[2O4-J-7] Agents: human interaction

[2O4-J-7-01] Fostering Empathy for Computer Agents through Synchronized Movements

〇Naohiro Eda¹, Katie Seaborn², Seito Matsubara³, Ken Sakuma³, Atsushi Hiyama^2,3, Masahiko Inami³ (1. The Faculty of Engineering,The University of Tokyo, 2. RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project, 3. Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo)

Keywords:Synchronizing movements, Human Agent Interaction

When people are synchronized in their movements - performing the same action at the same time - there can be an increase in positive emotions, for example feelings of camaraderie, similarity, and mutual liking. On the other hand, previous research exploring synchronized movements between humans and computer agents has not found such an effect. In this study, we designed and evaluated a system for exploring human empathy towards computer agents by synchronizing their movements in an audio-haptic rhythm game. Our goal was to explore the mediating effects of two social factors: adjusting the synchronization of the agent’s movements based on the human’s movements and modifying the social presence of the agent. Our results showed that, in contrast to previous research, synchronizing movements by adjusting the agent to the human influenced feelings related to empathy; however, modifying the social presence of the agent did not have an effect.