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

[2O4-J-7-03] Influence of polite greetings on attachment of a voice agent

〇Ken Sasaki¹, Miho Kitamura², Keiichi Kurata³, Katsumi Watanabe¹ (1. Graduate School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 2. Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, 3. DENSO CORPORATION)

Keywords:voice agent

Many voice agents are nowadays equipped with spoken dialogue functions. It is assumed that the user’s attachment of a voice agent play an important role in promoting the voice agent. In the present study, we examined whether the degree of politeness of greeting would influence the attachment of the voice agent. Here, we compared effects of the greeting “Sumimasen” (polite “excuse me” in Japanese) with “Ano-“ (inpolite “excuse me”) while participants interacted with a virtual driving assistant system. We found that the polite greeting “Sumimasen” increased the perception of “moderateness” and “frankness.” While, it had little effect on the user’s “likability” toward the voice agent, there were significant correlations between “moderateness” or “frankness” and “likability.” The present results indicate that, by selecting and using greetings appropriately, the perception of politeness may be altered and possibly affect the perception of attachment.