Affiliation:
1. Northeastern University, Boston, MA
2. MIT Media Laboratory
Abstract
This research investigates the meaning of “human-computer relationship” and presents techniques for constructing, maintaining, and evaluating such relationships, based on research in social psychology, sociolinguistics, communication and other social sciences. Contexts in which relationships are particularly important are described, together with specific benefits (like trust) and task outcomes (like improved learning) known to be associated with relationship quality. We especially consider the problem of designing for long-term interaction, and define
relational agents
as computational artifacts designed to establish and maintain long-term social-emotional relationships with their users. We construct the first such agent, and evaluate it in a controlled experiment with 101 users who were asked to interact daily with an exercise adoption system for a month. Compared to an equivalent task-oriented agent without any deliberate social-emotional or relationship-building skills, the relational agent was respected more, liked more, and trusted more, even after four weeks of interaction. Additionally, users expressed a significantly greater desire to continue working with the relational agent after the termination of the study. We conclude by discussing future directions for this research together with ethical and other ramifications of this work for HCI designers.
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Subject
Human-Computer Interaction
Reference98 articles.
1. Relationship selling: How personal characteristics of salespeople affect buyer satisfaction;Anselmi K.;J. Soc. Behav. Person.,1997
2. Bodily Communication
3. Comparison and relationship to outcome of diverse dimensions of the helping alliance as seen by client and therapist;Bachelor A.;Psychotherapy,1991
4. Berscheid E. and Reis H. 1998. Attraction and close relationships. The Handbook of Social Psychology. D. Gilbert S. Fiske and G. Lindzey Eds. McGraw-Hill New York 193--281. Berscheid E. and Reis H. 1998. Attraction and close relationships. The Handbook of Social Psychology. D. Gilbert S. Fiske and G. Lindzey Eds. McGraw-Hill New York 193--281.
Cited by
625 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献