The Paradoxical Role of Humanness in Aggression Toward Conversational Agents

ABSTRACT

Conversational Agents (CAs) are becoming part of our everyday lives. About 10 percent of users display aggressive behavior toward CAs, such as swearing at them when they produce errors. We conducted two online experiments to understand user aggression toward CAs better. In the first experiment, 175 participants used either a humanlike CA or a non-humanlike CA. Both CAs worked without errors, and we observed no increased frustration or user aggression. The second experiment (with 201 participants) was the focus of this study; in it, both CAs produce a series of errors. The results show that frustration with errors drives aggression, and users with higher impulsivity are more likely to become aggressive when frustrated. The results also suggest that there are three pathways by which perceived humanness influences users’ aggression to CAs. First, perceived humanness directly increases the frustration with the CA when it produces errors. Second, perceived humanness increases service satisfaction which in turn reduces frustration. Third, perceived humanness influences the nature of aggression when users become frustrated (i.e., users are less likely to use highly offensive words with a more humanlike CA). Our research contributes to our theoretical understanding of the role of anthropomorphism in the interaction with machines, showing that designing a CA to be more humanlike is a double-edged sword—both increasing and decreasing the frustration that leads to aggression—and also a means to reduce the most severe aggression.

KEYWORDS:

• Conversational agent
• chatbot
• humanlike design
• service encounter
• online errors
• frustration
• aggression
• profanity
• swearing
• insults
• computer anthropomorphism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alfred Benedikt Brendel

Alfred Benedikt Brendel ([email protected]) is Associate Professor for business information systems, especiallyintelligent systems and services, at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. He holds a Doctorate in Management Science, specializing in Business Information Systems, from the University of Goettingen, Germany. Dr. Brendel’s research is concerned with the design and application of IS, focusing on human-computer-inaction. His main research areas are digital health, smart mobility, and digital work. His research has been published in the proceedings of leading conferences, such as International Conference on Information Systems, and journals, such as Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, and Information Systems Journal.

Fabian Hildebrandt

Fabian Hildebrandt ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Chair of Business Information Systems, especially intelligent systems and services, at the Technische Universität Dresden. He is also software developer at Robotron Datenbank-Software GmbH. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Information Systems from the University of Goettingen. His research is concerned with the affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses of conversational agent users, focusing on the context of service breakdowns and errors. His research has been published in the proceedings of leading international conferences, such as International Conference on Information Systems.

Alan R. Dennis

Alan R. Dennis ([email protected]) is a Professor of Information Systems and holds the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His research focuses on four main themes: team collaboration; artificial intelligence; fake news on social media; and cybersecurity. Dr. Dennis has written more than 150 research papers, and has won numerous awards for his theoretical and applied research. He is ranked the third most published Information Systems researcher over the last 30 years, and a 2020 analysis of citation data since 1990 placed him in the top 1 percent of the most influential researchers in the world, across all scientific disciplines. His research has been reported in the popular press almost 1000 times, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, The Atlantic, CBS, Fox Business Network, and many others. Dr. Dennis is a Past President, Fellow, and the LEO awardee of the Association for Information Systems.

Johannes Riquel

Johannes Riquel ([email protected]) is a manager at MHP – Management and IT-Beratung GmbH, Germany. He holds a Doctorate in Management Science, focusing on human-computer interaction in the context of business information systems. In the course of his career, he has worked worked on information-system solutions and user experience. Dr. Riquel’s research focuses on the area of conversational agents and particularly on how to manage the occurrence of errors, deriving designs for improving the overall user experience. His research has been published in the proceedings of leading conferences, such as International Conference on Information Systems.