Conforming to an Artificial Majority: Persuasive Effects of a Group of Artificial Agents

摘要

In this paper we propose a new perspective on persuasive technology: Persuasive effects of a group of artificial agents. We argue that while effects of single social agents have been corroborated, understanding of persuasion by multiple agents in a group setting is very limited. In the current research, we argue that conformity effects could occur not only with human majorities, but also with artificial majorities consisting of smart agents or computers. Two studies were conducted to investigate the conformity effect of group pressure on participants comparative judgments of lengths of lines, based on the classic Asch paradigm. Group pressure by human majorities was compared with pressure by majorities of boxed PC's and of artificial virtual agents. Results indicated that normative pressure is limited to human majorities, while informational pressure can also be exerted by artificial majorities. This research revealed that applying majorities of artificial agents opens up a new domain of persuasive technology.