Article

Can a virtual cat persuade you?: the role of gender and realism in speaker persuasiveness

Authors:

Catherine Zanbaka,

Paula Goolkasian,

Larry HodgesAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1153 - 1162

https://doi.org/10.1145/1124772.1124945

Published: 22 April 2006 Publication History

Abstract

This study examines the roles of gender and visual realism in the persuasiveness of speakers. Participants were presented with a persuasive passage delivered by a male or female person, virtual human, or virtual character. They were then assessed on attitude change and their ratings of the argument, message, and speaker. The results indicated that the virtual speakers were as effective at changing attitudes as real people. Male participants were more persuaded when the speaker was female than when the speaker was male, whereas female participants were more persuaded when the speaker was male than when the speaker was female. Cross gender interactions occurred across all conditions, suggesting that some of the gender stereotypes that occur with people may carry over to interaction with virtual characters. Ratings of the perceptions of the speaker were more favorable for virtual speakers than for human speakers. We discuss the application of these findings in the design of persuasive human computer interfaces.

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Cited By

Piercy CMontgomery-Vestecka GLee S(2025)Gender and accent stereotypes in communication with an intelligent virtual assistantInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103407195:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103407
Lee SPark HKim S(2024)Gender and task effects of human – machine communication on trusting a Korean intelligent virtual assistantBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2024.230613643:16(4172-4191)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2306136
Ni BWu FHuang Q(2023)When Artificial Intelligence Voices Human Concerns: The Paradoxical Effects of AI Voice on Climate Risk Perception and Pro-Environmental Behavioral IntentionInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health10.3390/ijerph2004377220:4(3772)Online publication date: 20-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043772
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Index Terms

Can a virtual cat persuade you?: the role of gender and realism in speaker persuasiveness
1. Information systems
  1. Information systems applications
    1. Multimedia information systems

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2006

1353 pages

ISBN:1595933727

DOI:10.1145/1124772

Editors:
Rebecca Grinter
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
,
Thomas Rodden
University of Nottingham, UK
,
Paul Aoki
Intel, USA
,
Ed Cutrell
Microsoft, USA
,
Robin Jeffries
Google, USA
,
Gary Olson
University of Michigan, USA

Copyright © 2006 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 22 April 2006

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April 22 - 27, 2006

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103407
Lee SPark HKim S(2024)Gender and task effects of human – machine communication on trusting a Korean intelligent virtual assistantBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2024.230613643:16(4172-4191)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2306136
Ni BWu FHuang Q(2023)When Artificial Intelligence Voices Human Concerns: The Paradoxical Effects of AI Voice on Climate Risk Perception and Pro-Environmental Behavioral IntentionInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health10.3390/ijerph2004377220:4(3772)Online publication date: 20-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20043772
Sakuma HHori AMurashita MKondo CHijikata Y(2023)YouTubers vs. VTubers: Persuasiveness of human and virtual presenters in promotional videosFrontiers in Computer Science10.3389/fcomp.2023.10433425Online publication date: 23-Mar-2023
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Herder EHerden S(2023)Context-Dependent Use of Authority and Empathy in Lifestyle Advices Given By Persuasive Voice AssistantsAdjunct Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization10.1145/3563359.3596985(132-139)Online publication date: 26-Jun-2023
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Kang EKang Y(2023)Counseling Chatbot Design: The Effect of Anthropomorphic Chatbot Characteristics on User Self-Disclosure and CompanionshipInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2022.216377540:11(2781-2795)Online publication date: 17-Jan-2023
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Hasenbein LStark PTrautwein UGao HKasneci EGöllner R(2023)Investigating social comparison behaviour in an immersive virtual reality classroom based on eye-movement dataScientific Reports10.1038/s41598-023-41704-213:1Online publication date: 6-Sep-2023
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Bailey JBlackmore KKing R(2023)Insights from the Uncanny Valley: Gender(Sex) Differences in Avatar Realism and Uncanniness PerceptionsComputer-Human Interaction Research and Applications10.1007/978-3-031-41962-1_3(51-70)Online publication date: 24-Aug-2023
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