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Title
Japanese: 
English:Effects of Virtual Agents' Affective Favoritism on Users' Self-Esteem and Perception of Agents 
Author
Japanese: ZHANG Yan, 梅室 博行, 小池 真由.  
English: Yan Zhang, Hiroyuki Umemuro, Mayu Koike.  
Language English 
Journal/Book name
Japanese: 
English:Palinko, O., et al. (eds.) Social Robotics. ICSR + AI 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(LNAI) 
Volume, Number, Page vol. 15561        pp. 351-365
Published date Mar. 2025 
Publisher
Japanese: 
English:Springer 
Conference name
Japanese: 
English:The 16th International Conference on Social Robotics +AI 
Conference site
Japanese: 
English:Odense 
Official URL https://icsr2024.dk
 
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3522-1_31
Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of affective favoritism exhibited by a virtual agent on users' self-esteem and perception of the agent in human-agent group interactions. The study also aimed to investigate the impact of pre-existing human-agent social bonds on this favoritism. In the experiment, two participants were engaged in a themed discussion game with the assistance of a virtual agent, who demonstrated a proclivity for affective favoritism towards one participant. Meanwhile, participants in the control group were treated in an identical manner. Furthermore, a game with the virtual agent was employed to manipulate the social bond between the participant and the agent. The results from 53 participants indicated that those treated fairly by the agent experienced an increase in self-esteem after the group interaction. Conversely, the display of affective favoritism by the agent inhibited the growth of state self-esteem. Moreover, the perception of the agent's likeability was not influenced by the affective favoritism. However, relationship-based favoritism resulted in a decreased likeability of the agent by the unfavored participants. Our findings indicate that an affectively fair virtual agent may offer more effective support in group interactions. Additionally, they highlight the influence of the perceived human-agent relationship on the evaluation of agent.

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