Giving chatbots human names or adding humanlike features to its avatar may not be enough to win over a user if the device fails to maintain a conversation, researchers, including one of Indian origin, suggest.
According to researchers from The Pennsylvania State University in the US, those humanlike features may create a backlash against less responsive humanlike chatbots.
In a study, chatbots that had human features—such as a human avatar—but lacked interactivity, disappointed people who used it.
However, people responded better to a less-interactive chatbot that did not have humanlike cues, said S Shyam Sundar, a professor at Penn State.
High interactivity is marked by swift responses that match a user's queries and feature a threaded exchange that can be followed easily, according to Sundar.
"People are pleasantly surprised when a chatbot with low anthropomorphism—fewer human cues—has higher interactivity," said Sundar.
"But when there are high anthropomorphic visual cues, it may set up your expectations for high interactivity—and when the chatbot doesn't deliver that—it may leave you disappointed," he said.
On the other hand, improving interactivity may be more than enough to compensate for a less-humanlike chatbot.
Even small changes in the dialogue, like acknowledging what the user said before providing a response, can make the chatbot seem more interactive, said Sundar.
"In the case of the low-humanlike chatbot, if you give the user high interactivity, it's much more appreciated because it provides a sense of dialogue and social presence," said lead author of the study, Eun Go, a former doctoral student at Penn State and currently assistant professor at Western Illinois University.
Because there is an expectation that people may be leery of interacting with a machine, developers typically add human names to their chatbots—for example, Apple's Siri—or program a human-like avatar to appear when the chatbot responds to a user.
The study, published in Computers in Human Behavior, currently, also found that just mentioning whether a human or a machine is involved—or, providing an identity cue—guides how people perceive the interaction.
"Identity cues build expectations," said Go said.
"When we say that it's going to be a human or chatbot, people immediately start expecting certain things."
Sundar said the findings could help developers improve acceptance of chat technology among users. He added that virtual assistants and chat agents are increasingly used in the home and by businesses because they are convenient for people.
