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Personas and Persons - An Empirical Study on Stereotyping of Personas
The results show that the type of visual representation had certain influence on the perception of the persona and could somewhat reduce stereotyping.
Abstract
Personas are considered a key method to induce empathy for users. However, they are also said to trigger stereotyping, e.g. by using photographs that convey information about gender, ethnicity, or age of the persona. To investigate this assumption, we conducted an eye-tracking study with 93 students from degree programs in computer science. The participants received an - otherwise identical - persona description with different visualizations in four experimental conditions: a) the photo of a dark-skinned woman, b) the photo of a light-skinned woman, c) a drawing (sketch) or d) no visualization. We examined the conditions with regard to their influence on perception in terms of the "stereotype content model" and other attributes of the persona. The results show that the type of visual representation had certain influence on the perception of the persona and could somewhat reduce stereotyping. Gender and cultural background of the participants had significant influences. We discuss the results against the backdrop of in-group/out-group phenomena and stereotypes.