Looking at human–computer interface design: Effects of ethnicity in computer agents

Abstract

This paper presents empirical research findings that identify demonstrated attitude changes in computer users associated with their receiving advice from personified computer agents of two different ethnicities: African American and European American. Our findings indicate that computer users are more likely to change their actions (demonstrating underlying attitudes) based on input from a computer agent whose ethnicity is similar to theirs. These findings directly impact computer agent design in many fields.

Promoting motivation with virtual agents and avatars: role of visual presence and appearance

“…Baylor & Kim 2004;Baylor 2005;Guadagno et al 2007;Kim et al 2007) and same ethnicity/race (Baylor & Kim 2004;Gulz et al 2007;Pratt et al 2007;Plant et al in press). However, these generalizations are context dependent.…”

Effects of facial similarity on user responses to embodied agents

“…Faces, gender, ethnicity, personality, and attitudes are examples of dimensions on which people may compare themselves to others, including embodied agents (concerning agents, e.g., [Dryer, 1999;Nass and Moon, 2000;Nowak and Rauh, 2005;Pratt et al, 2007]). One important motive for social comparison is that people want to make accurate self-evaluations [Festinger, 1954].…”

Gendering the Machine: Preferred Virtual Assistant Gender and Realism in Self-Service

“…There are two key theories relevant to VA characteristics. The first is similarity-attraction theory, which suggests that people are attracted to similar others [ 6], [ 20], [26][27], who tend to be perceived as more credible, resulting in increased liking [ 6], and in technology, reduced discomfort with the interface [ 33]. Similarity can be investigated on several levels, including global features such as culture, ethnicity and gender, local features such as hair color and face shape, social and personality factors such as levels of politeness or extraversion, and behavioral similarity [ 31].…”

“…An interface agent is, more generally, a computer-generated character designed to interact with users by simulating human appearance and behaviors through artificial intelligence. Dependent on their function, they are referred to as Virtual Customer Service Agent [ 15], Product Recommendation Agent [ 6], Embodied Conversational Agent [ 11], [ 17], Pedagogical Agent [ 18], [19][20][21], [31], or as a human-like or embodied agent/character [12][13], [23][24][25][26][27].…”