The Effect of Embodiment and Competence on Trust and Cooperation in Human-Agent Interaction

摘要

Success in extended human-agent interaction depends on the ability of the agent to cooperate over repeated tasks. Yet, it is not clear how cooperation and trust change over the course of such interactions, and how this is interlinked with the developing perception of competence of the agent or its social appearance. We report findings from a human-agent experiment designed to measure trust in task-oriented cooperation with agents that vary in competence and embodiment. Results in terms of behavioral and subjective measures demonstrate an initial effect of embodiment, changing over time to a relatively higher importance of agent competence.