‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent
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...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Computer Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2021.682982/full |
| _version_ | 1818727825783390208 |
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| author | Astrid Carolus Carolin Wienrich Anna Törke Tobias Friedel Christian Schwietering Mareike Sperzel |
| author_facet | Astrid Carolus Carolin Wienrich Anna Törke Tobias Friedel Christian Schwietering Mareike Sperzel |
| author_sort | Astrid Carolus |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T22:20:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4d6b4fb1254143e7b680bf64eada7744 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-9898 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T22:20:15Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Computer Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-4d6b4fb1254143e7b680bf64eada77442022-12-21T21:30:29ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Computer Science2624-98982021-05-01310.3389/fcomp.2021.682982682982‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational AgentAstrid Carolus0Carolin Wienrich1Anna Törke2Tobias Friedel3Christian Schwietering4Mareike Sperzel5Institute Human-Computer-Media, Media Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg, GermanyInstitute Human-Computer-Media, Human-Technique-Systems, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg, GermanyInstitute Human-Computer-Media, Media Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg, GermanyInstitute Human-Computer-Media, Media Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg, GermanyInstitute Human-Computer-Media, Media Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg, GermanyInstitute Human-Computer-Media, Media Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg, GermanyConversational 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.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2021.682982/fullconversational agentempathysmart speakermedia equationcomputers as social actorshuman-computer interaction |
| spellingShingle | Astrid Carolus Carolin Wienrich Anna Törke Tobias Friedel Christian Schwietering Mareike Sperzel ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent Frontiers in Computer Science conversational agent empathy smart speaker media equation computers as social actors human-computer interaction |
| title | ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent |
| title_full | ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent |
| title_fullStr | ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent |
| title_short | ‘Alexa, I feel for you!’ Observers’ Empathetic Reactions towards a Conversational Agent |
| title_sort | alexa i feel for you observers empathetic reactions towards a conversational agent |
| topic | conversational agent empathy smart speaker media equation computers as social actors human-computer interaction |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomp.2021.682982/full |
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