The Effect of Non-lexical Verbal Signals on the Perceived Authenticity, Empathy and Understanding of a Listener

Active listening plays an important role in the relationship between clients and therapists. Here, we investigated whether variations of the confirmatory nonlexical verbal communication signal "mmh" influenced perceived authenticity, empathy and understanding of a listener. Eighty-one participants were in a conversation with an interviewer and reported about a difficult work experience. They were randomly assigned to one of three groups: The control group did not receive any verbal feedback from the interviewer; In one experimental group (1x-mmh), the interviewer uttered several monosyllabic confirmatory nonlexical verbal signals ("mmh") during the presentation; In a second experimental group (3x-mmh) the interviewer voiced several three syllable "mmh-mmh-mmh" while listening. All participants were then asked to rate the perceived authenticity, empathy and understanding of the interviewer. Participants in the 3x-mmh condition rated the interviewer to be significantly less authentic than those in the other two groups. No differences in reported empathy and understanding were found. The use of consecutive confirmatory nonlexical verbal signals ("mmh") - at least as currently implemented - may influence the perceived authenticity of a listener

”I Like You, as a Friend”: Voice Assistants’ Response Strategies to Sexual Harassment and Their Relation to Gender

Sexual harassment towards voice assistants continues to be prevalent with up to 10% of interactions being abusive – often with sexual overtones. Voice assistants are predominantly modeled as female and often respond positively to sexual harassment, which according to UNESCO has the potential to reinforce negative gender biases and stereotypes. In the following, we evaluate alternative responses to sexual harassment and their relation to the assistants’ gender. In an online study, 77 participants rated the appropriateness of the assistants’ responses to sexual harassment while the gender of the artificial voice was manipulated and compared the ratings to appropriateness scores collected with no voice-based gender information present, i.e. text-only. Results showed an interaction between gender and the appropriateness level of a response. In particular, we were only able to confirm the previous results for male voices. We found that the perceived appropriateness changed as expected when spoken by a male voice, in accordance to previous no-voice ratings. However, we observed no clear difference in appropriateness levels when spoken by a female voice. We assume that this relationship is due to conflicting expectations regarding females’ responses to sexual harassment. Possibly, unrealistic stereotypical expectations towards females resulted in neither response being considered appropriate

Voice assistants' response strategies to sexual harassment and their relation to gender

Current voice assistants are predominantly modeled as female and often respond positively to sexual harassment, which according to UNESCO has the potential to reinforce negative gender biases and stereotypes. In the following study, we evaluated alternative responses to sexual harassment and their relation to the assistants’ gender. In an online study, 77 participants rated the appropriateness of the assistants’ responses to sexual harassment while the gender of the artificial voice was manipulated and compared the ratings to appropriateness scores collected with no voice-based gender information present, i.e. text-only. Results showed an interaction between gender and the response category. We found that the perceived appropriateness changed when spoken by a male voice, in accordance to previous no-voice ratings. However, we observed no clear difference in appropriateness levels when spoken by a female voice. We assume that this relationship is due to conflicting stereotypical expectations regarding women’s responses to sexual harassment – where neither response is considered appropriate

A Developmental Perspective on Reciprocity and Relationship Formation in Child-Robot Interaction

A multimodal project on reciprocity and child-robot interaction using the Cozmo robot and an Ultimatum game. Children between 5-12-years were introduced to the Cozmo robot in a 30-minutes group session, followed by a 20-minutes individual test session. In the test session children watched a 4-minutes instructions video, followed by two test rounds against a computer. Children then played 4 rounds against a computer and 4 rounds against Cozmo. Afterwards children filled in a relationship formation survey. All materials, code, and data can be found in this project and the linked gitlab project. Data was collected in March 2022 (CRI_22_study-school.csv). We also took part in the BreinBreker Festival (Utrecht, 30 April 2022). During the festival, children played the Ultimatum game against the Cozmo robot. Please be careful with analysing and interpreting this data (CRI_22_festival-sample.csv), as it wasn't a well controlled setup and doesn't feature a control condition (child). The children were not tested on their own but had siblings, friends, family and other members of the public present. Credits: Freepik, Adobe Stock, FreeMusic, Narakeet, Anki, Kinvert (BMG Media)

Children’s Reciprocity and Relationship Formation with a Robot Across Age

Reciprocity, responding to another one’s actions with similar actions, is central to the formation and maintenance of relationships. Reciprocity and relationship formation change with children’s development and are key aspects in human-robot interaction. So far, it is unclear how children reciprocate and build a relationship with a social robot and how reciprocity to social robots develops with age. In the current preregistered study, we collected data from 147 children aged 5 to 12 years to investigate the developmental trajectory of reciprocity towards a social robot and the formation of a relationship with this robot. To test reciprocity, children completed an Alternated Repeated Ultimatum Game with a social entertainment robot and another child. A recently validated survey on relationship formation was used that assesses trust, closeness, and social support. Results from a linear-mixed effects Bayesian analysis indicated that children reciprocated similarly to a robot as to another child. While reciprocity differed across age with lower values for 8-10-year-olds compared to younger and older children, this difference in the developmental trajectory of reciprocity was also observed when children interacted with the robot. Exploratory analysis showed differing results for positive (reciprocating positive actions with positive actions) and negative reciprocity (reciprocating negative actions with negative actions). Children’s relationship formation with a social robot changed with age but showed different developmental trajectories for trust (linear), closeness (negative quadratic), and social support (constant). No association was found between reciprocity towards the robot and relationship formation. Our findings suggest that established theories from human-human literature, such as the developmental trajectory of reciprocity, are also relevant for human-robot interaction. Children’s age is an important determinant for how children interact with and perceive robots. This therefore needs to be considered when designing robotic systems and experiments in the future as it could influence the success and effectiveness of both

Are natural faces merely labelled as artificial trusted less?

Data and R scripts associated with the manuscript: "Are natural faces merely labelled as artificial trusted less?

Are Natural Faces Merely Labelled as Artificial Trusted Less?

Artificial intelligence increasingly plays a crucial role in daily life. At the same time, artificial intelligence is often met with reluctance and distrust. Previous research demonstrated that faces that are visibly artificial are considered to be less trustworthy and remembered less accurately compared to natural faces. Current technology, however, enables the generation of artificial faces that are indistinguishable from natural faces. In five experiments (total N = 867), we tested whether natural faces that are merely labelled to be artificial are also trusted less. A meta-analysis of all five experiments suggested that natural faces merely labeled as being artificial were judged to be less trustworthy. This bias did not depend on the degree of trustworthiness and attractiveness of the faces (Experiments 1-3). It was not modulated by changing raters’ attitude towards artificial intelligence (Experiments 2-3) or by information communicated by the faces (Experiment 4). We also did not observe differences in recall performance between faces labelled as artificial or natural (Experiment 3). When participants only judged one type of face (i.e., either labelled as artificial or natural), the difference in trustworthiness judgments was eliminated (Experiment 5) suggesting that the contrast between the natural and artificial categories in the same task promoted the labelling effect. We conclude that faces that are merely labelled to be artificial are trusted less in situations that also include faces labelled to be real. We propose that understanding and changing social evaluations towards artificial intelligence goes beyond eliminating physical differences between artificial and natural entities.ISSN:2474-739

Faces Merely Labelled as Artificial are Trusted Less

Artificial intelligence increasingly plays a crucial role in daily life. At the same time, artificial intelligence is often met with reluctance and distrust. Previous research demonstrated that faces that are visibly artificial are considered to be less trustworthy and remembered less accurately compared to natural faces. Current technology, however, enables the generation of artificial faces that are indistinguishable from natural faces. In five experiments (total N = 867), we tested whether natural faces that are merely labelled to be artificial are also trusted less. In Experiments 1-4, we observed that natural faces merely labeled as being artificial were judged to be less trustworthy. This bias did not depend on the degree of trustworthiness and attractiveness of the faces (Experiments 1-3). It was not modulated by changing raters’ attitude towards artificial intelligence (Experiments 2-3) or by information communicated by the faces (Experiment 4). We also did not observe differences in recall performance between faces labelled as artificial or natural (Experiment 3). When participants only judged one type of face (i.e., either labelled as artificial or natural), the difference in trustworthiness judgments was eliminated (Experiment 5) suggesting that the contrast between the natural and artificial categories in the same task promoted the labelling effect. We conclude that faces that are merely labelled to be artificial are trusted less in situations that also include faces labelled to be real. We propose that understanding and changing social evaluations towards artificial intelligence goes beyond eliminating physical differences between artificial and natural entities

A dyadic perspective on parent-child dyadic coping in children with a chronic condition

Objective In this study, we examined the extent to which parents and their children with a chronic condition communicate their stress to one another and whether stress communication is associated with different forms of dyadic coping. Methods In a sample of 239 parent-child dyads, self-reported stress communication and different forms of perceived dyadic coping (i.e., emotion-oriented, problem-oriented, and negative dyadic coping) were assessed using a cross-sectional design. Results We first found that children's stress communication was positively associated with more positive (r = 0.28, p < .001) and less negative dyadic coping responses by children (r = −0.22, p < .001). Children's stress communication was also associated with more positive (r = 0.52, r = 0.45, p's < 0.001), and less negative dyadic coping responses by parents (r = −0.19, p < .001). Using dyadic data of children with a chronic condition and their parents, we found that more stress communication of children was associated with healthier coping responses of both children (perceived emotion-oriented dyadic coping: β = 0.23, p < .001) and parents (perceived emotion-oriented dyadic coping: β = 0.33, p < .001; perceived problem-oriented dyadic coping: β = 0.22, p < .001). Conclusion This underscores the importance of communication and adaptive coping strategies of parents and children in the context of a child's chronic condition. These findings may help us find ways to support children and their parents to optimally communicate about and deal with their stress