The Varieties of Agency in Human–Smart Device Relationships: The Four Agency Profiles

Heidi Toivonen and Francesco Lelli ()
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Heidi Toivonen: Section of Psychology, Health, and Technology, Department of Technology, Human and Institutional Behaviour, Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
Francesco Lelli: Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, Tilburg School of Economics and Management, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands

Future Internet, 2024, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: This paper investigates how users of smart devices attribute agency both to themselves and to their devices. Statistical analyses, tag cloud analysis, and sentiment analysis were applied on survey data collected from 587 participants. As a result of a preliminary factorial analysis, two independent constructs of agency emerged: (i) user agency and (ii) device agency. These two constructs received further support from a sentiment analysis and a tag cloud analysis conducted on the written responses provided in a survey. We also studied how user agency and device agency relate to various background variables, such as the user’s professional knowledge of smart devices. We present a new preliminary model, where the two agency constructs are used to conceptualize agency in human–smart device relationships in a matrix composed of a controller, collaborator, detached, and victim. Our model with the constructs of user agency and device agency fosters a richer understanding of the users’ experiences in their interactions with devices. The results could facilitate designing interfaces that better take into account the users’ views of their own capabilities as well as the capacities of their devices; the findings can assist in tackling challenges such as the feeling of lacking agency experienced by technologically savvy users.

Keywords: agency; human–smart device interaction; smart devices; Internet of Things; IoT; user agency; device agency; survey; operationalization; sentiment analysis; tag cloud (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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