Lonely and Susceptible: The Influence of Social Exclusion and Gender on Persuasion by an Artificial Agent

Abstract

Earlier research showed that artificial social agents can influence human behavior. This article argues that, especially under certain circumstances, people are sensitive to persuasion by (artificial) social agents. For example, when people feel socially excluded, they are motivated to increase their social connections with others. It was hypothesized that socially excluded people would attribute more human-likeness and be persuaded more by an artificial agent than socially included people. These hypotheses were investigated in two studies in which participants were either socially included or excluded, after which they performed an energy-saving task while receiving social feedback from an artificial agent. Results did not support the expectation that socially excluded people ascribe more human-likeness to an artificial agent, but they did show the expected effects on behavior change, indicating the importance of including a person’s psychological state in the design of human–agent interactions. Also, in line with earlier findings, female participants were more susceptible to the agent’s feedback than male participants, indicating that a user’s gender may also determine the effectiveness of persuasive technology.

Notes

¹ ω²’s were calculated using the method obtained from Xu (2003).

² Due to a program error, data from one experimental condition (social exclusion and the female agent) were not stored properly. Therefore, manipulation checks could be performed only on three of the four conditions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter A. M. Ruijten

Peter A. M. Ruijten ([email protected], http://tue.academia.edu/PeterRuijten) is a human–computer interaction researcher with an interest in anthropomorphism; he is a teacher/researcher in the School of Innovation Sciences of Eindhoven University of Technology, and his research focuses on responses to humanlike artificial agents and robots.

Cees J. H. Midden

Cees J. H. Midden ([email protected]) is a psychologist with an interest in environmental consumer behavior; he is a Professor in the School of Innovation Sciences of Eindhoven University of Technology, and his research focuses on using persuasive technology for promoting sustainable behavior.

Jaap Ham

Jaap Ham ([email protected]) is a psychologist with an interest in social robotics; he is an Associate Professor in the School of Innovation Sciences of Eindhoven University of Technology, and his research focuses on persuasive technology and social cues in interactions with artificial agents.