Between Anthropomorphism, Trust, and the Uncanny Valley: a Dual-Processing Perspective on Perceived Trustworthiness and Its Mediating Effects on Use Intentions of Social Robots

Designing social robots with the aim to increase their acceptance is crucial for the success of their implementation. However, even though increasing anthropomorphism is often seen as a promising way to achieve this goal, the uncanny valley effect proposes that anthropomorphism can be detrimental to acceptance unless robots are almost indistinguishable from humans. Against this background, we use a dual processing theory approach to investigate whether an uncanny valley of perceived trustworthiness (PT) can be observed for social robots and how this effect differs between the intuitive and deliberate reasoning system. The results of an experiment with four conditions and 227 participants provide support for the uncanny valley effect. Furthermore, mediation analyses suggested that use intention decreases through both reduced intuitive and deliberate PT for medium levels of anthropomorphism. However, for high levels of anthropomorphism (indistinguishable from real human), only intuitive PT determined use intention. Consequently, our results indicate both advantages and pitfalls of anthropomorphic design

I SEE NO FUN IN ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE FIRST IMPRESSION USABILITY AND USER EXPERIENCE

Technology acceptance is crucial, if newly implemented enterprise systems (ES) in a company are to succeed. This is often addressed by end-user training during the implementation project. Perceived enjoyment and positive user experience (UX) have gained significant importance as technology acceptance factors. Yet, research on the design of such trainings is scarce, and literature with focus on perceived UX of ES even more so. This is in contrast to findings from other contexts which show that perceived UX may heavily impact user attitudes and learning motivation. As a first endavour in this direction, this paper presents an exploratory pre-study on first impressions of main operating ES with regard to expected usability and UX. Results show that ES are rated low, especially when compared to a universal UX benchmark. We discuss how more positive first impressions may positively impact motivation to learn the system, which will be investigated in a follow-up study

Towards Human Digital Twins for Improving Customer Experience

Applications of digital twin (DT) technology have gained momentum in IS research and cognate disciplines. Several studies have documented how DTs create value in contexts such as manufacturing or smart cities through virtual monitoring and decision-making. While these contexts benefit from DTs of products or production steps, this research is the first to investigate the potentials of human DTs to improve customer experience (CX) (i.e., customer twins). Drawing on a structured literature review, we derive new conceptualizations of DTs as (i) virtual mirrors that depict a physical entity and its interactions in virtual space, and (ii) virtual orchestrators which extend the virtual mirror by also simulating potential virtual interactions. These new conceptualizations, by applying them to human DTs, enable us to discuss DT’s implications to approach current CX potentials. The results of the discussion indicate that human DTs can support CX management to improve CX throughout the whole customer journey

Trust Me, I’m an Influencer! - A Comparison of Perceived Trust in Human and Virtual Influencers

Influencers in social media are often perceived as a trusted source for many people which is why companies increasingly promote their products through them. However, influencers can also cause reputational damage for a brand. Virtual (computer-generated) influencers can be used to minimize these risks and to better tailor content to a target group of a company. As trust is one success factor of online marketing, we examine differences in the perception of trust in human and virtual influencers. In a first online survey study, we presented N = 112 participants the content of human and virtual influencers, published on Instagram. Preliminary findings reveal that although participants were often unsure whether the presented influencer was human or computer-generated, perceived trust, social presence, and humanness was consistently rated higher for human influencers. To gain deeper insights into potential, unconscious decision conflicts which can determine trust evaluations, a follow-up neuroimaging study is discussed

Intrauterine Growth Retarded Progeny of Pregnant Sows Fed High Protein:Low Carbohydrate Diet Is Related to Metabolic Energy Deficit

High and low protein diets fed to pregnant adolescent sows led to intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). To explore underlying mechanisms, sow plasma metabolite and hormone concentrations were analyzed during different pregnancy stages and correlated with litter weight (LW) at birth, sow body weight and back fat thickness. Sows were fed diets with low (6.5%, LP), adequate (12.1%, AP), and high (30%, HP) protein levels, made isoenergetic by adjusted carbohydrate content. At −5, 24, 66, and 108 days post coitum (dpc) fasted blood was collected. At 92 dpc, diurnal metabolic profiles were determined. Fasted serum urea and plasma glucagon were higher due to the HP diet. High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), %HDLC and cortisol were reduced in HP compared with AP sows. Lowest concentrations were observed for serum urea and protein, plasma insulin-like growth factor-I, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and progesterone in LP compared with AP and HP sows. Fasted plasma glucose, insulin and leptin concentrations were unchanged. Diurnal metabolic profiles showed lower glucose in HP sows whereas non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) concentrations were higher in HP compared with AP and LP sows. In HP and LP sows, urea concentrations were 300% and 60% of AP sows, respectively. Plasma total cholesterol was higher in LP than in AP and HP sows. In AP sows, LW correlated positively with insulin and insulin/glucose and negatively with glucagon/insulin at 66 dpc, whereas in HP sows LW associated positively with NEFA. In conclusion, IUGR in sows fed high protein∶low carbohydrate diet was probably due to glucose and energy deficit whereas in sows with low protein∶high carbohydrate diet it was possibly a response to a deficit of indispensable amino acids which impaired lipoprotein metabolism and favored maternal lipid disposal

Psychological and Physiological Effects of Color Use on eCommerce Websites: a Neural Study Using fNIRS

Colors surround us in all life situations and have the power to influence our mood and emotions, which makes color a crucial impact factor for decision making in ecommerce environments. Therefore, this research paper aims to explore the psychological and physiological effects of color use on websites with a neuroimaging method. For this, an experiment was designed in which 24 healthy participants watched an online shoe shop in 4 different colored versions during which their neural activity in the prefrontal cortex was measured. While comparing the neural activity between the different employed colors, distinct implications can be derived. That is, in comparison to the blueish website, (1) grey scaled websites require higher cognitive load but are rated as aesthetically pleasing, (2) greenish websites result in more negative valence while they require not more neural resources, and (3) reddish websites are rated low in valence and require higher neural processing resources

Towards Dual Processing of Social Robots: Differences in the Automatic and Reflective System

Social robots increasingly diffuse into our lives in work, health, and many other areas. However, theoretical approaches that explain how social robots should be designed to maximize experiential and performance-related outcomes in human-robot interaction (HRI) are still rare. To close this research gap, we aim to develop a dual process model of HRI with the help of two experiments. Results of the first experiment show that individuals categorize humans and robots differently in the automatic and reflective system, leading to different forms of robotic biases in these systems. Specifically, whereas humans show a bias against all types of robots in the reflective system, they only show biases against robots with low anthropomorphism in the automatic system. With the second experiment, we aim to complement these results from a neurophysiological perspective to gain more insights into cognitive processes during classification and evaluation of robots

Why he buys it and she doesn't – Exploring self-reported and neural gender differences in the perception of eCommerce websites

Studies of gender-related differences in the perception of ecommerce websites dependent on the websites' aesthetics, usefulness, ease of use, and purchase intentions, give contradictory results. To shed light on these conflicting findings, in addition to self-reported data from two online questionnaires (Study 1 & Study 2), our research uses the neuroimaging method of functional near-infrared spectroscopy to explore possible gender-related differences (Study 3). By conducting three studies, users’ conscious and unconscious (neural) evaluations of ecommerce websites are explored. The self-reported results reveal that men and women do not significantly differ in their expressed evaluations of ecommerce websites. However, the neural results indicate that gender-related differences in the perception of ecommerce websites are influenced by unconscious effects, which might explain the inconsistent gender-specific research findings. Men tend to require greater neural activity when using ecommerce websites. Websites evaluated as useful and visually aesthetic lead to significant neural activation in brain regions of the left hemisphere for men in comparison to women, whereas websites evaluated as less useful and appealing reveal neural activation in brain regions of the right hemisphere in male participants. The results provide several theoretical and practical implications for the evaluation of gender-specific decision making on ecommerce websites

A Neural Investigation of eLoyalty on eCommerce Websites

eLoyalty provides a major competitive advantage for online businesses, however it is difficult to define. To understand the underlying mechanisms of eloyalty, a neuroimaging study was conducted, identifying possible “neural” activations that point to antecedents of the users’ eloyalty. Our results show that antecedents to eloyalty might be associated with an activation of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), and the right orbitofrontal/ventromedial cortex. Furthermore, a non-hypothesized deactivation of the left superior dorsomedial PFC was identified. This activation pattern can be related to increased pleasantness and reward attribution of the target website, as well as higher associated familiarity and user preference. Based on this it is discussed that antecedents to eloyalty may be associated with neural lock-in effects. These lock-in effects may be elicited through continuous, positive, and pleasant user experiences which ultimately lead to an emotional attachment that is “neurally encoded” into the user’s brain

Risk, Trust, and Emotion in Online Pharmacy Medication Purchases: Multimethod Approach Incorporating Customer Self-Reports, Facial Expressions, and Neural Activation

BackgroundOnline pharmacies are used less than other e-commerce sites in Germany. Shopping behavior does not correspond to consumption behavior, as online purchases are predominantly made for over-the-counter (OTC) medications. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to understand the purchasing experiences of online pharmacy customers in terms of critical factors for online pharmacy adoption. MethodsThis study examined the perceived risk, perceived trust, and emotions related to purchasing medications online and, consequently, the purchase intention toward online pharmacies. In a within-subjects design (N=37 participants), 2 German online pharmacies with different perceptions of risk and trust were investigated for their main business, namely OTC and prescription drugs. The results of a preliminary study led to 1 online pharmacy with high and 1 with significantly low self-reported risk by the prestudy sample. Emotions were measured with a multimethod approach during and after the purchase situation as follows: (1) neural evaluation processes using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, (2) the automated direct motor response during the use of the online pharmacy via facial expression analysis (FaceReader), and (3) subjective evaluations through self-reports. Following the shopping experiences at both pharmacies for both product types, risk, trust, and purchase intention toward the pharmacies were assessed using self-assessments. ResultsThe 2 online pharmacies were rated differently in terms of risk, trust, emotions, and purchase intention. The high-risk pharmacy was also perceived as having lower trust and vice versa. Significantly stronger negative emotional expressions on customers’ faces and different neural activations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex were measured when purchasing prescription drugs from the high-risk pharmacy than from the low-risk pharmacy, combined with OTC medications. In line with this, customers’ self-ratings indicated higher negative emotions for the high-risk pharmacy and lower negative emotions for the low-risk pharmacy. Moreover, the ratings showed lower purchase intention for the high-risk pharmacy. ConclusionsUsing multimethod measurements, we showed that the preceding neural activation and subsequent verbal evaluation of online pharmacies are reflected in the customers’ immediate emotional facial expressions. High-risk online pharmacies and prescription drugs lead to stronger negative emotional facial expressions and trigger neural evaluation processes that imply perceived loss. Low-risk online pharmacies and OTC medications lead to weaker negative emotional facial expressions and trigger neural evaluation processes that signify certainty and perceived reward. The results may provide an explanation for why OTC medications are purchased online more frequently than prescription medications