How curated and communicated data shapes behaviour: HSC Enterprise Computing Data Science
“Investigate the influence of curated and communicated data on social behaviour, including data literacy, timeframes, signals impacting on behaviour, data swamps and educating users”
Curated and communicated data shapes behaviour. Data literacy decides how critically people read it, timeframes change the story and urgency, signals such as notifications and streaks nudge action, data swamps make outputs untrustworthy, and educating users helps people make informed choices.
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What this dot point is asking
Data does not reach people raw. Someone chooses what to show, when, and how. This content point asks how that curation and communication influences behaviour, using five named ideas: data literacy, timeframes, signals, data swamps and educating users.
The answer
Curated and communicated data
Curated data has been selected, organised and framed for a purpose: a social media feed, a leaderboard, an energy bill comparison, a news graph. Curation is useful because it filters overload, but it also gives the curator power to shape conclusions and actions.
The five ideas
- Data literacy. The ability to read, question and use data. People with low data literacy are more easily influenced by misleading charts or selective statistics; people with high data literacy check sources, scales and sample sizes.
- Timeframes. The period shown changes the story (a short window can hide a long trend). Timeliness matters too: out-of-date data leads to poor decisions, and real-time data creates urgency.
- Signals impacting on behaviour. Notifications, streaks, badges, like counts, star ratings, "trending" labels, scarcity messages ("only 2 left") and colour codes all nudge action. Enterprises design signals to increase engagement or sales; governments use them for public health and safety.
- Data swamps. A data lake (a large store of raw data) becomes a swamp when it lacks metadata, governance and quality control. Data in a swamp cannot be found or trusted, so curated outputs built on it may be wrong.
- Educating users. Enterprises and governments explain how to read dashboards, labels and ratings, publish methods and definitions, and teach data literacy so people make informed choices rather than being manipulated.
Curated data can drive positive behaviour (saving water, getting vaccinated, driving safely) or negative behaviour (compulsive app use, panic buying, spreading misinformation). The difference is usually accuracy, transparency and whose interests the curation serves.
An energy retailer adds a comparison to every bill: "You used 20% more electricity than similar homes nearby."
- Signal: social comparison plus a red icon prompts the household to reduce use.
- Timeframe: it compares the same quarter last year to account for seasons.
- Data quality: the comparison group must be accurate (house size, number of occupants); a swampy customer database with wrong household sizes would produce unfair comparisons.
- Educating users: a short guide explains how the comparison is calculated and gives tips.
- Defining a data swamp as "a lot of data"
- Size is not the problem; poor organisation and governance are.
- Only describing negatives
- The syllabus asks about influence, which can be helpful or harmful.
- Forgetting the curator's motive
- Always ask who chose the data and why.
Practice questions
Original practice questions graded from foundation to exam level, each with a full worked solution. Try them before revealing the solution.
foundation3 marksExplain how a fitness app's streak counter is a signal that influences behaviour.Show worked solution →
The streak counter shows how many consecutive days a user has exercised. Seeing the number grow rewards the user, and the fear of losing the streak encourages them to exercise even on days they would skip. The app benefits because users open it more often.
Marking guide: 1 mark for describing the signal, 1 mark for the behavioural effect, 1 mark for the enterprise's interest.
core4 marksA news site shows a graph of house prices for the last 12 months only, titled 'Prices are falling'. Explain how the timeframe and the reader's data literacy affect the message.Show worked solution →
Choosing a 12-month window may show a small recent decline while hiding a much larger rise over the previous ten years, so the curated timeframe shapes the conclusion. A reader with strong data literacy would check the axis scale, ask what the longer-term trend is, and look for the data source. A reader with low data literacy may accept the headline and delay buying or panic-sell, showing how curated data can change behaviour.
Marking guide: 2 marks for the timeframe effect, 2 marks for data literacy and behaviour.
exam6 marksA state government wants residents to cut water use during a drought. Evaluate how it could use curated and communicated data to change behaviour, and the risks involved.Show worked solution →
- Strategy
- Put a simple signal on each water bill: the household's daily use compared with the average for similar households and a target, with a green, amber or red indicator. Publish a dam-level dashboard updated weekly and send alerts when levels fall below thresholds. Run a short campaign explaining how to read the dashboard (educating users).
- Why it works
- Social comparison and clear colour signals prompt action, a current timeframe shows urgency, and simple visuals suit residents with varied data literacy.
- Risks
- Comparisons can backfire: households below the average may increase use to "match" it, so the message should praise low users. Poorly curated data (an out-of-date dam level, a misleading axis) erodes trust. The dashboard must be built on well-governed data, not a data swamp of inconsistent meter readings. Household comparisons must protect privacy by using aggregated averages.
- Judgement
- Curated data can be a cheap and effective way to change behaviour if it is accurate, timely, easy to understand and privacy-safe; otherwise it can mislead or reduce trust.
Marking guide: 2 marks for strategy, 1 mark for why it works, 2 marks for risks, 1 mark for a justified judgement.