“Treat Me as Your Friend, Not a Virtual Being”: The Impact of Intelligent Virtual Agent’s Self-Disclosure of Different Emotions on Children’s Friendship

Abstract

Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) in virtual reality have become integral companions for children. They have gained prominence in children’s daily engagements by offering a rich interactive experience. In interpersonal relationships, self-disclosure, the process by which individuals share personal information and emotional experiences with others, plays a crucial role. In interactions with IVAs, self-disclosure not only influences the formation of relationships between children and IVAs but is also an important criterion for assessing whether IVAs can serve as effective interpersonal interaction partners. While self-disclosure plays a pivotal role in interpersonal relationships, its impact, especially when conveyed through varied emotional tones in IVAs, remains largely uncharted. This study investigated the intricate dynamics of how different emotional tones in IVAs’ self-disclosures influence children’s perceptions and relationship-building. By engaging 30 children in a structured experiment, we discovered that self-disclosure infused with high-valence emotions foster more profound connections. Interestingly, children exhibited muted sensitivity to arousal variations in high-valence emotions. However, their perceptions markedly shifted with arousal changes in low-valence emotions. Specifically, children resonated more with IVAs that showcased low-arousal negative self-disclosures. These findings not only shed light on the nuanced interplay of emotions in IVAs’ self-disclosure but also pave the way for more informed design strategies for child-oriented educational IVA.

Keywords:

• Virtual reality
• intelligent virtual agents
• child development
• self-disclosure
• friendships

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nasi Wang

Nasi Wang is a master student of Design at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research interests include intelligent interactive design, children’s educational design, and inclusive design.

Zhao Liu

Zhao Liu is a tenure-track Associate professor of Design at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests include intelligent design theory and method, data mining for industrial complex structure data, intelligent system design, and application.

Hongyi Yang

Hongyi Yang is a doctoral student of Design at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on digital design and artificial intelligence interactive design.

Zihan Ren

Zihan Ren is a master student of Design at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research interests focus on medical design and health design.

Wenyan Xie

Wenyan Xie is an undergraduate in the School of Design of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research direction includes digital design and intelligent interactive design.