Does it matter if a computer jokes

Abstract

We need oxygen, especially if someone farts!"The goal here was to determine whether computer interfaces are capable of social influence via humor. Users interacted with a natural language capable virtual agent that told persuasive information, and they were given the option to use information from the dialogue in order to complete a problem-solving task. Individuals interacting with an ostensibly humorous virtual agent were influenced by it such that those who judged the agent unfunny were less likely to be persuaded and departed from the agent's suggestions. We discuss the implications of these results for HCI involving natural language systems and virtual agents.

Social influence of humor in virtual human counselor's self‐disclosure

“…Previous work has shown that humor contributes to social influence in real human counseling interactions and HAI by creating rapport between communicators and encouraging people to favor their interaction partner by perceiving the partner as more likable, pleasant, friendly, credible, etc. This is supported by the liking theory of social influence …”

“…In general, the authors suggested that humor would benefit task performance. Khooshabeh and collaborators also found that users were more attracted to a humorous virtual human and significantly persuaded by a humorous virtual human to complete a task, compared to a nonhumorous virtual human. In an iterated prisoner's dilemma interaction, Kulms and colleagues did not find the humor of a virtual human to affect cooperativeness, but it did facilitate user enjoyment and bonding with the virtual human.…”

“…Previous research has established that real human users are very sensitive to virtual humans' humorous displays because such behavior adds a dimension of personality beyond their typical image as static, programmed artificial characters. Prior work has examined humor in various HAIs, including task‐oriented interactions and social conversational interactions . These studies demonstrated the implementation of humor to bolster cooperation in tasks or enhance social communication with virtual humans.…”

“…Nijholt contends that users are sensitive to such displays of humor, which can make the agents more realistic and believable. Previous studies found that people wanted to continue cooperating or communicating with a virtual human that presented social behaviors such as humor, empathy, or small talk. This was likely due to a greater perception of the virtual humans as likable and credible communication partners …”

Virtual Human Role Players for Studying Social Factors in Organizational Decision Making

“…Our own previous work has investigated the effects of emotional expressivity when the person observing the emotional expressions of a counterpart was either in a lower or higher ranking power position (Wang et al, 2015 ). Participants completed rankings in a survival task, similar to Artstein et al ( 2017 ), Khooshabeh et al ( 2011 ), and Wang et al ( 2013 ), where they had the opportunity to discuss their original rankings with an ostensible partner, which was a photorealistic virtual character. In the first study, participants were told that they were in charge and would be interacting with a partner who had a lower rank than them (follower).…”