‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ empathetic reactions towards a conversational agent

Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258807
  • Conversational agents and smart speakers have grown in popularity offering a variety of options for use, which are available through intuitive speech operation. In contrast to the standard dyad of a single user and a device, voice-controlled operations can be observed by further attendees resulting in new, more social usage scenarios. Referring to the concept of ‘media equation’ and to research on the idea of ‘computers as social actors,’ which describes the potential of technology to trigger emotional reactions in users, this paper asks forConversational agents and smart speakers have grown in popularity offering a variety of options for use, which are available through intuitive speech operation. In contrast to the standard dyad of a single user and a device, voice-controlled operations can be observed by further attendees resulting in new, more social usage scenarios. Referring to the concept of ‘media equation’ and to research on the idea of ‘computers as social actors,’ which describes the potential of technology to trigger emotional reactions in users, this paper asks for the capacity of smart speakers to elicit empathy in observers of interactions. In a 2 × 2 online experiment, 140 participants watched a video of a man talking to an Amazon Echo either rudely or neutrally (factor 1), addressing it as ‘Alexa’ or ‘Computer’ (factor 2). Controlling for participants’ trait empathy, the rude treatment results in participants’ significantly higher ratings of empathy with the device, compared to the neutral treatment. The form of address had no significant effect. Results were independent of the participants’ gender and usage experience indicating a rather universal effect, which confirms the basic idea of the media equation. Implications for users, developers and researchers were discussed in the light of (future) omnipresent voice-based technology interaction scenarios.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Astrid Carolus, Carolin Wienrich, Anna Törke, Tobias Friedel, Christian Schwietering, Mareike Sperzel
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-258807
Document Type:Journal article
Faculties:Fakultät für Humanwissenschaften (Philos., Psycho., Erziehungs- u. Gesell.-Wissensch.) / Institut Mensch - Computer - Medien
Language:English
Parent Title (English):Frontiers in Computer Science
Year of Completion:2021
Volume:3
Article Number:682982
Source:Frontiers in Computer Science (2021) 3:682982. DOI:10.3389/fcomp.2021.682982
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2021.682982
Dewey Decimal Classification:0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 004 Datenverarbeitung; Informatik
1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie
Tag:computers as social actors; conversational agent; empathy; human-computer interaction; media equation; smart speaker
Release Date:2022/03/21
Collections:Open-Access-Publikationsfonds / Förderzeitraum 2021
Licence (German):License LogoCC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 4.0 International