arXiv subjects

Brett Binst

Publications and source records attributed to Brett Binst.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Setting the Stage: Enhancing Music Recommendations with Spoken Introductions to Stimulate Serendipity

People like to keep their music listening fresh and interesting, but recommender systems often struggle to support this need. Even when a recommended song is potentially refreshing and enriching, listeners may not perceive it as such. Building on Silvia's appraisal theory of interest, this paper studies whether enhancing recommendations with spoken introductions, immersive or informative, can stimulate two distinct flavors of experienced serendipity: taste-broadening (sparking interest in music outside one's typical preferences) and taste-deepening (deepening interest in music within one's typical preferences). Results from a large-scale user study show that both introduction types stimulate taste-broadening and taste-deepening serendipity. Taste-broadening is most effectively stimulated through transportation (absorption in a narrative world), whereas taste-deepening is most effectively stimulated through cognitive elaboration (learning something new about the artist or the social context in which the music emerged). We discuss how these findings could be translated into practice through curated taste-broadening playlists, where both introduction types appear promising, and taste-deepening playlists, where informative introductions seem particularly effective.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

The Serendiptionnaire: a Questionnaire for Measuring Experienced Serendipity

Serendipity is important to design for, yet it remains difficult to measure and evaluate. No validated questionnaire exists, so studies either borrow ResQue's novelty scale, which does not measure serendipity, or build their own items, which makes findings hard to compare and synthesize. Building on our earlier conceptualization of experienced serendipity as a fortuitous encounter with content that is both refreshing and enriching, we developed the Serendiptionnaire, a questionnaire that operationalizes our framework. We conducted twenty-seven cognitive interviews over three iterations with respondents who varied in age, education level, country of birth, and English proficiency, while they browsed recommendations on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify. After each iteration, we revised the items until respondents interpreted them as intended. The resulting instrument consists of modular scales that researchers can combine to target the specific flavor of serendipity they want to study or design for. The Serendiptionnaire offers a ground truth for validating system-centered serendipity metrics and LLM-based evaluations, and it provides a nuanced evaluation of users' experienced serendipity.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Let Me Introduce You: Stimulating Taste-Broadening Serendipity Through Song Introductions

Research on how people experience music emphasizes the importance of exploration and diversity in listening. However, music recommender systems struggle with facilitating exploration. Even when music recommender systems are able to recommend something valuable to users that is outside their typical preferences, it still remains difficult to spark their interest. This paper presents a user study examining the efficacy of immersive and informative introductions in stimulating interest in songs that are beyond one's usual preferences, an experience called Taste-Broadening Serendipity. We uncover two important mechanisms behind the effect of introductions: transportation and cognitive elaboration. Our findings indicate that transportation (i.e., being absorbed into a narrative world) is the strongest predictor of Taste-Broadening Serendipity, while cognitive elaboration (i.e., learning something new about the artist or social context in which the music emerged) has a weaker effect but is easier to stimulate. We propose that song introductions can play an important role in facilitating exploration and increasing diversity of listening on music streaming platforms.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

What Is Serendipity? An Interview Study to Conceptualize Experienced Serendipity in Recommender Systems

Serendipity has been associated with numerous benefits in the context of recommender systems, e.g., increased user satisfaction and consumption of long-tail items. Despite this, serendipity in the context of recommender systems has thus far remained conceptually ambiguous. This conceptual ambiguity has led to inconsistent operationalizations between studies, making it difficult to compare and synthesize findings. In this paper, we conceptualize the user's experience of serendipity. To this effect, we interviewed 17 participants and analyzed the data following the grounded theory paradigm. Based on these interviews, we conceptualize experienced serendipity as "a user experience in which a user unintentionally encounters content that feels fortuitous, refreshing, and enriching". We find that all three components -- fortuitous, refreshing and enriching -- are necessary and together are sufficient to classify a user's experience as serendipitous. However, these components can be satisfied through a variety of conditions. Our conceptualization unifies previous definitions of serendipity within a single framework, resolving inconsistencies by identifying distinct flavors of serendipity. It highlights underexposed flavors, offering new insights into how users experience serendipity in the context of recommender systems. By clarifying the components and conditions of experienced serendipity in recommender systems, this work can guide the design of recommender systems that stimulate experienced serendipity in their users, and lays the groundwork for developing a standardized operationalization of experienced serendipity in its many flavors, enabling more consistent and comparable evaluations.

cs.HC↗