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Information Systems and Neuroscience pp 129–139Cite as

Human Versus Machine: Contingency Factors of Anthropomorphism as a Trust-Inducing Design Strategy for Conversational Agents

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 25))

Abstract

Conversational agents are increasingly popular in various domains of application. Due to their ability to interact with users in human language, anthropomorphizing these agents to positively influence users’ trust perceptions seems justified. Indeed, conceptual and empirical arguments support the trust-inducing effect of anthropomorphic design. However, an opposing research stream that has widely been overlooked provides evidence that human-likeness reduces agents’ trustworthiness. Based on a thorough analysis of psychological mechanisms related to the contradicting theoretical positions, we propose that the agent substitution type acts as a situational moderator variable on the positive relationship between anthropomorphic design and agents’ trustworthiness. We argue that different agent types are related to distinct user expectations that influence the cognitive evaluation of anthropomorphic design. We further discuss how these differences translate into neurophysiological responses and propose an experimental set-up using a combination of behavioral, self-reported and eye-tracking data to empirically validate our proposed model.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Anna-Maria Seeger & Armin Heinzl

Authors
  1. Anna-Maria Seeger
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  2. Armin Heinzl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna-Maria Seeger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences (ISQS), Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA

    Fred D. Davis

  2. University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Steyr, Oberösterreich, Austria

    René Riedl

  3. Department of Information Systems, University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Jan vom Brocke

  4. Department of Information Technology, HEC Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Pierre-Majorique Léger

  5. Department of Information Systems, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA

    Adriane B. Randolph

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Seeger, AM., Heinzl, A. (2018). Human Versus Machine: Contingency Factors of Anthropomorphism as a Trust-Inducing Design Strategy for Conversational Agents. In: Davis, F., Riedl, R., vom Brocke, J., Léger, PM., Randolph, A. (eds) Information Systems and Neuroscience. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67431-5_15

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