Agent Gender Research Articles

Impact of Brand Concept and AI Agent Gender on Brand Experiences in Virtual Spaces

Purpose: This study investigates the anticipated differences between consumers' interactions with AI agents and brand experiences in virtual brand spaces, based on brand concepts and the agent's gender. Design/methodology/approach: To test the proposed hypotheses, a 2 (Brand Concept: Functional Brand vs. Experiential Brand) × 2 (AI agent's gender: male vs. female) experimental design was used. Findings: Consumers may expect continuous dialogue, and entertainment or search experiences, while receiving guidance on functional brand Concepts from a male AI agent, because of higher confidence and trust. However, when guided by a female AI agent on experiential brand concepts, continuous dialogue could be anticipated because of greater sensory and emotional experiences. Research limitations/implications: The analysis yields two key academic implications. First, the role of brand concept in achieving a continuous grounding between consumers and AI agents was identified. Second, the role of the AI agent's gender in enhancing brand experience in virtual spaces was identified. Originality/value: This study investigates how consumers encountering AI agents in virtual brand spaces evaluate grounding and brand experiences differently based on the agent's gender. It was anticipated that grounding with AI agents would vary according to the brand concept emphasized in virtual spaces, and that the intensity of brand experience in interaction with the AI agent would also differ.

Him or Her? Choosing Competition on Behalf of Someone Else

We extend the literature on competitive behaviour by investigating environments in which the choice to compete is not made by an individual themselves, but by someone else. Choosing on behalf of others is an integral part of life and gender may be an important factor in shaping the perceived suitability of individuals for career promotions in competitive environments. We assign subjects either the role of an agent or a principal in an experiment. Agents perform a real effort task and a randomly assigned principal chooses whether the agent performs under a piece rate or tournament incentive scheme. Before making a decision for the agent, we vary whether the principal is informed about the agent's gender or not. Regardless of whether gender is revealed, we find no gender gap in competitiveness when principals are choosing for agents. In terms of determinants of the principals' choices, we observe that expectations about their agent's performance, as well as the principal's own preferences for risk and competitiveness matter for the decision to make others compete. In addition, we replicate existing results reporting that women are less willing to enter the tournament than men when choosing themselves. We compare both decision environments and show that efficiency (defined as average performance and earnings) does not suffer, whereas the winners' performance is lower when principals decide for agents. Taken together, our results suggest that allowing others to decide has the potential to increase the representation of women in competitive situations, many of which resemble the labour market.

Closing the gender gap in STEM with friendly male instructors? On the effects of rapport behavior and gender of a virtual agent in an instructional interaction

While numerous research endeavors address the effects of pedagogical agents, the role of the agent's gender and its rapport behavior has been neglected. We hypothesize that a minimal amount of behavioral realism induced by display of rapport is necessary for any social effects to occur in human-computer interaction. Further, in line with results from STEM research on female role models, we assume that especially for female learners a same sex agent will be beneficial. In a 2 (student gender) × 2 (agent gender) × 2 (rapport behavior yes/no) between subjects design, we investigate whether virtual agents can help enhance participants' performance, effort and motivation in mathematics. Female and male participants (N = 128) interacted with a male or female virtual agent that either displayed rapport or no rapport. Our results confirm the expected main effect of rapport. However, against expectations, our results do not support the assumption that a same sex agent is beneficial for female learners. Participants’ performance and effort were significantly enhanced when interacting with an agent of opposite gender that displayed rapport. Our results have implications on designing agents for education and training purposes.

AN INVESTIGATION OF COMPLIANCE-GAINING AS POLITENESS

This study considers an alternative perspective on the compliance-gaining phenomenon, specifically the theory of politeness articulated by Brown and Levinson (1978). They posit that all interaction is characterized by concern over the other person's autonomy needs and his or her desire to be liked, manifested in message behavior that addresses these needs (i.e., politeness). Brown and Levinson's typology of politeness strategies was translated into 32 items to which 155 respondents indicated likelihood of use and perceived politeness. Respondents assessed the items while imagining themselves in one of eight hypothetical scenarios created to manipulate the three situational factors posited as significant by Brown and Levinson: relationship distance, relationship power, and the magnitude of the request. A factor analysis reduced the 32 tactics to four underlying factors, which in turn served as one variable set for a canonical correlation whose second variable set was the situational factors and the agent's gender. Results indicated that females and persons in close relationships use more polite tactics than males and persons in more distant relationships. Secondarily, results also indicated that persons with power use less politeness than less powerful persons.