Abstract
Because of the increasing popularity of voice-controlled virtual assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, they should be considered a new medium for psychological and behavioral research. We developed Survey Mate, an extension of Google Assistant, and conducted two studies to analyze the reliability and validity of data collected through this medium. In the first study, we assessed validated procrastination and shyness scales as well as social desirability indicators for both the virtual assistant and an online questionnaire. The results revealed comparable internal consistency and construct and criterion validity. In the second study, five social psychological experiments, which have been successfully replicated by the Many Labs projects, were successfully reproduced using a virtual assistant for data collection. Comparable effects were observed for users of both smartphones and smart speakers. Our findings point to the applicability of virtual assistants in data collection independent of the device used. While we identify some limitations, including data privacy concerns and a tendency toward more socially desirable responses, we found that virtual assistants could allow the recruitment of participants who are hard to reach with established data collection techniques, such as people with visual impairment, dyslexia, or lower education. This new medium could also be suitable for recruiting samples from non-Western countries because of its wide availability and easily adaptable language settings. It could also support an increase in the generalizability of theories in the future.
Highlights
IntroductionWhen Dave Bowman and other astronauts are sent on a space mission in Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001 – A Space Odyssey, their ship is equipped with HAL, a voicecontrolled computer system
Dave: Open the pod bay doors, HAL
Since previous research has shown that many virtual assistant users are concerned about data privacy (Ammari et al, 2019), we further explored whether participants using Survey Mate or an online questionnaire differed in their willingness to answer sensitive questions and their trust in our promise to protect their data and use it exclusively for scientific purposes
Summary
When Dave Bowman and other astronauts are sent on a space mission in Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001 – A Space Odyssey, their ship is equipped with HAL, a voicecontrolled computer system. Among the most significant innovations that employ voice technology are virtual assistants—software agents such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant—that perform tasks or services based on user commands or questions. This includes searching for information, managing to-do lists and calendars, playing music, or controlling home automation devices (Ammari et al, 2019; Hoy, 2018). An increasing number of people have started using virtual assistants on both mobile phones and
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