Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Human-Agent Interaction
Personality
User Perception
Trust
Synchrony
Exploring the Effects of Personality in Human-Agent Interactions: A Study on User-Agent Synchrony with Human-based Vocalics
🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the unresolved question of how agent personality traits influence user trust and interaction experience. By generating virtual agents with specific personality characteristics through synthesized human voices, the research employs psychometric methods to assess user perception and human–agent synchrony. Results indicate that extraverted agents are more readily preferred by users, while the effect of users’ own personality on perception operates independently of agent personality. Furthermore, no significant effect of user–agent synchrony was observed. These findings elucidate the mechanisms through which vocal personality traits function in human–computer interaction, providing critical empirical evidence for optimizing anthropomorphic agent design.
📝 Abstract
User trust is paramount in human-agent interactions, as it allows users to feel comfortable being themselves around an agent. The process of building user rapport starts in how an agent was designed, from its modality to the setting, to any of the many features and characteristics that can be tailored. All these aspects can affect whether users will be able to properly interact with the virtual agent and achieve the intended purpose. One such feature that is critical in human-human interactions is personality. A person's personality can strongly influence whether those that interact with them perceive them as trustworthy. This study used virtual agents generated from human voices with known personality traits to evaluate user perceptions. We found that extraverted agents were deemed to be more likeable by users, and that there was no significant effect of user-agent synchrony on user perceptions of the agent. In addition, it was found that user personality, without regard for agent personality, affected user perceptions of the agents. Our observations suggest that user perceptions may depend more on agent-topic synchrony than user-agent synchrony, and contribute to the broader community with considerations for the design of effective human-agent interactions.
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Human-Agent Interaction
Vocalics
Personality Traits
User-Agent Synchrony
Agent-Topic Synchrony
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