Lost in Interpretation? The Role of Culture on Rating the Emotional Nonverbal Behaviors of a Virtual Agent

摘要

When designing a virtual agent, implementing empathy is a factor that can be considered to maximize the quality of human-agent interaction. However, in a globalized world, it is important to scrutinize whether users' culture affects the perception of empathic agents. This study investigated the role of users' cultural background in the perception of emotional nonverbal behaviors of a virtual assistant as empathic. It also examined which displayed emotional nonverbal behaviors affect different users' perception of empathy. In an online study, 200 Iranian and German participants rated the responses of a virtual assistant on five items: friendliness, intelligence, empathy, trustworthiness, and helpfulness. The design of the study was a 2 between-subject factor (culture: Iranians vs. Germans) × 2 within-subject factor (context: sad situations vs. happy situations) × 4 within-subject factor (nonverbal behavior for each situation: 3 emotional vs. 1 neutral) mixed factorial design. The findings indicated that when the emotional nonverbal behaviors are present, Iranians rated the agent as more empathic, trustworthy, and helpful. Also, while Iranians perceived a wide array of nonverbal behaviors as empathic (Smile, Head Nod plus Smile, Head Nod, Sad Face, Head Down, and Dropping the Arms plus Sad Face), German participants only assessed Head Nod as empathic.