‘Let Us Work Together’– Insights from an Experiment with Conversational Agents on the Relation of Anthropomorphic Design, Dialog Support, and Performance

In the human interaction with CAs, research has shown that elements of persuasive system design, such as praise, are perceived differently when compared to traditional graphical interfaces. In this experimental study, we will extend our knowledge regarding the relation of persuasiveness (namely dialog support), anthropomorphically designed CAs, and task performance. Within a three-conditions-between-subjects design, two instances of the CA are applied within an online experiment with 120 participants. Our results show that anthropomorphically designed CAs increase perceived dialog support and performance but adding persuasive design elements can be counterproductive. Thus, the results are embedded in the discourse of CA design for task support.