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The Effect of Visual Gender on Abuse in Conversation with ECAs

Silvervarg, Annika ; Raukola, Kristin ; Haake, Magnus LU and Gulz, Agneta LU (2012) Intelligent Virtual Agents 7502(IVA 2012). p.153-160
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that female ECAs are more likely to be abused than male agents, which may cement gender stereotypes. In the study reported in this paper a visually androgynous ECA in the form of a teachable agent in an educational math game was compared with a female and male agent. The re-sults confirm that female agents are more prone to be verbally abused than male agents, but also show that the visually androgynous agent was less abused than the female although more than the male agent. A surprising finding was that very few students asked the visually androgynous agent whether it was a boy or a girl. These results suggest that androgyny may be a way to keep both genders represented, which is especially important in... (More)
Previous studies have shown that female ECAs are more likely to be abused than male agents, which may cement gender stereotypes. In the study reported in this paper a visually androgynous ECA in the form of a teachable agent in an educational math game was compared with a female and male agent. The re-sults confirm that female agents are more prone to be verbally abused than male agents, but also show that the visually androgynous agent was less abused than the female although more than the male agent. A surprising finding was that very few students asked the visually androgynous agent whether it was a boy or a girl. These results suggest that androgyny may be a way to keep both genders represented, which is especially important in pedagogical settings, simultaneously lowering the abusive behavior and perhaps most important, loosen the connection between gender and abuse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
embodied conversational agent, conversational pedagogical agent, teachable agent, off-task interaction, social conversation, visual aspects, visual gender, abuse
host publication
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
editor
Nakano, Yukiko ; Neff, Michael ; Paiva, Ana and Walker, Marilyn A.
volume
7502
issue
IVA 2012
pages
8 pages
publisher
Springer
conference name
Intelligent Virtual Agents
conference location
Santa Cruz, CA, United States
conference dates
2012-09-12 - 2012-09-14
external identifiers
  • scopus:84867517803
ISBN
978-3-642-33196-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
dccb221f-eb0a-4507-afcc-5c3891b15679 (old id 3412342)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 10:52:11
date last changed
2022-04-23 23:42:05
@inproceedings{dccb221f-eb0a-4507-afcc-5c3891b15679,
  abstract     = {{Previous studies have shown that female ECAs are more likely to be abused than male agents, which may cement gender stereotypes. In the study reported in this paper a visually androgynous ECA in the form of a teachable agent in an educational math game was compared with a female and male agent. The re-sults confirm that female agents are more prone to be verbally abused than male agents, but also show that the visually androgynous agent was less abused than the female although more than the male agent. A surprising finding was that very few students asked the visually androgynous agent whether it was a boy or a girl. These results suggest that androgyny may be a way to keep both genders represented, which is especially important in pedagogical settings, simultaneously lowering the abusive behavior and perhaps most important, loosen the connection between gender and abuse.}},
  author       = {{Silvervarg, Annika and Raukola, Kristin and Haake, Magnus and Gulz, Agneta}},
  booktitle    = {{Lecture Notes in Computer Science}},
  editor       = {{Nakano, Yukiko and Neff, Michael and Paiva, Ana and Walker, Marilyn A.}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-642-33196-1}},
  keywords     = {{embodied conversational agent; conversational pedagogical agent; teachable agent; off-task interaction; social conversation; visual aspects; visual gender; abuse}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{IVA 2012}},
  pages        = {{153--160}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  title        = {{The Effect of Visual Gender on Abuse in Conversation with ECAs}},
  volume       = {{7502}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}