Hi! I am a human-technology interaction and communication researcher who focuses on personalization and persuasion. I conduct studies using so-called recommender systems, which you may know from Netflix or Amazon. These are algorithms and interfaces that present content that fits your past preferences. I mainly do this in domains where people can change their behavior, such as health and food, sustainability, and news. I have a versatile background and combine insights from different disciplines, such as marketing communication, computer science, psychology, and behavioral economics.

I have been involved in teaching 'Research Topics in Recommender Systems' (INFO345) between 2020 and 2023. I currently supervise a few MSc students Information Science and co-supervise PhD students at MediaFutures.

Poster

• Seddik, Khadiga Mahmoud Abdalla; Bremnes, Anders Sandvik; Trilling, Damian et al. (2024). How Headline Styles Can Make You Click on Articles You Disagree With . (external link)
• Seddik, Khadiga Mahmoud Abdalla; Bremnes, Anders Sandvik; Trilling, Damian et al. (2024). Enhancing News Recommendation with Headline Style Customization Using ChatGPT. (external link)
• Reynolds, Christian; Starke, Alain Dominique (2021). Comparing the environmental impacts of recipes from four different recipe databases using Natural Language Processing. (external link)

Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

• Starke, Alain Dominique; Willemsen, Martijn C. (2024). Psychologically Informed Design of Energy Recommender Systems: Are Nudges Still Effective in Tailored Choice Environments?. (external link)
• Pera, Sole; Cena, Federica; Landoni, Monica et al. (2024). Human Factors in User Modeling for Intelligent Systems. (external link)
• Jeng, Jia-Hua; Kasangu, Gloria Anne Babile; Starke, Alain Dominique et al. (2024). Emotional Reframing of Economic News using a Large Language Model. (external link)
• Kruse, J; Michiels, Lien; Starke, Alain Dominique et al. (2024). NORMalize: A Tutorial on the Normative Design and Evaluation of Information Access Systems. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Bremnes, Anders Sandvik; Knudsen, Erik et al. (2024). Perception versus Reality: Evaluating User Awareness of Political Selective Exposure in News Recommender Systems. (external link)
• Rosnes, Daniel; Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph (2024). Shaping the Future of Content-based News Recommenders: Insights from Evaluating Feature-Specific Similarity Metrics. (external link)
• Jeng, Jia-Hua; Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph (2023). Towards Attitudinal Change in News Recommender Systems: A Pilot Study on Climate Change. (external link)
• Rapp, Amon; Cena, Federica; Trattner, Christoph et al. (2023). BehavRec: Workshop on Recommendations for Behavior Change. (external link)
• Vrijenhoek, Sanne; Michiels, Lien; Kruse, Johannes et al. (2023). NORMalize: The First Workshop on Normative Design and Evaluation of Recommender Systems. (external link)
• el Majjodi, Ayoub; Starke, Alain Dominique; Elahi, Mehdi et al. (2023). The Interplay between Food Knowledge, Nudges, and Preference Elicitation Methods Determines the Evaluation of a Recipe Recommender System. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Lee, Minha (2022). Unifying Recommender Systems and Conversational User Interfaces. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Sedkowska, Justyna; Chouhan, Mihir et al. (2022). Examining Choice Overload across Single-list and Multi-list User Interfaces. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; el Majjodi, Ayoub; Trattner, Christoph (2022). Boosting Health? Examining the Role of Nutrition Labels and Preference Elicitation Methods in Food Recommendation. (external link)
• el Majjodi, Ayoub; Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph (2022). Nudging Towards Health? Examining the Merits of Nutrition Labels and Personalization in a Recipe Recommender System. (external link)
• Castiglia, Giovanni; el Majjodi, Ayoub; Calò, Federica et al. (2022). Nudging Towards Health in a Conversational Food Recommender System Using Multi-Modal Interactions and Nutrition Labels. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Asotic, Edis; Trattner, Christoph (2021). “Serving Each User”: Supporting Different Eating Goals Through a Multi-List Recommender Interface. (external link)
• Musto, Cataldo; Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph et al. (2021). Exploring the effects of natural language justifications on food recommender systems. (external link)
• Lee, Minha; Noortman, Renee; Zaga, Cristina et al. (2021). Conversational Futures: Emancipating Conversational Interactions for Futures Worth Wanting. (external link)
• Berge, Arngeir; Sjøen, Vegard Velle; Starke, Alain Dominique et al. (2021). Changing Salty Food Preferences with Visual and Textual Explanations in a Search Interface. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph (2021). Promoting Healthy Food Choices Online: A Case for Multi-List Recommender Systems. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Brynestad, Elias Kløverød; Hauge, Sveinung et al. (2021). Nudging Healthy Choices in Food Search Through List Re-Ranking. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Willemsen, Martijn C.; Snijders, Chris (2021). Using Explanations as Energy-Saving Frames: A User-Centric Recommender Study. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph; Bakken, Hedda et al. (2021). The Cholesterol Factor: Balancing Accuracy and Health in Recipe Recommendation Through a Nutrient-Specific Metric. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Lee, Minha (2021). Voicing Concerns: User-Specific Pitfalls of Favoring Voice over Text in Conversational Recommender Systems. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Larsen, Sebastian Øverhaug; Trattner, Christoph (2021). Predicting Feature-based Similarity in the News Domain Using Human Judgments. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Willemsen, Martijn C.; Snijders, Chris (2020). With a little help from my peers: Depicting social norms in a recommender interface to promote energy conservation. (external link)

Academic article

• Starke, Alain Dominique; Solberg, Vegard R.; Larsen, Sebastian Øverhaug et al. (2024). Examining the merits of feature-specific similarity functions in the news domain using human judgments. (external link)
• el Majjodi, Ayoub; Khan, Sohail Ahmed; Starke, Alain Dominique et al. (2024). Advancing Visual Food Attractiveness Predictions for Healthy Food Recommender Systems. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Emami, Kimia; Makarová, Andrea et al. (2023). Using Visual and Linguistic Framing to Support Sustainable Decisions in an Online Store. (external link)
• Angelsen, Aslaug Linnea; Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph (2023). Healthiness and environmental impact of dinner recipes vary widely across developed countries. (external link)
• Knudsen, Erik; Starke, Alain Dominique; Trattner, Christoph (2023). Topical Preference Trumps Other Features in News Recommendation: A Conjoint Analysis on a Representative Sample from Norway. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Asotic, Edis; Trattner, Christoph et al. (2023). Examining the User Evaluation of Multi-list Recommender Interfaces in the Context of Healthy Recipe Choices. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Musto, Cataldo; Rapp, Amon et al. (2023). “Tell Me Why”: using natural language justifications in a recipe recommender system to support healthier food choices. (external link)
• Reinders, Machiel; Starke, Alain Dominique; Fischer, Arnout R.H. et al. (2022). Determinants of consumer acceptance and use of personalized dietary advice: A systematic review. (external link)
• Elahi, Mehdi; Starke, Alain Dominique; El Ioini, Nabil et al. (2022). Developing and Evaluating a University Recommender System. (external link)
• Starke, Alain D.; Willemsen, Martijn C.; Trattner, Christoph (2021). Nudging Healthy Choices in Food Search Through Visual Attractiveness. (external link)
• van Erp, Marieke; Reynolds, Christian; Maynard, Diana et al. (2021). Using natural language processing and artificial intelligence to explore the nutrition and sustainability of recipes and food. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Willemsen, Martijn C.; Snijders, Chris (2021). Promoting Energy-Efficient Behavior by Depicting Social Norms in a Recommender Interface. (external link)
• Starke, Alain Dominique; Willemsen, Martijn C.; Snijders, Chris (2020). Beyond “one-size-fits-all” platforms: Applying Campbell's paradigm to test personalized energy advice in the Netherlands. (external link)

Academic lecture

• Starke, Alain Dominique (2022). Using Explanatory Nudges to Support ‘Better’ Decision-Making in Recommender Systems. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

• Starke, A. D., Musto, C., Rapp, A., Semeraro, G., & Trattner, C. (2024). “Tell me why”: Using natural language justifications in a recipe recommender system to support healthier food choices. User Modeling and user-adapted Interaction, 34(2), 407–440. LINK
• Angelsen, A., Starke, A. D., & Trattner, C. (2023). Healthiness and environmental impact of dinner recipes vary widely across developed countries. Nature Food, 4(5), 407-415. LINK
• Starke, A., Asotic, E., & Trattner, C. (2021). "serving Each User": Supporting different eating goals through a multi-list recommender interface. In RecSys 2021 - 15th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (pp. 124-132). (RecSys 2021 - 15th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. LINK
• Beyond "one-size-fits-all" platforms: Applying Campbell's paradigm to test personalized energy advice in the Netherlands. Starke, A.D., Willemsen, M.C. and Snijders, C.C.P. Energy Research and Social Science, 2020.  PDF
• With a little help from my peers: Depicting social norms in a recommender interface to promote energy conservation. Starke, A.D., Willemsen, M.C. and Snijders, C.C.P. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference of Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI), 2020.  PDF

• News Recommender Systems and Polarization: Can we affect people's viewpoints towards controversial topics by presenting personalized content?
• Food Recommender Systems and Health: How can we design digital systems that affect what food people like, choose and cook?