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

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Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 8108))

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Abstract

A virtual agent is a human-like character that is designed to assist users in interactions with technology and virtual worlds. Research into the preferred visual characteristics of a virtual agent has focused on education-based agents, gaming avatars, and online help assistants. However, findings from these studies are not necessarily generalizable to other technologies, such as self-service checkouts (SSCO). This paper describes data from 578 participants, looking at the gender preferences of Virtual Assistants (VA) in a SSCO context and the impact of VA realism depending on user gender. Due to female participants’ preference for female VAs, and an overall preference for three-dimensional characters, a realistic, female VA should be used in SSCO. The results are discussed in terms of similarity-attraction theory and social role theory.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee, DD1 1HG, UK

    Jeunese Payne, Andrea Szymkowiak & Paul Robertson

  2. NCR Discovery Centre, 3 Fulton Road, Dundee, DD2 4SW, UK

    Graham Johnson

Authors
  1. Jeunese Payne
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  2. Andrea Szymkowiak
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  3. Paul Robertson
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  4. Graham Johnson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MACS, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, EH14 4AS, Edinburgh, UK

    Ruth Aylett

  2. Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI), 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Brigitte Krenn

  3. CNRS-LTCI, Telecom-ParisTech, 75014, Paris, France

    Catherine Pelachaud

  4. School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, EH8 9LW, Edinburgh, UK

    Hiroshi Shimodaira

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Payne, J., Szymkowiak, A., Robertson, P., Johnson, G. (2013). Gendering the Machine: Preferred Virtual Assistant Gender and Realism in Self-Service. In: Aylett, R., Krenn, B., Pelachaud, C., Shimodaira, H. (eds) Intelligent Virtual Agents. IVA 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8108. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40415-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40415-3_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40414-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40415-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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