Perceptions of Fairness and the Impact on User Choices in Music Recommendation

Supplementary material: Here, we offer the supplementary material that was used during the study. Read the README.txt for more detailed information. Paper title: Perceptions of Fairness and the Impact on User Choices in Music Recommendation Paper abstract: Music recommender systems (MRS) have significantly changed how listeners discover and interact with music. However, these systems often prioritize mainstream content and marginalize niche music. While previous research has mostly addressed fairness from a system-centric perspective, little attention has been given to user perceptions of fairness and how these perceptions affect decision- making. In this mixed-methods study, we explore participants’ initial preferences, then ask them to relate songs to minority groups, and finally investigate how additional information influenced their choices. The results show that users are generally reluctant to revise their initial choices, even when given new information, showing the influence of the commitment principle. By viewing fairness as a user-centered experience rather than only a system attribute, this study offers new insights for designing recommender systems that better promote diversity and fairness.