Affective engagement to emotional facial expressions of embodied social agents in a decision-making game

摘要

Previous research illustrates that people can be influenced by the emotional displays of computer-generated agents. Whatnis less clear is if these influences arise from cognitive or affective process (i.e., do people use agent displays as informationnor do they provoke user emotions). To unpack these processes, we examine the decisions and physiological reactionsnof participants (heart rate and electrodermal activity) when engaged in a decision task (prisoner’s dilemma game) withnemotionally expressive agents. Our results replicate findings that people’s decisions are influenced by such emotionalndisplays, but these influences differ depending on the extent to which these displays provoke an affective response. Specifically,nwe show that an individual difference known as electrodermal lability predicts the extent to whether people willnengage affectively or strategically with such agents, thereby better predicting their decisions. We discuss implications forndesigning agent facial expressions to enhance social interaction between humans and agents. Copyright © 2012 JohnWileyn& Sons, Ltd.