Are you bored? Maybe an interface agent can help!

Abstract

In this paper we present the influence of Emotive Interface Agents on task-induced boredom. We studied the effects of two agents - friendly and unfriendly. The results show that, like human-human interaction, emotional contagion can happen between agents and users and that it can lead to reduction in task induced boredom. As expected, the friendly agent proved to be more successful in reducing boredom and maintaining participants' focus on task than the unfriendly agent. Moreover, participants felt that the friendly agent added stimulation to the task. This indicates that the friendly agent had some influence on the perception of the task. However, the effects of the unfriendly agent should ..