Journal of Northeastern University(Natural Science) ›› 2024, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (11): 1656-1663.DOI: 10.12068/j.issn.1005-3026.2024.11.017

• Management Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact of Social Embodied Agents’ Type and Manifestation on Agent Acceptance

Feng-xiang LI1, Fu GUO1(), Ming-ming LI2, Zeng-gen REN1   

  1. 1.School of Business Administration,Northeastern University,Shenyang 110169,China
    2.School of Management Science and Engineering,Anhui University of Technology,Maanshan 243032,China.
  • Received:2023-08-14 Online:2024-11-15 Published:2025-02-24
  • Contact: Fu GUO
  • About author:GUO Fu, E-mail:fguo@mail.neu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Combining the electroencephalogram, eye tracking, and subjective questionnaire survey methods, how social embodied agent type and manifestation could affect the neurophysiological and psychological responses of users, and then affect agent acceptance was explored. The results indicated that users feel more unfamiliar with agents with animal appearance, which drive unconscious perceptual processing and encoding, and take up more attention resources. Users perceive agents with human appearance to be more independently conscious than agents with animal appearance. Agents with animal appearance and agents manifested with real human or animal appearances are more attractive or complicated to users, which require users to invest more attention resources. Agents with real female appearance arouse the highest agent’s likeability due to their resemblance to users’ own images, while agents with real pet dog appearance evoke the lowest agent’s likeability. User acceptance of agents with real female appearance is the highest, followed by agents with cartoon female appearance and cartoon pet dog appearance, while agents with real pet dog appearance is the lowest. The research results provide guidance for the design of social embodied agents as virtual social companions.

Key words: social embodied agent, agent type, manifestation, agent acceptance, virtual social companion, EEG (electroencephalogram), eye?tracking

CLC Number: