Investigating the influence of social exclusion on persuasion by a virtual agent

Persuasive agents may function as a tool to induce changes in human behavior. Research has shown that human-likeness of such agents influences their effectiveness. Besides characteristics of the agent, other characteristics may also have strong influences on persuasive agents’ effectiveness. One such characteristic is social exclusion. When people feel socially excluded, they are more sensitive to social influence. In two studies, we investigated this effect in a human-agent interaction. Results show stronger behavior changes for socially exclusion compared to social inclusion. This effect seems stronger for females than for males