Eun-Ju Lee (2010). The More Humanlike, The Better? How Speech Type and Users' Cognitive Style Affect Social Responses to Computers. Computers in Human Behavior, 26, 665-672.


Abstract : The present experiment investigated if anthropomorphic interfaces facilitate people’s tendency to project social expectations onto computers and how such effects might vary depending on users’ cognitive style. In a 2 (synthetic vs. recorded speech) * 2 (flattering vs. generic feedback) * 2 (low vs. high rationality) * 2 (low vs. high experientiality) experiment, participants played a trivia game with a computer. Use of recorded speech did not amplify the previously documented flattery effects (Fogg & Nass,1997), challenging the notion that anthropomorphism will promote social responses to computers. Participants evaluated the human-voiced computer more positively and conformed more to its suggestions than the one using synthetic speech, but such effects were found only among less analytical or more intuition-driven individuals, suggesting dispositional differences in people’s susceptibility to anthropomorphic cues embedded in the interface.



Keywords : Anthropomorphism, Computers Are Social Actors (CASA), Experientiality, Rationality