In todayââ?¬â?¢s society, as computers, the Internet, and mobile phones pervade almost every corner of life, the impact of Information\r\nand Communication Technologies (ICT) on humans is dramatic. The use of ICT, however, may also have a negative side. Human\r\ninteraction with technology may lead to notable stress perceptions, a phenomenon referred to as technostress. An investigation\r\nof the literature reveals that computer usersââ?¬â?¢ gender has largely been ignored in technostress research, treating users as ââ?¬Å?genderneutral.ââ?¬Â\r\nTo close this significant research gap, we conducted a laboratory experiment in which we investigated usersââ?¬â?¢ physiological\r\nreaction to the malfunctioning of technology. Based on theories which explain that men, in contrast to women, are more sensitive\r\nto ââ?¬Å?achievement stress,ââ?¬Â we predicted that male users would exhibit higher levels of stress than women in cases of system breakdown\r\nduring the execution of a human-computer interaction task under time pressure, if compared to a breakdown situation without\r\ntime pressure. Using skin conductance as a stress indicator, the hypothesis was confirmed.Thus, this study shows that user gender\r\nis crucial to better understanding the influence of stress factors such as computer malfunctions on physiological stress reactions.
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