Designing to improve interpersonal impression accuracy in online peer production.

In online peer production, users assess potential collaborators' expertise and warmth to inform interactions. However, people often make inaccurate first impressions. These false impressions hurt collaboration and lead to conflict based on incorrect behavioral attributions. Online peer production interface design can reduce or enhance impression accuracy. In this paper, we suggest ways to reduce bias in online impression formation. Based on our own previous research and social psychology literature on impression formation, we propose ways of presenting individuals' work history and interaction traces to reduce bias in impression formation. The design recommendations we present should improve efficiency and satisfaction with interactions in large-scale online peer production settings.