Effect of Anthropomorphic Linguistic Expressions in Using Daily Items as Interactive Agents

Abstract

Conversational agent that anthropomorphizes daily items could be a useful means of drawing the user’s attention to the object and providing effective guidance. However, many previous attempts have focused on physical robotization, and it is not clear how the introduction of linguistic anthropomorphic conversations into these conversational agents will affect the user’s sense of familiarity with the objects and feeling that the objects themselves are speaking to them. We focused on four elements of anthropomorphic expression and investigated how adding these elements to plain text changes the way humans perceive machine and non-machine artifacts. As a result, it was clarified that when anthropomorphic elements is added to the text, it become easier to perceive the object itself is speaking and enhances feelings of attachment and familiarity. This tendency is significantly seen in the younger generation.