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

Abstract

Does the gender of a Voice Assistant influence the perceived appropriateness of responses to verbal sexual harassment? To answer this question, perceived appropriateness of actual responses to sexual harassment towards conversational systems were tested, manipulating the gender of the voices. The results show an effect of gender on perceived appropriateness. Thus, male senders are perceived as more appropriate than female senders, depending on the appropriateness category.

The Usage of Voice in Sexualized Interactions with Technologies and Sexual Health Communication: An Overview

“…The system establishes and sustains a link between women and obedience. Among other factors, this leads to sexual harassment within interaction with voice assistants [40,41]. Therefore, several studies investigate, how conversational technologies respond to sexual harassment and verbal abuse (e.g., [40,42]).…”