The effect of anthropomorphism in conversational agents
J.M. Jansen (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
S. Qiu – Mentor (TU Delft - Web Information Systems)
U.K. Gadiraju – Mentor (TU Delft - Web Information Systems)
J Yang – Mentor (TU Delft - Web Information Systems)
Wendelin Böhmer – Coach (TU Delft - Algorithmics)
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Abstract
Conversational agents are being used more often. Many conversational agents have been designed to make them more humanlike to increase the engagement of the user. This research is looking into a couple of aspects of anthropomorphism to determine whether these aspects improve the engagement of the users. These aspects are typos with time delay and empathy. 3 conversational agents were created for this research, one control group and one for both aspects. For each conversational agent a group of volunteers tested the bots and filled in a survey after the conversation. While the conversational agent with typos and time delay didn’t show a significant change, the conversational agent with empathy did. When testing the control conversational agent and the conversational agent with typos and time delay multiple participants told that they felt ignored when the conversational agent doesn’t show empathy, this implies that not having empathy has negative effects on the conversation. Therefore giving the conversational agent empathy results a better engagement of the user.