Effects of facial similarity on user responses to embodied agents

We investigated the effects of facial similarity between users and embodied agents under different experimental conditions. Sixty-four undergraduates interacted with two different embodied agents: in one case the agent was designed to look somewhat similar to the user, and in the other case the agent was designed to look dissimilar. We varied between subjects how helpful the agent was for a given task. Results showed that the facial similarity manipulation sometimes affected participants' responses, even though they did not consciously detect the similarity. Specifically, when the agent was helpful, facial similarity increased participantsi ratings of involvement. However, when exposed to unhelpful agents, male participants had negative responses to the similar-looking agent compared to the dissimilar one. These results suggest that using facially similar embodied agents has a potential large downside if that embodied agent is perceived to be unhelpful.

[1]  S. Chaiken.  Communicator physical attractiveness and persuasion. , 1979 .

[2]  Sylvia Beyer,et al.  Gender differences in the accuracy of self-evaluations of performance , 1990 .

[3]  Ingrid R Olson,et al.  Facial attractiveness is appraised in a glance. , 2005, Emotion.

[4]  N. Frijda.  The laws of emotion. , 1988, The American psychologist.

[5]  T. Brock,et al.  COMMUNICATOR-RECIPIENT SIMILARITY AND DECISION CHANGE. , 1965, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  ELLy A. KOnIJn AnD HEnRIETTE C. VAn VUgT.  Emotions in mediated interpersonal communication: Toward modeling emotion in virtual humans , 2008 .

[7]  Fred D. Davis.  Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[8]  Dan Saffer,et al.  Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices , 2006 .

[9]  Jeremy N. Bailenson,et al.  Equilibrium Theory Revisited: Mutual Gaze and Personal Space in Virtual Environments , 2001, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[10]  Eun-Ju Lee,et al.  Wired for Gender: Experientiality and Gender-Stereotyping in Computer-Mediated Communication , 2007 .

[11]  Jodi Forlizzi,et al.  My agent as myself or another: effects on credibility and listening to advice , 2007, DPPI.

[12]  Lisa M. DeBruine,et al.  Resemblance to self increases the appeal of child faces to both men and women , 2004 .

[13]  Sylvia Beyer,et al.  Gender Differences in Seff-Perceptions: Convergent Evidence from Three Measures of Accuracy and Bias , 1997 .

[14]  F. Heider.  Attitudes and cognitive organization. , 1946, The Journal of psychology.

[15]  Paul J. Silvia,et al.  Changing attitudes toward prison reform: Effects of similarity to prisoners on attraction and rejection. , 2005 .

[16]  Gitte Lindgaard,et al.  What is this evasive beast we call user satisfaction? , 2003, Interact. Comput..

[17]  Clifford Nass,et al.  When my face is the interface: an experimental comparison of interacting with one's own face or someone else's face , 1998, CHI.

[18]  Norman Miller,et al.  Assumed similarity between self and other: Effect of expectation of future interaction with that other. , 1982 .

[19]  Austin Henderson,et al.  Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction , 2002, UBIQ.

[20]  Jan-Willem Strijbos,et al.  Designing for interaction: Six steps to designing computer-supported group-based learning , 2004, Comput. Educ..

[21]  R. Cialdini.  Influence: Science and Practice , 1984 .

[22]  Johan F. Hoorn,et al.  Realism is not all! User engagement with task-related interface characters , 2007, Interact. Comput..

[23]  J. Neter,et al.  Applied Linear Statistical Models (3rd ed.). , 1992 .

[24]  A. Tesser.  Reproductions Supplied by Edrs Are the Best That Can Be Made * * from the Original Document. toward a Self-evaluation Maintenance Model of Social Behavior* , 2007 .

[25]  K. Gegenfurtner,et al.  Design Issues in Gaze Guidance Under review with ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction , 2009 .

[26]  Alan Cooper,et al.  About Face 3: the essentials of interaction design , 1995 .

[27]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[28]  R. Moreno,et al.  Students' choice of animated pedagogical agents in science learning: A test of the similarity-attraction hypothesis on gender and ethnicity , 2006 .

[29]  Magnus Haake,et al.  Design of animated pedagogical agents - A look at their look , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[30]  Elly A. Konijn,et al.  World Leaders As Movie Characters? Perceptions of George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein , 2007 .

[31]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction , 2002 .

[32]  A. Eagly,et al.  Gender effects on social influence and emergent leadership. , 1999 .

[33]  Joanna McGrenere,et al.  Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concep , 2000, Graphics Interface.

[34]  D. Christopher Dryer,et al.  Getting Personal with Computers: How to Design Personalities for Agents , 1999, Appl. Artif. Intell..

[35]  J. Bailenson,et al.  Transformed Facial Similarity as a Political Cue: A Preliminary Investigation , 2006 .

[36]  Susan Persky,et al.  The Independent and Interactive Effects of Embodied-Agent Appearance and Behavior on Self-Report, Cognitive, and Behavioral Markers of Copresence in Immersive Virtual Environments , 2005, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[37]  William C. House,et al.  Valence of expected and unexpected outcomes as a function of locus of goal and type of expectancy. , 1974 .

[38]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[39]  Jeremy N. Bailenson,et al.  Facial Similarity Between Voters and Candidates Causes Influence , 2008 .

[40]  L. Festinger.  A Theory of Social Comparison Processes , 1954 .

[41]  Thomas C. Reeves,et al.  Performance-Support Systems , 2002 .

[42]  Tena I. Katsaounis,et al.  Analyzing Multivariate Data , 2004, Technometrics.

[43]  L. DeBruine,et al.  Facial resemblance increases the attractiveness of same–sex faces more than other–sex faces , 2004, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[44]  C. Nass,et al.  Machines and Mindlessness , 2000 .

[45]  Naomi Ellemers,et al.  What Can You Expect? The Influence of Gender Diversity in Dyads on Work Goal Expectancies and Subsequent Work Commitment , 2006 .

[46]  Allen Newell,et al.  The psychology of human-computer interaction , 1983 .

[47]  R. Lazarus.  Emotion and Adaptation , 1991 .

[48]  Eun-Ju Lee,et al.  Effects of "gender" of the computer on informational social influence: the moderating role of task type , 2003, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[49]  Claire Dormann,et al.  Embodied Conversational Agents on a Common Ground , 2004, From Brows to Trust.

[50]  S. Lundgren.  Exploring the Interplay Between Emotions and Interaction , 2009, Nordes 2009: Engaging Artifacts.

[51]  Christian Rauh,et al.  The Influence of the Avatar on Online Perceptions of Anthropomorphism, Androgyny, Credibility, Homophily, and Attraction , 2005, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[52]  Patrick McAndrew,et al.  Handbook on Information Technologies for Education and Training: Edited by H.H. Adelsberger, B. Collis, and J.M. Pawloski. Springer-Verlag, 2002, 715pp , 2002, Comput. Educ..

[53]  D. Ames,et al.  Inside the mind reader's tool kit: projection and stereotyping in mental state inference. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  A. Kruglanski,et al.  Classic and Current Social Comparison Research : Expanding the Perspective , 1990 .

[55]  Roberta Mura,et al.  Sex-Related Differences in Expectations of Success in Undergraduate Mathematics. , 1987 .

[56]  G. Levinger,et al.  Interpersonal attraction and agreement: a study of marriage partners. , 1966, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[57]  Johan F. Hoorn,et al.  Affective affordances: Improving interface character engagement through interaction , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[58]  Rosanna E. Guadagno,et al.  Persuade him by email, but see her in person: Online persuasion revisited , 2007, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[59]  Clifford Nass,et al.  The media equation - how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places , 1996 .

[60]  J. Bailenson,et al.  Virtual Humans and Persuasion: The Effects of Agency and Behavioral Realism , 2007 .

[61]  Richard Catrambone,et al.  ECA as User Interface Paradigm , 2004, From Brows to Trust.

[62]  J. Bailenson,et al.  The Proteus Effect: The Effect of Transformed Self-Representation on Behavior , 2007 .

[63]  Steven W. Villachica,et al.  Performance Support Systems , 1999 .

[64]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[65]  Viswanath Venkatesh,et al.  Determinants of Perceived Ease of Use: Integrating Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Emotion into the Technology Acceptance Model , 2000, Inf. Syst. Res..

[66]  J. Falk,et al.  Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning , 2000 .

[67]  Jeremy N. Bailenson,et al.  Examining Virtual Busts: Are Photogrammetrically Generated Head Models Effective for Person Identification? , 2004, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[68]  M. Lerner,et al.  The consequences of perceived similarity: Attraction and rejection, approach and avoidance. , 1972 .

[69]  James C. Lester,et al.  Animated Pedagogical Agents: Face-to-Face Interaction in Interactive Learning Environments , 2000 .

[70]  Lori A. Roggman,et al.  Facial Diversity and InfantPreferences for Attractive Faces , 1991 .

[71]  R. Petty,et al.  Extending the bases of subjective attitudinal ambivalence: interpersonal and intrapersonal antecedents of evaluative tension. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[72]  J. Stainer,et al.  The Emotions , 1922, Nature.

[73]  Catherine Pelachaud,et al.  From brows to trust: evaluating embodied conversational agents , 2004 .

[74]  J. Bargh,et al.  The psychology of action : linking cognition and motivation to behavior , 1999 .

[75]  L. DeBruine.  Facial resemblance enhances trust , 2002, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[76]  Michael H. Kutner.  Applied Linear Statistical Models , 1974 .

[77]  Elly A. Konijn,et al.  World leaders as movie characters? Perceptions of G.W. Bush, T. Blair, O. Bin Laden, and S. Hussein at the eve of Gulf War II , 2007 .

[78]  Gordon B. Davis,et al.  User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View , 2003, MIS Q..

[79]  Joanna McGrenere,et al.  Affordances: Clarifying and Evolving a Concep , 2000, Graphics Interface.

[80]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Relationship between attitudes and evaluative space: A critical review, with emphasis on the separability of positive and negative substrates. , 1994 .

[81]  J. Dusek,et al.  Children's achievement expectations as a function of social reinforcement, sex of S, and test anxiety. , 1969, Child development.

[82]  Johan F. Hoorn,et al.  Some Like It Bad: Testing a Model for Perceiving and Experiencing Fictional Characters , 2005 .

[83]  Shanhong Luo,et al.  Interpersonal attraction and personality: what is attractive--self similarity, ideal similarity, complementarity or attachment security? , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[84]  Verlin B. Hinsz,et al.  Facial Resemblance in Engaged and Married Couples , 1989 .

[85]  Zsolt Ugray,et al.  Looking at human-computer interface design: Effects of ethnicity in computer agents , 2007, Interact. Comput..

[86]  Maria Virvou,et al.  Evaluating the persona effect of an interface agent in a tutoring system , 2002, J. Comput. Assist. Learn..

[87]  Victor Kaptelinin,et al.  Acting with technology: Activity theory and interaction design , 2006, First Monday.

[88]  V. Barnett,et al.  Applied Linear Statistical Models , 1975 .

[89]  Anca M. Miron,et al.  Can the Simultaneous Experience of Opposing Emotions Really Occur? , 2006 .

[90]  R. Aylett,et al.  Animating Expressive Characters for Social Interaction , 2008 .

[91]  J. M. Carroll,et al.  On the bipolarity of positive and negative affect. , 1999, Psychological bulletin.

[92]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[93]  E. Diener,et al.  The independence of positive and negative affect. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[94]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research , 1977 .

[95]  D. Dillman.  Mail and internet surveys: The tailored design method, 2nd ed. , 2007 .

[96]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Role of Similarity in e-Commerce Interactions: The Case of Online Shopping Assistants , 2005 .

[97]  D. Norman.  The psychology of everyday things , 1990 .

[98]  D. Byrne.  The Attraction Paradigm , 1971 .

[99]  J Sergent,et al.  Functional and anatomical decomposition of face processing: evidence from prosopagnosia and PET study of normal subjects. , 1992, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[100]  A. N. Leont’ev,et al.  Activity, consciousness, and personality , 1978 .

[101]  D. Cicchetti.  Emotion and Adaptation , 1993 .

[102]  Arie W. Kruglanski,et al.  Classic and current social comparison research: Expanding the perspective. , 1990 .

[103]  M. Biernat,et al.  Derogating black sheep: Individual or group protection? , 2003 .

[104]  P. Green,et al.  Analyzing multivariate data , 1978 .

[105]  D. Norman.  The psychology of everyday things", Basic Books Inc , 1988 .

[106]  Klaus Jaffe,et al.  Self seeks like: many humans choose their dog pets following rules used for assortative mating , 2004, Journal of Ethology.

[107]  D. Mettee,et al.  When similarity breeds contempt. , 1971, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[108]  V. Kaptelinin,et al.  Acting with Technology , 2008 .

[109]  Y. Rogers,et al.  Interaction Design , 2002 .

[110]  C. Yela,et al.  ‘WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL IS LOVED’: PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS IN LOVE RELATIONSHIPS IN A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE , 2000 .

[111]  Michael D. Mumford,et al.  Social Comparison Theory and the Evaluation of Peer Evaluations: A Review and Some Applied Implications. , 1983 .