An Empirical Assessment of User Affectivity Predispositions

Much research has been done on the construct of user satisfaction over the past 20 years. In fact, user satisfaction is probably the most studied construct in information systems research. Despite this attention, reported results have been inconclusive and sometimes contradictory. Is it possible that something else is occurring in this relationship that has not been modeled in past studies? Perhaps user dispositional traits are confounding the results? Is it possible that users are predisposed to be either satisfied or dissatisfied in a way that has nothing to do with the system itself? To assess this question, subjects were given a negative affectivity instrument. Following this, a laboratory experiment was staged in which students were subjected to a contrived software application. Then, tests were made to determine any correlation between a user's negative affectivity and his or her perception of the information system. This paper investigates the impact that user predispositions have on how users perceive information systems.