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The quest for appropriate models of human-likeness: anthropomorphism in media equation research

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Abstract

Nass’ and Reeves’ media equation paradigm within human–computer interaction (HCI) challenges long-held assumptions about how users approach computers. Given a rudimentary set of cues present in the system’s design, users are said to unconsciously treat computers as genuine interactants—extending rules of politeness, biases and human interactive conventions to machines. Since the results have wide-ranging implications for HCI research methods, interface design and user experiences, researchers are hard-pressed to experimentally verify the paradigm. This paper focuses on the methodology of attributing the necessary social cues to the agent, a core aspect of the experimental design of studies dealing with the media equation. A typology of experimental anthropomorphisms is developed, allowing an assessment of how the differing axiomatic assumptions affect the relevance of the results for an evaluation of the paradigm. The paper concludes with a series of arguments in favour of one particular anthropomorphism type for researching the media equation.

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Notes

  1. Nass differentiates between deficiency and impropriety. While users may unconsciously—and inappropriately—apply behavioral scripts to non-humans, this conduct is not a sign of deficiency so long as they are aware of this ascription being inappropriate (upon being prompted). In other words, ‘deficiency’ is meant to denote cases where “individuals […] respond socially [and] are unaware that it is inappropriate to apply social rules to computers, because of youth (Turkle, 1984), ignorance (Winograd & Flores, 1987), or socioemotional limitations (Turkle, 1984; Weizenbaum, 1976)” (Sundar and Nass 2000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Center for Contemporary Social Theory, Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Nils Klowait

  2. Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Nils Klowait

  3. 82/2 Vernadskogo av., 119571, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Nils Klowait

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  1. Nils Klowait
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Correspondence to Nils Klowait.

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Klowait, N. The quest for appropriate models of human-likeness: anthropomorphism in media equation research. AI & Soc 33, 527–536 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0746-z

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