Paper Number
1303
Paper Type
Completed
Description
Conversational agents (CAs) are not likely to be error-free, and efforts are being made by research and practice to mitigate the negative consequences of such errors (e.g., reduced service satisfaction). In this context, our study examines the impact of a CA's rookie personality (i.e., the CA expresses that it is new and still learning) on users. Our findings reveal that the rookie personality is a double-edged sword: while it increases users' perception of humanness, which increases the perception of reliability, it also directly reduces perceived reliability, resulting in less service satisfaction. To explain these seemingly contradictory effects, we turn to the dual processing theory of cognition and propose that the rookie personality influences both automatic and deliberate thinking. Users actively and consciously contemplate the CA's messages, leading them to view the software artifact as "broken" and low-quality. Additionally, users' automatic thinking is influenced by the perception of humanness.
Recommended Citation
Hildebrandt, Fabian; Brendel, Benedikt; Dennis, Alan; and Sachdeva, Agrim, "New Bots – The Influence of a Conversational Agent’s Rookie Personality on Users’ Satisfaction" (2023). ICIS 2023 Proceedings. 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2023/hti/hti/3
New Bots – The Influence of a Conversational Agent’s Rookie Personality on Users’ Satisfaction
Conversational agents (CAs) are not likely to be error-free, and efforts are being made by research and practice to mitigate the negative consequences of such errors (e.g., reduced service satisfaction). In this context, our study examines the impact of a CA's rookie personality (i.e., the CA expresses that it is new and still learning) on users. Our findings reveal that the rookie personality is a double-edged sword: while it increases users' perception of humanness, which increases the perception of reliability, it also directly reduces perceived reliability, resulting in less service satisfaction. To explain these seemingly contradictory effects, we turn to the dual processing theory of cognition and propose that the rookie personality influences both automatic and deliberate thinking. Users actively and consciously contemplate the CA's messages, leading them to view the software artifact as "broken" and low-quality. Additionally, users' automatic thinking is influenced by the perception of humanness.
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Comments
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