The Role of Design Characteristics in Enhancing Social Presence

This paper reports on a study that examined the effects of two design characteristics on enhancing perceptions of an online virtual advisor’s social presence. Anchored in the media richness theory (Daft and Lengel, 1984), we hypothesized, and the results confirmed that the use of expressive speech acts by the virtual advisor significantly enhances perceptions of the advisor’s social presence. On the other hand, the effects of endowing the advisor with a humanoid representation and a human voice failed to reach statistical significance. The results of this study suggest that internal characteristics manifested by the advisor are more influential in affecting perceptions of its social presence

The behavioural impact of a visually represented virtual assistant in a selfservice checkout context

Our research investigated whether the presence of an interface agent - or virtual assistant (VA) - in a self-service checkout context has behavioural effects on the transaction process during particular tasks. While many participants claimed to have not noticed a VA within the self-service interface, behaviour was still affected, i.e. fewer people made errors with the VA present than in the voice-only and control conditions. The results are explained as reflective of an unconscious observation of non-verbal cues exhibited by the VA. The results are discussed in relation to possible behavioural outcomes of VA presence.</p

“Do you trust me?” – A Structured Evaluation of Trust and Social Recommendation Agents

Recommender systems are considered as useful software that helps users in screening and evaluating products. The fact that users do not know how these systems make decisions leads to an information asymmetry. Thus, users need to trust if they want to take over systems’ recommendations. Applying social interfaces has been suggested as helpful extensions of recommender systems to increase trust. These are called (Social) Recommendation Agents. While many articles and implementations can be found in the field of e-commerce, we believe that Recommendation Agents can be applied to other contexts, too. However, a structured evaluation of contexts and design dimensions for Recommendation Agents is lacking. In this study, first, we give an overview of design dimensions for Recommendation Agents. Second, we explore previous research on trust and Recommendation Agents by means of a structured literature review. Finally, based on the resulting overview, we highlight three major areas for future research

Exploring the Impact of Inclusive PCA Design on Perceived Competence, Trust and Diversity

Pedagogical Conversational Agents (PCAs) conquer academia as learning facilitators. Due to user heterogeneity and need for more inclusion in education, inclusive PCA design becomes relevant, but still remains understudied. Our contribution thus investigates the effects of inclusive PCA design on competence, trust, and diversity awareness in a between-subjects experiment with two contrastingly designed prototypes (inclusive and non-inclusive PCA) tested among 106 German university students. As expected by social desirability, the results show that 81.5% of the probands consider an inclusive design important. However, at the same time, the inclusive chatbot is highly significantly rated as less competent. In contrast, we did not measure a significant effect regarding trust, but a highly significant, strongly positive effect on diversity awareness. We interpret these results with the help of the qualitative information provided by the respondents and discuss arising implications for inclusive HCI design

USER ACCEPTANCE OF SOCIAL ROBOTS: A SOCIAL RESPONSE PERSPECTIVE

Anthropomorphism of social robots has been argued to be an important factor that determines individuals’ usage of social robots. Little research on social robots has explained how the anthropomorphic design of social robots affects users’ social responses to social robots and how social responses further affect user acceptance of social robots. Drawing on the social response theory, we propose a conceptual model to examine user acceptance of social robots. Specifically, three anthropomorphic features (appearance, voice, and response) are proposed to trigger users’ social responses (perceived social presence and perceived humanness) to social robots, which lead to individuals’ intention to accept social robots. The proposed research model will be empirically tested with data collected among hotel customers via an online experiment. The current study aims to contribute to the social robot acceptance literature from the social response perspective

Significance of Visual Realism – Eeriness, Credibility, and Persuasiveness of Virtual Influencers

Though human-like design can increase favorable social behaviors like familiarity and acceptance, it can also question the technology’s effectiveness, rationality, and functionality. With capabilities that allow technology to become more and more human-like, researchers and practitioners continue to delve over the efficacy and deployment of humanness in design. In this research paper, we measure positive and negative perceptions towards different levels of humanness among an emerging form of digital character: the virtual influencer. In doing so, we assess the efficacy of human-like design among virtual influencers by manipulating their visual realism and measuring the effect of this manipulation on their credibility and persuasiveness. Our experimental design also allows us to explore the existence of the uncanny valley in a novel technological context

Is it COVID or a Cold? An Investigation of the Role of Social Presence, Trust, and Persuasiveness for Users\u27 Intention to Comply with COVID-19 Chatbots

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the existing healthcare system by demanding potential patients to self-diagnose and self-test a potential virus contraction. In this process, some individuals need help and guidance. However, the previous modus-operandi to go to a physician is no longer viable because of the limited capacity and danger of spreading the virus. Hence, digital means had to be developed to help and inform individuals at home, such as conversational agents (CA). The human-like design and perceived social presence of such a CA are central to attaining users’ compliance. Against this background, we surveyed 174 users of a commercial COVID-19 chatbot to investigate the role of perceived social presence. Our results provide support that the perceived social presence of chatbots leads to higher levels of trust, which are a driver of compliance. In contrast, perceived persuasiveness seems to have no significant effect