The Impact of Linguistic and Cultural Congruity on Persuasion by Conversational Agents

We present an empirical study on the impact of linguistic and cultural tailoring of a conversational agent on its ability to change user attitudes. We designed two bilingual (English and Spanish) conversational agents to resemble members of two distinct cultures (Anglo-American and Latino) and conducted the study with participants from the two corresponding populations. Our results show that cultural tailoring and participants’ personality traits have a significant interaction effect on the agent’s persuasiveness and perceived trustworthiness.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: IVA
• Authors: Langxuan Yin, Timothy W. Bickmore, Dharma E. Cortés
• Keywords: Conversational Agents, Cultural Tailoring, Intelligent Agents, IVA 2010, Significant Interaction Effect