Sympathy for the digital: Influence of synthetic voice on affinity, social presence and empathy for photorealistic virtual humans

Higgins, Darragh; Zibrek, Katja; Cabral, João P.; Egan, Dónal; McDonnell, Rachel

doi:10.1016/j.cag.2022.03.009

Cited by 38 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…For instance, Miao et al (2022) suggested that avatars are more effective if there is consistency between the form and behavioral realism. Other studies have found that avatars with a mismatch between appearance and voice are unappealing and elicited less affinity than avatars with matched characteristics (Higgins et al, 2022). According to consistency theory, digital agents with consistent verbal and nonverbal personality cues are perceived as more likable, persuasive, useful and enjoyable to interact with than agents with inconsistent cues (Nass et al, 2000).…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Let virtual creatures stay virtual: tactics to increase trust in virtual influencers

Qu¹,

Baek²

2023

JRIM

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PurposeAdvances in technology and the popularity of social media influencers have sparked a rise of “virtual influencers (VIs).” This study examines consumer attitudes toward VIs in social networking services and explores factors that enhance or dampen these attitudes. In three experiments, it was explored how contextual factors (background and companion) interact with human (HIs) and VIs, influencing attitudes through trustworthiness.Design/methodology/approachThree experiments were conducted using an online panel (N = 894). All experiments were based on the comparison between HIs and VI with mediating role of trustworthiness. In Studies 2 and 3, moderated mediation analyses were conducted to test hypotheses.FindingsThe results revealed that human-like VI was less trusted than animi-like VI or HIs. However, the perceived trustworthiness toward VI was enhanced when the VI was in a virtual (vs. real) environment (Study 2) or accompanied by a virtual (vs. human) companion (Study 3), leading to positive attitudes.Originality/valueThis research not only enriches relevant literature (avatars and SMIs) but also provides actionable insight for practitioners who design and utilize VIs. This paper proposes novel and handy tactics to enhance consumers' trustworthiness in and attitudes toward VIs.

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Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Let virtual creatures stay virtual: tactics to increase trust in virtual influencers

Qu¹,

Baek²

2023

JRIM

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“…Avatars are the visual representation of social actors within the virtual environment (Kyrlitsias and Michael-GrigoriouLugrin et al, 2015;Seymour et al, 2018;. Two key qualities of avatars include their visual depiction and their movement capabilities (Grewe et al, 2021;Higgins et al, 2022;Latoschik et al, 2017;Stuart et al, 2022;Wu et al, 2021). While we recognize the importance of both these qualities, in our research we are focused on the visual expressiveness of the avatar.…”

Section: Behavioural Realism In Vrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expressiveness of real-time motion captured avatars influences perceived animation realism and perceived quality of social interaction in virtual reality

Fraser

Branson

Hollett

et al. 2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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Using motion capture to enhance the realism of social interaction in virtual reality (VR) is growing in popularity. However, the impact of different levels of avatar expressiveness on the user experience is not well understood. In the present study we manipulated levels of face and body expressiveness of avatars while investigating participant perceptions of animation realism and interaction quality when disclosing positive and negative experiences in VR. Moderate positive associations were observed between perceptions of animation realism and interaction quality. Post-experiment questions revealed that many of our participants (approximately 40%) indicated the avatar with the highest face and body expressiveness as having the most realistic face and body expressions. The same proportion also indicated the avatar with the highest face and body expressiveness as being the most comforting and enjoyable avatar to interact with. Our results suggest that higher levels of face and body expressiveness are important for enhancing perceptions of realism and interaction quality within a social interaction in VR using motion capture.

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“…In a recent study by Higgins, Zibrek, Cabral, Egan, and McDonnell [23], they measured the social presence of a highly realistic IVA with TTS or real voice. They found that the mismatch, between realistic appearance and TTS, lowered the social presence of the IVA.…”

Section: Hypothesis 2b (H2b)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High-quality voices may confuse the user regarding whether it is a human or a machine voice, and this could be perceived at some point as a deception, which would directly harm the trust in the IVA [49]. We sought to be clear that this voice is a machine-generated voice without a warning, similar to the setting in [23]. Second, the VA is a downloadable application, and the use of available synthetic voices in the users' machines would avoid any technical problems due to the requirement of connecting to the servers to fetch the generated agent's voice.…”

Section: Study Design and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, social presence is defined as having the sense of being 'there', in the same environment with the virtual agent. This clear distinction makes measurement of social presence more appropriate in virtual reality studies, such as [23]. Thus, in our study's context of conversing with an IVA, we focus on measuring the co-presence rather than the social presence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is Natural Necessary? Human Voice versus Synthetic Voice for Intelligent Virtual Agents

Abdulrahman

Richards

2022

MTI

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The use of intelligent virtual agents (IVA) to support humans in social contexts will depend on their social acceptability. Acceptance will be related to the human’s perception of the IVAs as well as the IVAs’ ability to respond and adapt their conversation appropriately to the human. Adaptation implies computer-generated speech (synthetic speech), such as text-to-speech (TTS). In this paper, we present the results of a study to investigate the effect of voice type (human voice vs. synthetic voice) on two aspects: (1) the IVA’s likeability and voice impression in the light of co-presence, and (2) the interaction outcome, including human–agent trust and behavior change intention. The experiment included 118 participants who interacted with either the virtual advisor with TTS or the virtual advisor with human voice to gain tips for reducing their study stress. Participants in this study found the voice of the virtual advisor with TTS to be more eerie, but they rated both agents, with recorded voice and with TTS, similarly in terms of likeability. They further showed a similar attitude towards both agents in terms of co-presence and building trust. These results challenge previous studies that favor human voice over TTS, and suggest that even if human voice is preferred, TTS can deliver equivalent benefits.

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Sympathy for the digital: Influence of synthetic voice on affinity, social presence and empathy for photorealistic virtual humans

Cited by 38 publications

References 36 publications

Let virtual creatures stay virtual: tactics to increase trust in virtual influencers

Let virtual creatures stay virtual: tactics to increase trust in virtual influencers

Expressiveness of real-time motion captured avatars influences perceived animation realism and perceived quality of social interaction in virtual reality

Is Natural Necessary? Human Voice versus Synthetic Voice for Intelligent Virtual Agents

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