The Role of Affect in Information Systems Research: A Critical Survey and A Research Model

While most existing models or theories in IS focus on the cognitive and behavioral aspects of human decision-making processes and individual level reactions to using technologies in organizations and other contexts, the influence of affect or emotion is traditionally neglected. The affective aspect, however, is considered crucial and has gained attention in psychology, marketing, organizational behavior, and other fields. Recently, affect and related emotional concepts have attracted attention from researchers in Information Systems (IS) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Yet, studies of affect have been scattered and less systematic. This paper first examines the theoretical advancement of affect studies in several referencing disciplines to IS: psychology, organizational psychology and behavior, and marketing and consumer behavior. An abstract model of the individual interacting with an object (IIO) is developed to represent the important contributors to behavior intention and behavior of interacting with objects. Then the chapter continues with a comprehensive survey of existing studies on affect in the IS discipline to demonstrate the current status of the research stream, some conceptual discrepancies and limitations, and some potential areas for future research. An IT-specific model of IIO, a model of Individual Interaction with IT (IIIT), is constructed as both a framework and a theoretical model to interpret and predict individual IT user behavior. This study is an attempt to highlight and systematically analyze the influence of affect in IS and therefore has great implications for both researchers and practitioners.