Putting Popularity Bias Mitigation to the Test: A User-Centric Evaluation in Music Recommenders

Popularity bias is a prominent phenomenon in recommender systems (RS), especially in the music domain. Although popularity bias mitigation techniques are known to enhance the fairness of RS while maintaining their high performance, there is a lack of understanding regarding users’ actual perception of the suggested music. To address this gap, we conducted a user study (n=40) exploring user satisfaction and perception of personalized music recommendations generated by algorithms that explicitly mitigate popularity bias. Specifically, we investigate item-centered and user-centered bias mitigation techniques, aiming to ensure fairness for artists or users, respectively. Results show that neither mitigation technique harms the users’ satisfaction with the recommendation lists despite promoting underrepresented items. However, the item-centered mitigation technique impacts user perception; by promoting less popular items, it reduces users’ familiarity with the items. Lower familiarity evokes discovery—the feeling that the recommendations enrich the user’s taste. We demonstrate that this can ultimately lead to higher satisfaction, highlighting the potential of less-popular recommendations to improve the user experience.