Choosing What You Want Versus Getting What You Want: An Experiment with Choice in Video Ad Placement

User agency and control serve as cornerstones of design in HCI, with numerous studies finding that choice improves user experiences. However, few studies examine how users benefit from the act of choosing, independent from the fulfillment of their chosen option; making this distinction is crucial for refining guidelines on when to provide user control. In our experiment on YouTube, participants randomly experienced either a pre-roll ad, a mid-roll ad, or a choice between the two. Participants then rated their subjective experiences. Mid-roll ads negatively affected experience ratings, but ratings between those choosing a pre-roll ad and those assigned a pre-roll ad were similar. That is, the right ad timing had a much larger impact than choosing an ad timing. The findings suggest that user interfaces should not offer choices solely for the sake of offering choices, and suggest scenarios where automation would be preferable to fine-grained user control.