Exploring users' social responses to computer counseling interviewers' behavior

We explore the effect of behavioral realism and reciprocal self-disclosure from computer interviewers on the social responses of human users in simulated psychotherapeutic counseling interactions. To investigate this subject, we designed a 3 Â 3 factorial between-subjects experiment involving three conditions of behavioral realism: high realism, low realism, and audio-only (displaying no behavior at all) and three conditions of reciprocal self-disclosure: high disclosure, low disclosure, and no disclosure. We measured users' feelings of social presence (Copresence, Social Attraction, and Emotional Credibility), rapport, perception of the quality of users' own responses (Embarrassment and Self-Performance), emotional state (PANAS), perception of an interaction partner (Person Perception), self-reported self-disclosure, speech fluency (Pause Fillers and Incomplete Words), and Verbal Self-Disclosure. We observed some contradictory outcomes in users' subjective reports. However, the results of objective data analysis demonstrated that users disclosed greater Verbal Self-Disclosure (medium level of intimacy) when interacting with computer interviewers that displayed high behavioral realism and high self-disclosure. Users also delivered more fluent speech when interacting with computer interviewers that displayed high behavioral realism. Concurrent with the growing intelligence of computer programs , one can observe the expanded application of these smart systems in various new domains, such as collecting personal information for clients in the fields of clinical treatment and marketing. Health-related public websites, in particular, have prevailed as one of the most useful applications for this purpose. These sites function by administering a survey of questions varying in levels of intimacy or invasiveness to clients (Moon, 2000). This process is integral to gathering personal information about patients while providing them with the safeguard of anonymity. Following this trend in Computer-Mediated Communication, or CMC, the use of computer avatars controlled by a human in similar settings grants the same assurance of anonymous communication in intimate conversations (i.e. ''stranger on a train'' phenomenon) with the added benefit of reflecting one's personality or creating a more tailored experience through the avatar. However, the use of an avatar limits users' time and location wise flexibility as the interaction via the avatar requires being there of another person who should control the avatar. More recently, virtual human technology has introduced a solution to the limits posed by avatars. These computer-controlled agents are equipped with artificial intelligence and controlled by computers, rather than human beings. Virtual human technology currently allows intelligent virtual agents to interact with users by displaying body movements and other gestures in response to …