A study of demographic embodiments of product recommendation agents in electronic commerce

作者：Qiu Lingyun^*; Benbasat Izak

来源：International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2010, 68(10): 669-688.

DOI：10.1016/j.ijhes.2010.05.005

• Electronic commerce
• Product recommendation agent
• Anthropomorphic interface
• Avatar
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Social presence
• Perceived enjoyment
• Perceived usefulness

Product Recommendation Agents (PRAs) and other web-based decision aids are deployed extensively to provide online shoppers with virtual advising services While the design of PRA's functional features has received a high degree of attention in academic studies, the social aspects of human-PRA interactions are comparatively less explored
This paper investigates the potential of enhancing users' social experiences of interacting with an anthropomorphic PRA (i e an agent with human-like characteristics, such as facial expressions, body gestures, or speech output) by manipulating its demographic embodiments The two demographic variables assessed are ethnicity and gender As suggested by similarity-attraction theory and social identity theory. the results of our laboratory experiment reveal that PRAs that match the ethnicity, though not the gender, of their users are perceived as more sociable, more enjoyable. and more useful to interact with than the mismatched ones More interestingly, the "matching-up" effects of ethnicity are more significant among female users than males I

• 出版日期2010-10
• 单位北京大学