Tam & Ho (2006), Information Systems Research — content relevance + self-reference mediate the effect of web personalization on attention, processing, decisions; users clicked self-referent offers far more
Summary
Claim: Tam & Ho (2006), Information Systems Research: content relevance and self-reference mediate the effect of web personalization on attention, cognitive processing, and decisions; users clicked self-referent offers far more often than non-self-referent offers.
Source: Tam & Ho (2006), ISR.
Confidence: Verified — peer-reviewed, web context (strong fit for the SMB-tool case).
Why this matters for Candid: Direct empirical bridge from lab self-reference work to web-tool behaviour. The single most-citable academic anchor for "personalized output beats generic copy on websites." Anchors R3 — Maximise self-relevance in the output: show the user's own number, not "people like you average X"; the personalization mechanism is the best-evidenced lever in the brief.
Related entries
Referenced by (5)
- reference Research brief: why interactive tools deepen a business's relationship with its audience — a mechanism-level research package (June 2026) relates-to
- reference De Keyzer et al. (2025), Journal of Advertising — meta-analysis: actual personalization outperforms imagined / scenario personalization via stronger self-referencing and perceived relevance depends-on
- rule R1 — When recommending an interactive tool, LEAD on peer-reviewed mechanism evidence (goal-gradient, self-reference, IKEA, reciprocity, anchoring) — NOT vendor "2× / 47% / 16.9×" stats depends-on
- rule R3 — Maximise self-relevance in the output: show the user's own number, not "people like you average X"; the personalization mechanism is the best-evidenced lever in the brief depends-on
- reference 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 relates-to