Discussants: Oana Vuculescu & Polymeros Chrysouchou
Supervisors: Lina Fogt Jacobsen & Carsten Bergenholz

Title
Your Preferences or Your Behavior? How Recommender Explanations Shape Perceived Control in Online Dating

Abstract
Algorithmic platforms, such as online dating platforms, can explain recommendations by emphasizing either users’ stated preferences or behavioral signals captured through their platform interactions. Across four experiments, this research examines how such explanation framing shapes perceived control and intentions to use the platform. Results from the first three experiments show that explanations emphasizing stated preferences produce greater perceived control than explanations emphasizing platform-recorded behavioral signals. Perceived control is positively associated with use intentions across the completed experiments. The fourth experiment tests whether this framing effect depends on whether users’ stated preferences align or conflict with the behavioral signals captured by the platform. Together, the studies examine how explanations can shape users’ sense of control even when the underlying hybrid recommendation system remains unchanged. The research identifies the type of user input emphasized as a theoretically consequential feature of algorithmic explanations.

Everyone is welcome!