Sundar & Marathe (2010), Human Communication Research — customization (user acts) vs personalization (system acts): the appeal of customization is tied to the user's sense of agency

Claim: Sundar & Marathe (2010), "Personalization versus Customization," Human Communication Research 36(3), 298-322. User-tailored ("customization," where the user acts) vs. system-tailored ("personalization," where the system acts) — the appeal of customization is tied to the user's sense of agency; "power users" rated customisable interfaces higher.

Source: Sundar & Marathe (2010), HCR.

Confidence: Verified — directly relevant HCI evidence.

Why this matters for Candid: Isolates doing it yourself as the engaging element. Bridges SDT (autonomy/competence) directly into tool-design terms. Reinforces De Keyzer et al. (2025), Journal of Advertising — meta-analysis: actual personalization outperforms imagined / scenario personalization via stronger self-referencing and perceived relevance from Brief E — actual personalization (user-supplied input) beats system-supplied personalization on the agency dimension specifically.