Adapting a Persuasive Conversational Agent for the Chinese Culture

The design of an embodied conversational agent that promotes physical activity to young Chinese adults living in the United States is described, along with specific cultural adaptations performed to tailor the agent to Chinese culture. Results of a pilot study comparing the Chinese exercise coach agent to another adapted to American culture demonstrated that participants found the Chinese agent more interesting, but were more persuaded by the American agent to change their attitudes towards exercise. Overall, participants reported high levels of satisfaction with and trust in the agent, across both conditions. Qualitative analysis of interviews was carried out to examine participants' overall impression of the experience, and their perceptions of the cultural adaptations. We discuss possible explanations of our results, and propose future improvements for culturally adapted conversational agents, tailored to the Chinese community.