Examining the Effects of Personalized Explanations in a Multi-list Food Recommender System

In the past decade, food recipe websites have become a popular approach to find a recipe. Due to the vast amount of options, food recommender systems have been devel- oped and used to suggest appetizing recipes. However, recommending appealing meals does not necessarily imply that they are healthy. Recent studies on recommender sys- tems have demonstrated a growing interest in altering the interface, where the usage of multi-list interfaces with explanations has been explored earlier in an unsuccessful at- tempt to encourage healthier food choices. Building upon other research that highlights the ability of personalized explanations to provide a better understanding of presented recommendations, this thesis explores whether a multi-list interface with personalized explanations, which takes into account user preferences, health, and nutritional aspects, can affect users’ evaluation and perception of a food recommender system, as well as steer them towards healthier choices. A food recommender system was develop, with which single- and multi-lists, as well as non-personalized and personalized explana- tions, were compared in an online experiment (N = 163) in which participants were requested to choose recipes they liked and to answer questionnaires. The analysis re- vealed that personalized explanations in a multi-list interface were not able to increase choice satisfaction, choice difficulty, understanding or support healthier choices. Sur- prisingly, users selected healthier recipes if non-personalized rather than personalized explanations were presented alongside them. In addition, users perceived multi-lists to be more diverse and found single-list to be more satisfying.Masteroppgave i informasjonsvitenskapINFO390MASV-INF

Empowering Older Adults With Their Information Privacy Management

Literature depicts a deficit-based narrative around older adults and their technology use, suggesting that older adults are not able to keep up with their younger counterparts in adopting new technologies. In this dissertation, I argue that this view is not necessarily accurate or productive. Instead, I argue that the deficit is in the technology design, which is not inclusive and often caters to the needs of younger adults. I study older and younger adults\u27 privacy decision-making as a showcase. To study the privacy decision-making process with more granularity, I used a dual-route approach (decision heuristics and privacy calculus) to disentangle different aspects of the decision. This helps identify older and younger adults\u27 differences better. My results rebut the deficit-based narrative and show that older adults are motivated and able to manage their privacy. However, they have a different decision-making mechanism compared to younger adults. For example, older adults are more likely to make a rational decision by considering a more thorough risk/benefit trade-off than younger adults. I furthermore show that age (i.e., being older or younger adult) is only a proxy for other parameters; the different decision-making mechanisms can be justified by parameters that vary across age groups (e.g., levels of privacy literacy and privacy self-efficacy). My work introduces a new perspective in technology design and has practical implications for designing for the elderly, a population with different wants and needs

Promoting Social Media Dissemination of Digital Images Through CBR-Based Tag Recommendation

Multimedia content has become an essential tool to share knowledge, sell products or disseminate messages. Some social networks use multimedia content to promote information and create social communities. In order to increase the impact of the digital content, those images or videos are labeled with different words, denominated tags. In this paper, we propose a recommender system which analyzes multimedia content and suggests tags to maximize its influence in the social community. It implements a Case-Based Reasoning architecture (CBR), which allows to learn from previous tagged content. The system has been evaluated through cross fold validation with a training and validation sets carefully constructed and extracted from Instagram. The results demonstrate that the system can suggest good options to label our image and maximize the influence of the multimedia content

Empowering cultural heritage professionals with tools for authoring and deploying personalised visitor experiences

This paper presents an authoring environment, which supports cultural heritage professionals in the process of creating and deploying a wide range of different personalised interactive experiences that combine the physical (objects, collection and spaces) and the digital (multimedia content). It is based on a novel flexible formalism that represents the content and the context as independent from one another and allows recombining them in multiple ways thus generating many different interactions from the same elements. The authoring environment was developed in a co-design process with heritage stakeholders and addresses the composition of the content, the definition of the personalisation, and the deployment on a physical configuration of bespoke devices. To simplify the editing while maintaining a powerful representation, the complex creation process is deconstructed into a limited number of elements and phases, including aspects to control personalisation both in content and in interaction. The user interface also includes examples of installations for inspiration and as a means for learning what is possible and how to do it. Throughout the paper, installations in public exhibitions are used to illustrate our points and what our authoring environment can produce. The expressiveness of the formalism and the variety of interactive experiences that could be created was assessed via a range of laboratory tests, while a user-centred evaluation with over 40 cultural heritage professionals assessed whether they feel confident in directly controlling personalisation

Recipes for sustainability

Dietary practices play a key role in the transition towards a more sustainable food system. Livestock in particular drives environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and water use. While it is clear that curbing meat demand is vital for life within planetary boundaries, pathways to change remain contested. Contemporary food policy often focuses on guiding individual food choices through education and information, without much success at a societal scale. The sociology of consumption offers an alternative lens that focuses on socially and materially embedded practices beyond the individual. However, recent research lacks an analysis of large-scale changes over time as well as a comparison of the footprint of food practices in different social settings. A feminist view can further address neglected links between gender equality, sustainable diets, and domestic foodwork. Based in human geography, this dissertation uses a mixed-methods research design to address these gaps and expand beyond traditional qualitative methods of praxeographic research. Large-scale dietary transitions were studied through secondary analysis of a popular online recipe platform, including over 243,000 recipes with 2.5 million user ratings. An online survey with 420 participants contrasted food consumption at home and out of home, while qualitative interviews helped interpret quantitative results and shed light on underlying meanings. An extensive trend analysis showed a growing interest in and transition to meat-free diets over the past decade. However, extrapolating these trends revealed that the rate of change would not suffice for diets to arrive within planetary boundaries by 2030. Further, sustainable diets do not translate across all sites and social occasions. Eating at a restaurant is more meat-focused than eating at home. Even flexitarians increased their meat consumption when eating out. Eating out and eating meat are both perceived as ‘special’ and ‘treating oneself.’ These related meanings may link eating out to a higher environmental footprint. Even though less meat was eaten at home than at a restaurant, the effect of social eating also permeated the domestic sphere: cooking for guests or even the own household involved more meat than cooking for oneself. A gender perspective further revealed stark differences between omnivorous men and women. Women were largely responsible for foodwork, more skilled at cooking, and consumed fewer animal products. These gender differences were not found for people who adopt a meat- less diet. This part of the analysis thus revealed the significance of meat-less diets as a connector between environmental sustainability and gender equality. The most significant contribution of this dissertation is to emphasize the importance of taking intersecting issues of sustainability – human health, environmental sustainability, and gender equality – into account when studying food practices. Internalizing ecosystem services and social reproduction in current policy is essential for a future beyond an ecological crisis and gender injustice. Socially shared and gendered meanings of appropriate diets can be a significant barrier for sustainable food practices. Therefore, a key challenge will be to frame plant-focused dishes as reflections of ‘the good life,’ appropriate for both eating in and out. Delinking the meat-masculinity as well as the foodwork-femininity nexus may help to promote a bundle of just and environmentally safe food practices for all. A practice-theoretical lens helps bring this interlinkage of sustainable diets, foodwork, and gender to light.Menschliche Ernährungsgewohnheiten spielen eine zentrale Rolle für die Transformation hin zu einem nachhaltigen Ernährungssystem. Besonders die Nutztierhaltung belastet dabei die Umwelt in hohem Maße, unter anderem durch den Ausstoß von Treibhausgasen, Waldrodungen und einen hohen Wasserverbrauch. Daher scheint ein Rückgang der Nachfrage nach Fleisch für ein Leben innerhalb der ökologischen Grenzen der Erde unerlässlich. Wie dies erreicht werden kann ist jedoch umstritten. Politische Maßnahmen zielen aktuell häufig darauf ab, durch Bildung und Informationsbereitstellung individuelle Ernährungsentscheidungen zu beeinflussen. Die so erhofften Verhaltensänderungen auf gesellschaftlicher Ebene sind jedoch bisher weitestgehend ausgelieben. Eine alternative Perspektive auf die Mechanismen, die Konsumentscheidungen zugrunde liegen, bietet die sozialwissenschaftliche Konsumforschung. Statt individueller Handlungen untersucht sie sozial und materiell situierte Praktiken wie beispielsweise auswärts essen oder Gäste bewirten. Bisher wenig Beachtung in praxistheoretischer Forschung fanden allerdings Langzeitstudien zu Veränderungen von Ernährungspraktiken. Zudem fehlen direkte Vergleiche der Ernährungspraktiken in verschiedenen sozialen Situationen, z.B. zu Hause oder auswärts essen, sowie der jeweils zugehörige ökologische Fußabdruck.Durch die Einbeziehung einer feministischen Forschungsperspektive können außerdem Verknüpfungen zwischen Geschlechterrollen, nachhaltiger Ernährung und häuslicher Arbeitsteilung deutlich gemacht werden, die in der bisherigen Forschung vernachlässigt wurden. Zur Untersuchung der genannten Forschungslücken nutzt die vorliegende Dissertation einen ‚mixed-methods‘ Ansatz und geht damit über die traditionell qualitativen Methoden der praxistheoretischen Forschung hinaus. Mithilfe einer Sekundäranalyse der Nutzungsdaten einer populären Online-Rezeptplattform wurden Trends bezogen auf Ernährungspraktiken untersucht. Dafür wurden über 243.000 Rezepte mit 2,5 Millionen Bewertungen von Nutzer*innen ausgewertet. Um Ernährungspraktiken zu Hause und außer Haus zu kontrastieren, wurde eine Online-Umfrage mit 420 Teilnehmer*innen durchgeführt. Zur Vertiefung und kontextuellen Einbettung der quantitativen Ergebnisse wurden außerdem qualitative Interviews geführt. Die Analyse der Nutzungsdaten der Rezeptplattform zeigt ein wachsendes kollektives Interesse an und eine steigende Zahl von individuellen Übergängen zu einer fleischlosen Ernährung während des letzten Jahrzehnts. Überträgt man diese Trends auf die Gesamtbevölkerung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zeigt sich jedoch, dass die aktuelle Veränderungsrate nicht ausreicht, damit Deutschland bis 2030 seinen ökologischen Fußabdruck so reduziert, dass die Ernährungsgewohnheiten der Bevölkerung innerhalb der ökologischen Grenzen bleiben. Außerdem wird deutlich, dass sich nachhaltige Ernährungspraktiken nicht ohne weiteres auf verschiedene sozio-materielle Arrangements und soziale Anlässe übertragen lassen. So wird laut Umfrageergebnissen beispielsweise bei einem Restaurantbesuch eher Fleisch gegessen als zu Hause. Selbst Flexitarier*innen erhöhen ihren Fleischkonsum wenn sie auswärts essen. Dabei wird sowohl ‚Essen gehen‘ als auch ‚Fleisch essen‘ als etwas Besonderes empfunden. Die Assoziation von Fleischkonsum mit ‚sich etwas gönnen‘ verbindet dadurch das Auswärtsessen mit einem erhöhten Ressourcenverbrauch. Dies beschränkt sich jedoch nicht auf Restaurantbesuche. Die Verknüpfung zwischen sozialem Anlass und Fleisch dringt auch in den häuslichen Bereich vor: Beim Kochen für Haushaltsmitglieder oder Gäste wird mehr Fleisch zubereitet als wenn für sich selbst gekocht wird. Betrachtet man außerdem die Arbeitsteilung zwischen den Geschlechtern, treten deutliche Unterschiede zwischen omnivoren Männern und Frauen zutage: Frauen die Fleisch essen sind häufiger für die Ernährung zu Hause zuständig, weisen höhere Kochfertigkeiten auf und konsumieren weniger tierische Produkte als männliche Fleischesser. Bei Männern und Frauen die sich fleischlos ernähren konnte keiner dieser skizzierten geschlechtsspezifischen Unterschiede festgestellt werden. Diese Ergebnisse unterstreichen die Bedeutung fleischloser Ernährungspraktiken als eine mögliche Brücke zwischen ökologischer Nachhaltigkeit und Gleichstellung der Geschlechter. Der wichtigste Beitrag dieser humangeographischen Forschungsarbeit besteht darin, die enge Verzahnung unterschiedlicher Nachhaltigkeitsziele – menschliche Gesundheit, ökologische Nachhaltigkeit und Geschlechtergleichstellung – in Bezug auf Ernährungspraktiken aufzuzeigen. Die Berücksichtigung von Ökosystemleistungen und unbezahlter Reproduktionsarbeit in politischen Zielsetzungen ist unerlässlich für eine Zukunft jenseits einer ökologischen Krise und Geschlechterungleichheiten. Gesellschaftlich verankerte und geschlechtsspezifische Bedeutungen können ein signifikantes Hindernis für eine nachhaltige Ernährung darstellen. Eine zentrale Herausforderung besteht darin, eine vorwiegend pflanzliche Ernährung in Einklang mit der sozial verankerten Vorstellung eines ‚guten Lebens‘ zu bringen, so dass diese für verschiedene Anlässe gleichermaßen geeignet scheint. Die Entkoppelung von Fleisch und Männlichkeit sowie von Kochen und Weiblichkeit kann dabei den Zugang zu gerechteren und umweltfreundlicheren Ernährungspraktiken ermöglichen. Eine praxistheoretische Sichtweise macht den Zusammenhang zwischen nachhaltiger Ernährung, Essenszubereitung und Geschlechterrollen dabei explizit

Recipe popularity prediction in Finnish social media by machine learning models

Abstract. In recent times, the internet has emerged as a primary source of cooking inspiration, eating experiences and food social gathering with a majority of individuals turning to online recipes, surpassing the usage of traditional cookbooks. However, there is a growing concern about the healthiness of online recipes. This thesis focuses on unraveling the determinants of online recipe popularity by analyzing a dataset comprising more than 5000 recipes from Valio, one of Finland’s leading corporations. Valio’s website serves as a representation of diverse cooking preferences among users in Finland. Through examination of recipe attributes such as nutritional content (energy, fat, salt, etc.), food preparation complexity (cooking time, number of steps, required ingredients, etc.), and user engagement (the number of comments, ratings, sentiment of comments, etc.), we aim to pinpoint the critical elements influencing the popularity of online recipes. Our predictive model-Logistic Regression (classification accuracy and F1 score are 0.93 and 0.9 respectively)- substantiates the existence of pertinent recipe characteristics that significantly influence their rates. The dataset we employ is notably influenced by user engagement features, particularly the number of received ratings and comments. In other words, recipes that garner more attention in terms of comments and ratings tend to have higher rates values (i.e., more popular). Additionally, our findings reveal that a substantial portion of Valio’s recipes falls within the medium health Food Standards Agency (FSA) score range, and intriguingly, recipes deemed less healthy tend to receive higher average ratings from users. This study advances our comprehension of the factors contributing to the popularity of online recipes, providing valuable insights into contemporary cooking preferences in Finland as well as guiding future dietary policy shift.Reseptin suosion ennustaminen suomalaisessa sosiaalisessa mediassa koneoppimismalleilla. Tiivistelmä. Internet on viime aikoina noussut ensisijaiseksi inspiraation lähteeksi ruoanlaitossa, ja suurin osa ihmisistä on siirtynyt käyttämään verkkoreseptejä perinteisten keittokirjojen sijaan. Huoli verkkoreseptien terveellisyydestä on kuitenkin kasvava. Tämä opinnäytetyö keskittyy verkkoreseptien suosioon vaikuttavien tekijöiden selvittämiseen analysoimalla yli 5000 reseptistä koostuvaa aineistoa Suomen johtavalta maitotuoteyritykseltä, Valiolta. Valion verkkosivujen reseptit edustavat monipuolisesti suomalaisten käyttäjien ruoanlaittotottumuksia. Tarkastelemalla reseptin ominaisuuksia, kuten ravintoarvoa (energia, rasva, suola, jne.), valmistuksen monimutkaisuutta (keittoaika, vaiheiden määrä, tarvittavat ainesosat, jne.) ja käyttäjien sitoutumista (kommenttien määrä, arviot, kommenttien mieliala, jne.), pyrimme paikantamaan kriittiset tekijät, jotka vaikuttavat verkkoreseptien suosioon. Ennustava mallimme — Logistic Regression (luokituksen tarkkuus 0,93 ja F1-pisteet 0,9 ) — osoitti merkitsevien reseptiominaisuuksien olemassaolon. Ne vaikuttivat merkittävästi reseptien suosioon. Käyttämiimme tietojoukkoihin vaikuttivat merkittävästi käyttäjien sitoutumisominaisuudet, erityisesti vastaanotettujen arvioiden ja kommenttien määrä. Toisin sanoen reseptit, jotka saivat enemmän huomiota kommenteissa ja arvioissa, olivat yleensä suositumpia. Lisäksi selvisi, että huomattava osa Valion resepteistä kuuluu keskitason terveyspisteiden alueelle (arvioituna FSA Scorella), ja mielenkiintoisesti, vähemmän terveellisiksi katsotut reseptit saavat käyttäjiltä yleensä korkeamman keskiarvon. Tämä tutkimus edistää ymmärrystämme verkkoreseptien suosioon vaikuttavista tekijöistä ja tarjoaa arvokasta näkemystä nykypäivän ruoanlaittotottumuksista Suomessa

Evaluating Feature-Specific Similarity Metrics using Human Judgments for Norwegian News

Masteroppgave i informasjonsvitenskapINFO390MASV-INF

Big Brother is Listening to You: Digital Eavesdropping in the Advertising Industry

In the Digital Age, information is more accessible than ever. Unfortunately, that accessibility has come at the expense of privacy. Now, more and more personal information is in the hands of corporations and governments, for uses not known to the average consumer. Although these entities have long been able to keep tabs on individuals, with the advent of virtual assistants and “always-listening” technologies, the ease by which a third party may extract information from a consumer has only increased. The stark reality is that lawmakers have left the American public behind. While other countries have enacted consumer privacy protections, the United States has no satisfactory legal framework in place to curb data collection by greedy businesses or to regulate how those companies may use and protect consumer data. This Article contemplates one use of that data: digital advertising. Inspired by stories of suspiciously well-targeted advertisements appearing on social media websites, this Article additionally questions whether companies have been honest about their collection of audio data. To address the potential harms consumers may suffer as a result of this deficient privacy protection, this Article proposes a framework wherein companies must acquire users\u27 consent and the government must ensure that businesses do not use consumer information for harmful purposes

Divide and Control: Evaluating Controllability in Multi-lists Presentation of Recommendations

Masteroppgave i informasjonsvitenskapINFO390MASV-IKTMASV-INF