Understanding and Balancing Trade-offs of Visibility in Support Requests

This study delves into support-seeking behaviors in local support exchange networks, where a lack of support requests has been commonly found in prior studies. Focusing on three widely adopted approaches to making support requests in these networks, our research employed a scenario-based approach, presenting participants with three situations requiring instrumental support. Participants were asked to choose and rationalize their preferred method of request for each scenario. The study reveals that preferences varied due to factors like urgency, privacy, social image, and control over the situation. These findings highlight significant trade-offs between different approaches to asking for help.We suggest design implications aimed at facilitating more effective and psychologically comfortable support-seeking behaviors on local support exchange platforms.