a significant amount of variance in users' behavior.
The advantages of studying affect are not limited to this. Affect has several features, some of
which are somehow different from what we would expect them to be. For example, people often
exhibit greater commonality in affective reactions toward stimuli than in the reason-based or cog-
nitive assessments (Pham et al., 2001); knowing this is of great practical value (e.g., for systems
design). It contradicts the widespread assumptions that affective judgments are inherently subjec-
tive and contextually labile, hence unreliable, and that cognitive, or reason-based judgments are
more objective, which makes them a more dependable source of evaluative information. Pham et
al. (2001) attributed the higher interpersonal consistency of affective feelings to the broad appli-
cability and inherent stability of universal affective sensory-motor programs and culturally shared
emotional schemata. Cognition, by comparison, leaves more room for idiosyncrasy. More impor-
tantly, affect can have more explanatory power than cognition does under certain circumstances,
which is of great interest to both researchers and practitioners (Pham et al., 2001).
Affect's definitions vary in prior studies in IS field. It has been viewed as a personal trait (Agarwal
and Karahanna, 2000; Webster and Martocchio, 1992; Yager et al., 1997), as a state (Venkatesh, 1999;
Webster et al., 1993), as antecedent of cognition (Venkatesh, 2000), as consequence of cognition
(Compeau et al., 1999), and as a positive thing (Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Novak et al., 2003) or a neg-
ative thing (Compeau et al., 1999; i.e., Hackbarth et al., 2003; Thatcher and Perrewe, 2002). Together,
these studies seem a bit confusing and less than comprehensive. So it is necessary to examine differ-
ent views and roles of affect in IS research.
One of the motivations of this research lies in the inconsistent results of attitude, a concept
closely related to affect, in prior IS empirical studies. A good example is the technology acceptance
model (TAM) (Davis, 1989; Davis et al., 1989), which is viewed as the most well-known model of
individual reactions towards technologies (Taylor and Todd, 1995). Attitude was hypothesized to be
a predictor of users' behavioral intention towards using new technologies or actual usage of them,
and is also the only affect-related factor in TAM. But attitude was omitted from the original TAM
due to its weak mediating effects on the relationship between perceived usefulness and behavioral
intention (Davis et al., 1989). Mixed results have been demonstrated by a number of TAM-related
studies (Sun and Zhang, 2006). Triandis (1980) argued for the separation of the affective (which has
a like/dislike connotation) and cognitive components of attitude. Triandis subsequently introduced
the term “affect,” defined as “the feelings of joy, elation, or pleasure, or depression, disgust, displeas-
ure, or hate associated by an individual with a particular act” (Triandis, 1980). This study is, therefore,
an attempt to examine and identify the major issues pertaining to affective concepts as well as their
relationships to other related concepts.
This study started with an examination of the research on affective concepts in several refer-
ence disciplines of IS. Then, an abstract model of an individual interacting with an object (IIO)
was developed based on this examination. The IIO model was then used as guidance to scrutinize
affect-related studies in IS. A set of IT-specific affective concepts is identified, and their relation-
ships to other factors are crystallized, resulting in a model of individuals' interaction with IT
(IIIT) that can explain existing affect-related studies and guide future investigations and systems
development practice.
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