Uğur Genç, Heng Gu, Chadha Degachi, Evangelos Niforatos, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Himanshu Verma
Conversational agents' linguistic expressions of personality affect user perceptions and emotions, but not directly their decisions, in charitable giving contexts.
This study explores how the way conversational agents (CAs) communicate can influence how users perceive them and make decisions, especially when it comes to donating to charity. Researchers found that while the overall personality of a CA didn't directly change whether people decided to donate, it did affect how users felt about the CA and the cause. For example, users interacting with pessimistic CAs felt less emotionally connected and viewed the CA as less trustworthy, but surprisingly, these users were more likely to donate. This suggests that the way CAs express themselves can subtly affect user perceptions and decisions, raising concerns about their potential to manipulate users.
