Be a Miracle - Designing Conversational Agents to Influence Users’ Intention Regarding Organ Donation

The increasing need for organ donations remains a worldwide challenge as transplant waiting lists grow and donation rates persist at constant levels. The increasing popularity of conversational agents (CAs) has prompted new strategies for educating and persuading individuals to adjust their cognitive and behavioral beliefs and become donors. However, how CAs should be designed to modify uninformed users’ intention to donate remains unclear. Against this background, we conducted an online experiment (N=134) to examine the impact of a human-like CA design on users\u27 intention to become organ donors. Based on the three-factor theory of anthropomorphism and the elaboration likelihood model, we derive three theoretical mechanisms to understand the influence of a CAs human-like design on users’ intention to donate. The findings show that perceived anthropomorphism does not directly impact persuasion and empathy but is mediated via perceived usefulness to influence the intention to donate

“Look Closer” Anthropomorphic Design and Perception of Anthropomorphism in Conversational Agent Research

Conversation agents have been attracting increased attention in IS research and increased adoption in practice. They provide an AI-driven conversation-like interface and tap into the anthropomorphism bias of its users. There has been extensive research on improving this effect for over a decade since increased anthropomorphism leads to increased service satisfaction, trust, and other effects on the user. This work examines the current state of research regarding anthropomorphism and anthropomorphic design to guide future research. It utilizes a modified structured literature analysis to extract and classify the examined constructs and their relationships in the hypotheses of current literature. We provide an overview of current research, highlighting focus areas. Based on our results, we formulate several open research questions and provide the IS community with directions for future research

Feel, Don\u27t Think Review of the Application of Neuroscience Methods for Conversational Agent Research

Conversational agents (CAs) equipped with human-like features (e.g., name, avatar) have been reported to induce the perception of humanness and social presence in users, which can also increase other aspects of users’ affection, cognition, and behavior. However, current research is primarily based on self-reported measurements, leaving the door open for errors related to the self-serving bias, socially desired responding, negativity bias and others. In this context, applying neuroscience methods (e.g., EEG or MRI) could provide a means to supplement current research. However, it is unclear to what extent such methods have already been applied and what future directions for their application might be. Against this background, we conducted a comprehensive and transdisciplinary review. Based on our sample of 37 articles, we find an increased interest in the topic after 2017, with neural signal and trust/decision-making as upcoming areas of research and five separate research clusters, describing current research trends

Numerical simulation of reinforced concrete and fibre reinforced concrete structures under high dynamic loadings

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Fragestellung, die Auswirkungen von Detonationseinwirkungen auf betonartige Strukturen zu untersuchen. Die mit geeigneten und zuverlässigen Werkstoffmodellen für den Stahlbeton und für den Stahlfaserbeton durchgeführten numerischen Simulationen sollen aufwendige und teure Versuche ergänzen und/oder ersetzen. Diese Modelle müssen in der Lage sein, die charakteristischen Merkmale der Wellenfortpflanzung im Werkstoff abbilden zu können. Die Werkstoffmodelle für den Stahlfaserbeton und für den Stahlbetonverbund wurden in dieser Arbeit neu entwickelt und in eine Hydrocode-Umgebung eingebettet. Stoffgesetze werden in der klassischen Theorie der Thermodynamik additiv in eine hydrostatische und eine deviatorische Komponente zerlegt. In dieser entkoppelten Darstellung lässt sich mit einer Zustandsgleichung das Kompressionsverhalten und mit einem Festigkeitsmodell das deviatorischen Materialverhalten beschreiben. Die Materialgleichungen wurden auf der Grundlage einer vollständig dreidimensionalen kontinuumsbasierten elasto-plastischen Schädigungstheorie hergeleitet. Die Stoffgesetze sind modular aufgebaut und berücksichtigen die Zunahme der Festigkeit in Abhängigkeit von der Verzerrungsrate, eine Beschreibung der Schädigung auf Basis des Materialplastifizierens und eine daraus resultierende Degradation der Steifigkeit und Festigkeit. Ergänzend wurden zur vollständigen Beschreibung des Stahlbetons die Materialparameter eines bestehenden Materialmodells für Metalle denen des Betonstahls nach DIN 488 angepasst.In this work, the effects of detonation loadings on concrete based structures are analysed. For accurate modelling, appropriate and reliable material models for reinforced concrete and fibre reinforced concrete are required for the numerical simulations which should complement and/or substitute experiments. These material models must have the ability to characterise the effects of wave propagations in heterogeneous materials. The material models for steel fibre reinforced concrete and reinforced concrete bond have been developed and implemented in a hydrocode. Due to the classical theory of thermodynamics, material laws are additively disparted into a hydrostatic component and a deviatoric component. In doing so, the material dependent constitutive equations are splitted in an equation of state for the compressive material behaviour, and, a strength model for the deviatoric material behaviour. The constitutive equations are affiliated on the basis of a fully three dimensional continuum based elastic-plastic damage theory. The new constitute equations are modularly formulated and consider the effects of strength increase due to strain-rates, a damage evolution due to material plasticising, and, consequentially a degradation of stiffness and strength. Additionally, the material parameters of the reinforcing steel according to the German code regulations DIN 488 have been evaluated and implemented in a known material law of metals

Shared functional connectivity between the dorso-medial and dorso-ventral streams in macaques

© 2020, The Author(s). Manipulation of an object requires us to transport our hand towards the object (reach) and close our digits around that object (grasp). In current models, reach-related information is propagated in the dorso-medial stream from posterior parietal area V6A to medial intraparietal area, dorsal premotor cortex, and primary motor cortex. Grasp-related information is processed in the dorso-ventral stream from the anterior intraparietal area to ventral premotor cortex and the hand area of primary motor cortex. However, recent studies have cast doubt on the validity of this separation in separate processing streams. We investigated in 10 male rhesus macaques the whole-brain functional connectivity of these areas using resting state fMRI at 7-T. Although we found a clear separation between dorso-medial and dorso-ventral network connectivity in support of the two-stream hypothesis, we also found evidence of shared connectivity between these networks. The dorso-ventral network was distinctly correlated with high-order somatosensory areas and feeding related areas, whereas the dorso-medial network with visual areas and trunk/hindlimb motor areas. Shared connectivity was found in the superior frontal and precentral gyrus, central sulcus, intraparietal sulcus, precuneus, and insular cortex. These results suggest that while sensorimotor processing streams are functionally separated, they can access information through shared areas

Follow Me If You Want to Live - Understanding the Influence of Human-Like Design on Users’ Perception and Intention to Comply with COVID-19 Education Chatbots

Following recommendations and complying with behavioral attitudes is one major key in overcoming global pandemics, such as COVID-19. As the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights, there is an increased need to follow hygiene standards to prevent infections and in reducing the risk of infections transmissions (World-Health-Organization, 2021). This urgent need offers new use cases of digital services, such as conversational agents that educate and inform individuals about relevant counter measurements. Specifically, due to the increased fatigue in the population in the context of COVID-19, (Franzen and Wöhner, 2021), CAs can play a vital role in supporting and attaining user’s behavior. We conducted an experiment (n=116) to analyze the effect of a human-like-design CA on the intention to comply. Our results show a significant impact of a human-like design on the perception of humanness, source credibility, and trust, which are all (directly or indirectly) drivers of the intention to comply

Does Culture Matter for the Design of Chatbots Promoting Blood Donation Behaviour? - The Difference in Perception of Culture-Tailored Conversation Styles

While blood products are a critical resource in healthcare systems, providing sufficient blood products is a worldwide challenge, especially so since the COVID-19 pandemic. As easy and timely access to information is crucial to convince (potential) donors to change their behaviour and become regular donors, chatbots can offer fast and easy access to information whenever (potential) donors need it. Due to their human-like design, chatbots can help motivating and convincing users to donate blood regularly to work against the ongoing, post-pandemic challenges in providing sufficient blood supply. Based on previous findings, we assume that users’ perception of a blood donation chatbot can vary worldwide, in relation to the incorporated design features. As part of a design science study, we conducted an online between-subject experiment with participants from USA, Germany, South Africa and India. We could show a significant negative moderating effect of horizontal individualism in terms of the chatbot’s individualistic conversation style and the perceived similarity in social group membership, implicating the so-called “contribution conflict” with regard to IS and culture

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

Towards a Greater Diversity of Replication Studies

The replication of existing knowledge (e.g., previous study results) stands as an essential research practice across all science disciplines. Despite the importance of replication, the scarcity of replication studies is commonly criticized in business, management, and information system (IS) research. Therefore, efforts have already been made to facilitate replication research in the IS community, such as establishing conference tracks and journals focusing on publishing replication studies and providing guidelines on how and why to conduct replication research. Nonetheless, the perception of replication research remains unchanged, describing it as mundane. Therefore, in this issues and opinions article, we will explore how replication research could be made more appealing by diversifying the categories of replication studies. In this regard, we looked at replication in neuroscience, eliciting two new replication study categories: ‘transfer’ and ‘method.’ Additionally, through extensive discussion with other IS scholars, we added one more replication category, ‘comparison.’ We hope that this diversification will attract more researchers and also show the potential replication research holds