Ambiguous agents Ambiguous agents: The influence of consistency of an artificial agent's social cues on emotion recognition, recall, and persuasiveness

Abstract This paper explores the relation between consistency of social cues and persuasion by an artificial agent. Including (minimal) social cues in Persuasive Technology (PT) increases the probability that people attribute human-like characteristics to that technology, which in turn can make that technology more persuasive (see e.g., Nass, PT in the social actor role can be equipped with a variety of social cues to create opportunities for applying social influence strategies (for an overview, see However, multiple social cues may not always be perceived as being consistent, which could decrease their perceived human-likeness and their persuasiveness. In the current paper, we investigate the relation between consistency of social cues and persuasion by an artificial agent. Findings of two studies show that consistency of social cues increases people's recognition and recall of artificial agents' emotional expressions, and make those agents more persuasive. These findings show the importance of the combined meaning of social cues in the design of persuasive artificial agents. AMBIGUOUS AGENTS 3 Ambiguous agents: The influence of consistency of an artificial agent's social cues on emotion recognition, recall, and persuasiveness With the development of sophisticated interactive systems, computer interfaces increasingly have human-like appearances and are able to show emotional expressions or speak to their users. This has important consequences for the way in which people interact with those interfaces. Research has shown that people respond to computers as if they were social actors and even ascribe personalities to them (e.