University of Twente Student Theses
How human should a chatbot be? : The influence of avatar appearance and anthropomorphic characteristics in the conversational tone regarding chatbots in customer service field.
Donkelaar, Laury ten (2018) How human should a chatbot be? : The influence of avatar appearance and anthropomorphic characteristics in the conversational tone regarding chatbots in customer service field.
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| Abstract: | Research about the appropriate use of humanoid characteristics regarding chatbots is still small in number. Therefore, this study has looked into conversational agents and their level of anthropomorphism in conversational tone and avatar presence. Moreover, this research has measured the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variables (likeability, perceived intelligence, user satisfaction, trust, perceived usefulness and intention to use) and the moderators (empathy and negative attitude towards robots). To test the hypotheses a survey has been conducted. The findings showed that there is no significant effect of the independent variables on the dependent variables. Moreover, the results indicate that the negative attitude towards robots moderates the effect of the visual presence of an avatar and perceived usefulness. Additionally, a moderating effect of the negative attitude towards robots has been found between the conversational tone, trust and perceived intelligence. This information is important to investigate further to examine the reason of this result. Additionally, more research is needed to give more insight into the effect of anthropomorphism in chatbot and anthropomorphism in different environments and purposes. The results of this study can serve as a guideline to a better chatbot design and is a stepping stone for further research. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies MSc (60713) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/76842 |
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