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

Traditional gender roles that define what is feminine and masculine also imply men have higher social status than women. These stereotypes still influence how people interact with each other computers. Touch behaviour, essential in interactions, an interesting example of such behaviours. The Midas touch effect describes a situation when brief used to one’s behaviour. Our study aimed analyse the virtual on compliance decision-making game called Ultimatum. In series three studies, we investigated whether cues as gender, stereotypical masculine/feminine appearance, high/low modify offers from embodied agents. We built immersive version repeated Ultimatum which proposer split ten coins, responder accepts or rejects offer. 1, women played female male agent. 2 3, four agents each, differing levels stereotypically seen masculinity status. There was no significant effect. Compliance secured mostly by value offer: more generous offer, rate. found evidence for perceived influence. describe relationships between agents’ characteristics perception their touch. results are discussed context important agent design effectiveness techniques reality.