Tablet as human: How intensity and stability of the user-tablet relationship influences users’ impression formation of tablet computers

Abstract

When can computers seem “human”? How do users form identity impressions of computers? In an examination of the ways in which users form impressions of their tablet computers, this study offers a new perspective by allowing users to verbalize their impressions of their products. Findings from in-depth interviews revealed two basic constructs that inform users’ impression formation – intensity and stability, which respectively foster social-contextualization and attribute association processes. This study contributes to impression formation and human–computer relationship literature in two aspects. The first is a novel methodological design that was humanistic in nature but was informed by social psychology; the second is a new construct “relationship intensity,” which operates jointly with relationship stability in impression formation processes.