With Us or Against Us: Simulated Social Touch by Virtual Agents in a Cooperative or Competitive Setting

Abstract

In this paper we examine how simulated social touch by a virtual agent in a cooperative or competitive augmented reality game influences the perceived trustworthiness, warmth and politeness of the agent. Before and after the game, participants interact with two agents whereby one agent touches the participant's arm. Results showed no significant difference in how agents are perceived in the cooperative and competitive situation. However, significant differences between perception of the touching and non-touching agents could be observed for warmth.

Does an agent’s touch always matter? Study on virtual Midas touch, masculinity, social status, and compliance in Polish men

“…This type of touch has recently drawn particular attention of researchers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has restricted drastically human physical contact [ 21 ]. Some early studies showed, for example, that embodied agents that used touch were seen as warmer than non-touching agents, while no effect of the situation was found [ 22 ]. Touch also increases human likeness of embodied agents [ 23 ].…”

MobiLimb

“…they can display empathy, affect or show their willingness to interact. Such characters usually communicate using verbal and nonverbal behaviors, but lately, some tentatives have been made to endow them with haptic capabilities [28].…”

Survey and perspectives of social touch in HCI

“…Nguyen et al[71] ont développé un agent virtuel à échelle humaine dans un dispositif immersive CAVE(Figure 3-d) réagissant intentionnellement en fonction des lieux où le toucher est eectué. Huisman et al[50] ont exploré comment le contact social simulé par un agent virtuel pouvait inuencer la conance perçue dans un jeu de réalité augmentée coopératif ou compétitif(Figure 3-c). Les participants portaient une ceinture vibrotactile et un brassard pour percevoir le contact d'un agent virtuel.…”