Change in human behaviors based on affiliation needs-toward the design of a social guide agent system

We discuss, in this paper, the design of a life-like agent interface that considers the social aspects in human-agent interaction. The underlying hypothesis of the design is that human social behaviors toward life-like agents are on a par with those toward humans. Humans tend to sympathize with and follow other humans based on their affiliation needs. Therefore, it should be with life-like agents. We have designed and incorporated life-like guide agents into an exhibition guide system based on the hypothesis. The system was used at the 12 ATR Open House last November, where we had the opportunity to study the behaviors of its users. We observed that the behaviors of the users were directed toward maintaining their good social relationships with their life-like agents, thereby supporting our hypothesis. The results indicated the importance of incorporating an agent's capability to induce the effect of human affiliation needs in a system design.